All Questions
13 questions
4
votes
1
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1k
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Where did France build up its fleet in 1805-1814?
I was reading about The Battle of Trafalgar and found this interesting section about the consequences:
Napoleon instituted a large-scale shipbuilding programme that had produced a fleet of 80 ships ...
- 17.3k
7
votes
2
answers
2k
views
When did the Royal Navy start to fill a given rank of admiral with more than one officer?
Admirals in the Royal Navy used to follow the coloured-squadron system. If I have understood correctly, when this practice first arose in the seventeenth century, there really were precisely nine ...
- 725
-4
votes
2
answers
1k
views
Why didn't the Allies use a naval invasion to retake Norway?
Norway was captured by Germany during WWII, and been liberated from Germany after Karl Dönitz signed the surrender treaty with the Allies. But there were some chances for Allies to create an assistant ...
- 117
10
votes
1
answer
536
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Why didn't the Trafalgar Way messengers sail up the English Channel?
The dispatches from the British fleet at the battle of Trafalgar were brought by ship to Falmouth. From there, messengers rode by horse over land to the Admiralty in London, following a route known as ...
- 201
12
votes
3
answers
1k
views
In World War II, why was the ratio of killed to wounded of the Royal Navy twice that of the US Navy?
Casualty numbers for Navy personnel killed and wounded in WWII cited by Wikipedia (for the Royal Navy) and the National World War II Museum in New Orleans (for the US Navy) show a big difference in ...
- 108k
4
votes
1
answer
260
views
During WW2, did the merchant marine also return to Canada in convoys?
During WW2, a lot of cargo ships sailed in convoy to Britain. I am wondering, if they also made the return trip in convoy? If so, were such return convoys also escorted?
- 17.3k
5
votes
2
answers
232
views
In early WW2, how much of the merchant marine was American?
WW2, before the US entered, ran from 1939 Sep 01 to 1941 Dec 07. During this time, a lot of merchant vessels sailed in convoy to Britain.
I am wondering, of all the people who crewed those vessels, ...
- 17.3k
34
votes
2
answers
8k
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Why were British ships not of the same quality as French and Spanish ships until the latter part of the 18th century?
In Patrick O'Brian's 'Men-of-War', it says (apparently referring to around the time the Victory was built [1759-65]),
...most of the British ships were not nearly so well built as the French or the ...
- 108k
0
votes
2
answers
2k
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Why did Britain place naval mines in their own Channel in WW2?
Reading about Naval Mines, I came across a curious claim:
for example, during World War II, Britain declared simply that it had mined the English Channel, North Sea, and French coast.
It's not ...
- 17.3k
10
votes
2
answers
853
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Why did Britain object to the Ottomans bringing its ships-of-the-line against Russia in the beginning of the Crimean War?
I came across this in the "Background section" of Wikipedia article Battle of Sinop.
Fighting at sea between Imperial Russia and the Ottoman Empire had
been going on for weeks, and the Ottomans ...
- 6,873
9
votes
4
answers
3k
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Why didn’t Britain use its vast navy to get past trench warfare?
Before the start of World War I there was a large arms race between Britain and Germany and although Britain didn’t come out with the largest army – they had by far the largest navy in the world. This ...
- 1,063
12
votes
3
answers
982
views
WWII boat-looking bus
What was the purpose of this WWII boat-looking bus?
Description says:
Royal Navy officers 'aboard' 'HMS SPURIOUS MARK II' - a bus converted to resemble the island of an aircraft carrier. The bus ...
- 2,536
10
votes
3
answers
4k
views
Were sailing ships of the line understaffed with gunnery crews so that there were not enough for 2 broadsides?
Is there any data to support or refute the hypothesis that sailing ships of the line were only complemented with enough gunnery crews to simultaneously fire 1 broadside but not 2?
If it matters for ...
- 18k