Portal:Royal Navy

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to: navigation, search

The Royal Navy Portal

The Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of the British armed services (and is therefore the Senior Service). From the early 18th century to the middle of the 20th century, it was the largest and most powerful navy in the world, playing a key part in establishing the British Empire as the dominant power of the 19th and early 20th centuries. In World War II, the Royal Navy operated almost 600 ships. During the Cold War, it was transformed into a primarily anti-submarine force, hunting for Soviet submarines, mostly active in the North Atlantic Ocean. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, its role for the 21st century has returned to focus on global expeditionary (blue water) operations.

The Royal Navy is the second-largest navy in NATO in terms of the combined tonnage of its fleet. Its global power projection capabilities are deemed second only to the United States Navy. There are currently 91 commissioned ships in the Royal Navy, including aircraft carriers, submarines, mine counter-measures and patrol vessels. There are also the support vessels of the Royal Fleet Auxiliary.

The Royal Navy is a constituent component of Her Majesty's Naval Service, which also comprises the Royal Marines, Royal Fleet Auxiliary and associated reserve forces under command. The Naval Service had 38,710 regular personnel as of November 2006.

White Ensign defaced by "The Royal Navy Portal"


Selected battle

Quibcardinaux2.jpg

The naval Battle of Quiberon Bay took place on 20 November 1759 during the Seven Years' War in Quiberon Bay, off the coast of France near St. Nazaire. The British Admiral Sir Edward Hawke with 23 ships of the line caught up with a French fleet with 21 ships of the line under Marshal de Conflans, and after hard fighting, sank six and captured one, the rest of the fleet being forced to return to port. As a result, French naval activity was severely limited, and Britain retained naval supremacy for the remainder of the war. At the time, the battle was one of the most important and well-known British naval victories; it would remain so until the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805.


Selected ship

HMS Victory 1884.jpg

HMS Victory is a 104-gun ship of the line of the Royal Navy, built between 1759 and 1765. She was constructed at Chatham Dockyard, and was something of an unusual occurrence at the time; during the whole of the 18th century only ten first-rates were constructed. The Royal Navy preferred smaller and more manoeuvrable ships and it was unusual for more than two first-rates to be in commission simultaneously. Victory was Horatio Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar. In 1812, her active career ended, and over the next century, she served as a depot ship and signals school before restoration work began in 1922. She opened as a museum in 1928, although conservation and restoration work is still ongoing. Currently, Victory sits in dry dock in Portsmouth as a museum ship. She is the oldest naval ship still in commission and the only remaining ship of the line except for the Regalskeppet Vasa.



More...


Categories



Selected picture



A UGM-27 Polaris submarine-launched ballistic missile is launched from the British submarine HMS Revenge (S27).

Original photograph is a public domain image produced by a US military or Department of Defense employee.


Selected biography

Admiral of the Fleet John Arbuthnot "Jackie" Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher of Kilverstone, GCB, OM, GCVO (25 January 1841 – 10 July 1920) was a British admiral known for his efforts at naval reform. He had a huge influence on the Royal Navy in a career spanning more than 60 years, starting in a navy of wooden sailing ships armed with muzzle-loading cannon and ending in one of battlecruisers, submarines and the first aircraft carriers. The argumentative, energetic, reform-minded Fisher is often considered the second most important figure of British naval history, after Lord Nelson.

Read more...


Did you know...?




Major topics

Royal Navy
Major engagements Notable personnel Notable ships Equipment & Technology See also

War of the Grand Alliance

War of the Spanish Succession

War of the Austrian Succession

Seven Years' War

American War of Independence

French Revolutionary War

War of the Second Coalition

Napoleonic Wars

Barbary Wars

Greek War of Independence

World War I

World War II

1945–present

Not all battles included

Seven Years' War

American War of Independence

French Revolutionary War

Napoleonic Wars

World War I

World War II

pre-1800

1800–1900

1900–1945

1945–


Associated Wikimedia