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British Navy (Military History)

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  1. Introduction
  2.  
  3. The term “British navy” is not often used; “Royal Navy” is usually the preferred title, although, ironically, the creation of a permanent, national British maritime fighting force was an achievement of the Parliamentary Interregnum. In earlier times, force at and from the seas was applied by inhabitants of the British Isles in a number of political frameworks. Political leaders, monarchs, and aristocrats had fleets of their own that could be fleshed out by fleets owned by merchants whose ships had to be strong enough to survive in disordered seas. What by modern standards would be piracy was normal maritime activity. As late as the 16th century, English royal authorities had to connive with a pirate mafia to create navies for purposes of state. This ended in the 17th century with the creation of recognizable modern military navies under state control, not least in England. The new model navy reverted to the crown and became “Royal” in 1660. After cutting its teeth against the Dutch, it began the first of five wars against Bourbon France in 1689 and became truly “British” in 1707 with the Union of the Parliaments. Asserting superiority in various ways, not least in administration, the British navy was able to assert overall maritime dominance. This was maintained and brought to a peak in the period 1793–1815, notably in Admiral Lord Nelson’s victories, ushering in a period when the Royal Navy dominated the world’s oceans, sustaining British political interests and economic leadership. The British were always at the forefront of technological progress at sea, and in the century after 1820, ships and weapons began a transformation of increasing speed that first greatly improved littoral capabilities and then restored oceanic warfare with the creation of the battleship. This was soon challenged by underwater weapons and later aircraft. This ongoing transformation provided one of the contexts of the two world wars and created difficult challenges for interwar decision makers. Post-1945, the Royal Navy had to accept subordination to the superpowers and the other services, although it was able to maintain, against considerable challenges, something of its former importance to Britain’s strategic posture. In 1982 it fought the greatest maritime shooting engagement of the late 20th century, and, to some extent, this success sustained the British navy into the 21st century, when new strategic distractions caused further problems.
  4.  
  5. General Overviews
  6.  
  7. There is only one worthwhile single-volume history of the British navy: Hill and Ranft 2002, which first appeared in 1995. This history brings together leading experts on the various periods, and although it is not fully annotated, it is the best starting point on the subject. Grove 1997 is a review of British naval battles from the earliest times. The standard, serious, comprehensive “naval history of Britain” is Nicholas Rodger’s magisterial three-volume work, two of which are currently available (Rodger 2004 and Rodger 2006); the third volume is in preparation. For the time being, the story between 1815 and the beginning of the 21st century can be brought up to date in Grove 2005. This was intended as a continuation of Harding 1995, with which it forms a shorter overall history. A good modern study of British naval leadership over the years is in Lambert 2008. Lewis 1948 is also still worthy of attention, not least for its analysis of the nature of a navy. The often-neglected Scottish dimension of the British Navy is covered in Lavery 2007. For a documentary overview, see Hattendorff, et al. 1993.
  8.  
  9. Grove, Eric, ed. Great Battles of the Royal Navy: As Commemorated in the Gunroom, Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1997.
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  11. A new edition of a book that uses experts on the various periods to cover the battles from Alfred and the Danes up to Acre 1840 that were thought worthy of commemoration at Dartmouth; brought up to date to the Falklands War.
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  13. Grove, Eric J. The Royal Navy since 1815: A New Short History. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
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  15. Very much a synthesis of existing scholarship to make it easily accessible, and until the appearance of Vol. 3, a useful complement to the existing Rodger volumes. The book stops at the beginning of the 21st century. Even after the appearance of Rodger’s Vol. 3, it should continue to be useful as a short course text.
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  17. Harding, Richard. The Evolution of the Sailing Navy, 1509–1815. British History in Perspective. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 1995.
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  19. A good, short textbook history of the earlier period, to make a pair with Grove 2005. It is expensive when purchased new but can be obtained cheaply second hand online.
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  21. Hattendorff, John B., R. J. B. Knight, Alan W. H. Pearsall, Nicholas A. M. Rodger, and Geoffrey Till, eds. British Naval Documents, 1204–1960. Publications of the Navy Records Society 131. Aldershot, UK: Scolar Press, 1993.
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  23. A useful compilation of relevant documents covering the broad sweep of British naval history, compiled by a most distinguished group of editors to mark the centenary of the Navy Records Society. An important documentary overview.
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  25. Hill, J. R., and Bryan Ranft, eds. The Oxford Illustrated History of the Royal Navy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.
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  27. First published in 1995, this book brought together in an illustrated and accessible form the work of the leading experts on each historical period, providing a remarkably even, coherent, and accurate account of the Royal Navy’s history to the end of the 20th century. It is unique in its quality, coverage, and comprehensiveness.
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  29. Lambert, Andrew. Admirals: The Naval Commanders Who Made Britain Great. London: Faber, 2008.
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  31. A readable, well-informed, and original account of the careers and contributions of ten important admirals from the mid-16th century to the mid-20th.
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  33. Lavery, Brian. Shield of Empire: The Royal Navy and Scotland. Edinburgh: Birlinn, 2007.
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  35. The Scottish dimension of British naval history, including the period before the Union.
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  37. Lewis, Michael. The Navy of Britain, a Historical Portrait. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1948.
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  39. This is an old book, but it had considerable impact in providing the intellectual framework for the study of the British navy in the postwar period. Not least of its utilities is its definition of a “navy” as a “permanent, national, maritime fighting force.” Professor Lewis spent his career teaching naval officers, so his style is especially lucid and clear. Long out of print, the book can be obtained quite inexpensively via the Internet.
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  41. Rodger, Nicholas A. M. The Safeguard of the Sea: A Naval History of Britain, 660–1649. London: Penguin, 2004.
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  43. The first of a major three-volume ‘Naval History of Britain, a subtitle that reflected its purpose of covering the entire British Isles rather than just being a history of the English Royal Navy. Copious appendixes are provided, covering “Chronology,” “Ships,” “Medieval Fleets,” “Rates of Pay,” and “Admirals and Officials,” and there is a substantial bibliography. The coverage could not be bettered, and this substantial volume, almost seven hundred pages long, must be the starting point for any serious work on this early period. No work can be truly “definitive,” but this comes close to it.
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  45. Rodger, Nicholas A. M. The Command of the Ocean: A Naval History of Britain, 1649–1815. London: Penguin, 2006.
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  47. This takes the story forward to the end of the Napoleonic War, the period when the new institution asserted global sea command. The coverage is systematically structured like its predecessor (Rodger 2004) and is as substantial and original as the earlier volume. This is perhaps an even-greater achievement than its predecessor, given the larger amount of source material on this “classical” period of British naval history; again, a landmark work.
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  49. Reference Works and Technical and Biographical Surveys
  50.  
  51. Le Fevre, et al. 2000 provides a useful biography of 18th- and early-19th-century admirals. The 20th-century professional heads of the navy are covered in Murfett 1995. The standard single reference work on ships of the sailing navy is Lyon 1997. This was continued into the age of steam with the assistance of Rif Winfield in Lyon and Winfield 2004; Winfield himself provided a more detailed study of the careers of British sailing warships (see Winfield 2009). Parkes 1990 remains the standard overall work on British battleships, while Norman Friedman comprehensively covers the destroyers, cruisers, and frigates of the British navy in the late 19th and 20th centuries (see Friedman 2009). Aircraft carriers are covered in Friedman 1988.
  52.  
  53. Friedman, Norman. British Carrier Aviation: The Evolution of the Ships and Their Aircraft. London: Conway Maritime, 1988.
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  55. A typical Friedman survey in depth, rooted in documentary research that gives a very favorable overall analysis of the development of British carrier aviation up to the time of its publication.
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  57. Friedman, Norman. British Destroyers: From the Earliest Days to the Second World War. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2009.
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  59. To be read alongside Friedman’s British Destroyers & Frigates: The Second World War and After (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2006), British Cruisers of the Victorian Era (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2012), and British Cruisers: Two World Wars and After (Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press, 2010). By far the most-thorough surveys of the development of these major 20th-century surface combatants, together with the policy background.
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  61. Le Fevre, Peter, and Richard Harding, eds. Precursors of Nelson: British Admirals of the Eighteenth Century. London: Chatham, 2000.
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  63. A very useful book with chapters by experts on the main British admirals of this period. It includes chapters on Arthur Herbert, Earl of Torrington; Sir George Rooke and Sir Cloudesley Shovell; Sir Charles Wager; Sir John Norris; Edward Vernon; George, Lord Anson; Edward, Lord Hawke; George Bridges, Lord Rodney; and Richard, Earl Howe. This is continued into the Nelsonic period in British Admirals of the Napoleonic Wars: Contemporaries of Nelson (London: Chatham, 2005), likewise edited by Le Fevre and Harding.
  64. Find this resource:
  65. Lyon, David. The Sailing Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy; Built, Purchased and Captured, 1688–1860. London: Conway Maritime, 1997.
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  67. A revised edition of a monumental and comprehensive survey of the British navy’s ships for most of the sailing era.
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  69. Lyon, David, and Rif Winfield. The Sail and Steam Navy List: All the Ships of the Royal Navy, 1815–1889. London: Chatham, 2004.
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  71. A comprehensive catalogue of the warships that sustained the Pax Britannica in its heyday. It was completed by Winfield after Lyon’s untimely death.
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  73. Murfett, Malcolm H., ed. The First Sea Lords: From Fisher to Mountbatten. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1995.
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  75. A collection of profiles, by leading historians of the period, of the professional heads of the Royal Navy of the first half of the 20th century.
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  77. Parkes, Oscar. British Battleships: “Warrior” 1860 to “Vanguard” 1950: A History of Design, Construction and Armament. 2d ed. Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword, 1990.
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  79. The latest reprint of a long-established work, first published in 1956 (London: Seeley), that still remains the best overall survey of the capital ships of the period.
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  81. Winfield, Rif. British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1603–1714: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth, 2009.
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  83. A comprehensive and informative reference to the ships of the Stuart and Commonwealth periods; the first of a trilogy. The coverage is continued chronologically in British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1714–1792: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates (2007) and British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1793–1817: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates (2010). Together these form a comprehensive catalogue of the ships of the British navy over the entire age of sail.
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  85. Genesis
  86.  
  87. The best account of the beginnings of navies in Britain is in Rodger 2004 (cited under General Overviews). Two articles, Rodger 1996a and Rodger 1996b, written by the author when he was researching his book, are worthy of attention, covering important issues. Rose 2001 covers naval warfare between 1000 and 1500. An important study of the beginnings of the medieval periods is Brooks 1932. The varying fortunes of the navy in the Tudor period are covered in Loades 1992 and Knighton and Loades 2000. The best books on the Spanish Armada are Martin and Parker 2002 and Hutchinson 2013, and the latest biography of Francis Drake, the most prominent of the contemporary “sea dogs,” is Sugden 2006. Thrush 1991 provides the best study of the naval policy of Charles I that helped lead to the unfortunate king’s downfall.
  88.  
  89. Brooks, F. W. The English Naval forces, 1199–1272. London: A. Brown, 1932.
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  91. The most important work by a major prewar scholar of the medieval English navy. He argues for the importance of the reigns of Kings John and Henry III in the origins of British naval organization.
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  93. Hutchinson, Robert. The Spanish Armada. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2013.
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  95. A new and critical account of the British naval performance in this major engagement of the Elizabethan age.
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  97. Knighton, Charles S., and David M. Loades, eds. The Anthony Roll of Henry VIII’s Navy. Occasional Publications of the Navy Records Society 2. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 2000.
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  99. A reproduction of a remarkable document from the Pepys Library in Cambridge, which illustrates Henry VIII’s Navy Royal at its peak in 1546. The differences in design of the various ships are remarkable.
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  101. Loades, David. The Tudor Navy: An Administrative, Political and Military History. Studies in Naval History. Aldershot, UK: Scolar Press, 1992.
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  103. A scholarly, authoritative, and landmark analysis of the development of the Tudor navy, put into the context of the general development of contemporaneous government and administration, by one of the leading experts on Tudor England.
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  105. Martin, Colin, and Geoffrey Parker. The Spanish Armada. Rev. ed. Manchester, UK: Mandolin, 2002.
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  107. A landmark cooperation between a leading nautical archaeologist and a distinguished historian of the Early Modern period, this was by far the best book to appear in the Armada anniversary year of 1988. It has been brought up to date, and this is the second, revised edition.
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  109. Rodger, Nicholas A. M. “The Naval Service of the Cinque Ports.” English Historical Review 111.442 (1996a): 636–651.
  110. DOI: 10.1093/ehr/CXI.442.636Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  111. The Cinque Ports played an important role in providing naval resources for English kings, and this article clarifies their role.
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  113. Rodger, Nicholas A. M. “The Development of Broadside Gunnery, 1450–1650.” Mariners Mirror 82.3 (1996b): 301–324.
  114. DOI: 10.1080/00253359.1996.10656604Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  115. A crucially important piece that challenges previous assumptions about the coming of the broadside. This is essential reading for those who wish to understand naval tactics in this transitional period.
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  117. Rose, Susan. Medieval Naval Warfare, 1000–1500. Warfare and History. London and New York: Routledge, 2001.
  118. DOI: 10.4324/9780203206560Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  119. Naval events in British waters are described and put into a wider European perspective.
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  121. Sugden, John. Sir Francis Drake. Rev. ed. London: Pimlico, 2006.
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  123. A biography of an important and controversial English naval figure, by one of the leading British practitioners of the genre. First published in 1990 (London: Barrie & Jenkins).
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  125. Thrush, A. D. “The Navy under Charles I: 1625–40.” PhD diss., University of London, 1991.
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  127. An essential source that analyzes in depth the organization of the Caroline navy, which was more efficient than many of its detractors have claimed. It is available as a PDF from UCL Discovery.
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  129. Creation and the Dutch Wars
  130.  
  131. Rodger 2004 (cited under General Overviews) must be the starting point. The best specialist study of the new permanent, national British navy over the whole of this period is Davies 2008. Essential reading on the navy of the British Republic is in Capp 1989. Good studies of the major warships of this period are in Fox 1980 and Endsor 2009. The classic account of the British navy in the “Civil War” is in Powell 2012, whose author also provides a 1972 biography of General at Sea Robert Blake. Baumber 1989 puts Blake into the context of the naval revolution. Jones 1996 is the best overall account of the Dutch Wars, and Fox 2009 is the classic modern account of the greatest engagement in the Second Dutch War and its context.
  132.  
  133. Baumber, Michael. General-at-Sea: Robert Blake and the Seventeenth-Century Revolution in Naval Warfare. London: John Murray, 1989.
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  135. A good, relatively modern account that puts the distinguished officer, who never served a king, into the overall changes of this key period in the British navy’s history.
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  137. Capp, Bernard. Cromwell’s Navy: The Fleet and the English Revolution, 1648–1660. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.
  138. DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198201151.001.0001Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  139. The classic study of the subject, covering the influence of politics and religion in the navy of the British Republic.
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  141. Davies, J. D. Gentlemen and Tarpaulins: The Officers and Men of the Restoration Navy. Oxford Historical Monographs. New York: Oxford University Press, 1992.
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  143. The classic and essential guide to the rival social backgrounds of Restoration naval personnel and the influence of politics on the navy of the period.
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  145. Davies, J. D. Pepys’s Navy: Ships, Men & Warfare, 1649–1689. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth, 2008.
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  147. A comprehensive and beautifully produced work that covers all aspects of its subject, including both the Republican and Restoration periods, by the leading expert on the subject.
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  149. Endsor, Richard. The Restoration Warship: The Design, Construction and Career of a Third Rate of Charles II’s Navy. London: Conway Maritime, 2009.
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  151. A detailed survey of all aspects of a Restoration capital ship.
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  153. Fox, Frank L. Great Ships: The Battlefleet of King Charles II. London: Conway Maritime, 1980.
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  155. A handsome, detailed, and well-illustrated volume based on original documents and paintings.
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  157. Fox, Frank L. The Four Days’ Battle of 1666: The Greatest Sea Fight of the Age of Sail. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth, 2009.
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  159. A well-researched and comprehensive analysis of this major action, highly informative about the dynamics of naval warfare of this period. Originally published in 1996 under the title A Distant Storm (Rotherfield, UK: Press of Sail).
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  161. Jones, J. R. The Anglo-Dutch Wars of the Seventeenth Century. Modern Wars in Perspective. London: Longman, 1996.
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  163. This is still the only satisfactory overall treatment of these important maritime wars, in which the British navy cut its teeth. It can be obtained from Pearson Education in a print-on-demand edition.
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  165. Knighton, C. S. Pepys and the Navy. Stroud, UK: Sutton, 2003.
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  167. A modern study of the impact of the Restoration period’s major civilian naval administrator, and an excellent introduction to his role.
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  169. Powell, J. R. The Navy and the English Civil War. Whitefish, MT: Literary Licensing, 2012.
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  171. Originally published in 1962 (London: Archon). The latest edition of what still remains the only real account of this important and neglected subject, whose effect on the conflict may have been decisive.
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  173. The Wars Against Bourbon France
  174.  
  175. Between 1689 to 1713, England (and, from 1707, Great Britain) fought two wars with Bourbon France and then four more from 1742 to 1783. There was separately a war with Spain in 1718–1720 to maintain the peace settlement, and war with Spain in 1739 predated that with France. The best books on the various wars are Ehrman 1953, Harding 2013, Baugh 2011, Syrett 1989, and Syrett 1998. Important studies of British naval administration, whose superiority was the key to success, are Baugh 1965 and Buchet 2013. Personnel matters have at last been covered accurately in Rodger 1998. Hawke’s great victory at Quiberon Bay, perhaps the finest in the British navy’s history, is assessed in Tracy 2010.
  176.  
  177. Baugh, Daniel A. British Naval Administration in the Age of Walpole. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1965.
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  179. The classic work on 18th-century British naval administration, which has stood the test of time remarkably well.
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  181. Baugh, Daniel A. The Global Seven Years War, 1754–1763: Britain and France in a Great Power Contest. Modern Wars in Perspective. London: Longman, 2011.
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  183. A more recent work by the expert on British naval administration of the period, putting its performance in the victorious Seven Years’ War into the wider strategic perspective.
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  185. Buchet, Christian. The British Navy, Economy and Society in the Seven Years War. Translated by Anita Higgie and Michael Duffy. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell, 2013.
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  187. A most important book that clearly explains the importance of administration, especially victualing, to the success of the Royal Navy in projecting force globally in the mid-18th century, and the advantages Britain possessed over France in these regards. Translated very well from the 1999 French original.
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  189. Ehrman, John. The Navy in the War of William III, 1689–1697: Its State and Direction. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1953.
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  191. Another classic study of its subject, still highly regarded. It is a comprehensive coverage of its politics, organization, and administration.
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  193. Harding, Richard. The Emergence of Britain’s Global Supremacy: The War of 1739–1748. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell, 2013.
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  195. A good new study of the War Of the Austrian Succession and its precursor against Spain, which began badly but ended with the British navy on the road to command of the ocean.
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  197. Rodger, Nicholas A. M. The Wooden World: An Anatomy of the Georgian Navy. London: Fontana, 1998.
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  199. The latest edition of a vitally important book that first appeared in 1986 and destroyed the “Black Legend” of the conditions of life onboard His Majesty’s Ships in the 18th century. It is essential reading for those who want to understand the true nature of the British navy of the period.
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  201. Syrett, David. The Royal Navy in American Waters, 1775–1783. Aldershot, UK: Scolar Press, 1989.
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  203. The first part of a major study of the British navy in its major failure of the period, the abortive attempt to prevent French intervention in saving the rebellious American colonists from defeat.
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  205. Syrett, David. The Royal Navy in European Waters during the American Revolutionary War. Studies in Maritime History. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1998.
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  207. The same American author’s masterly analysis of the activities of the British navy in waters closer to home in the War of American Independence. Very sadly, the author died before he was able to complete his intention of unifying the two works into an overarching analysis of the Royal Navy in this difficult war.
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  209. Tracy, Nicholas. The Battle of Quiberon Bay, 1759: Admiral Hawke and the Defeat of the French Invasion. Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword, 2010.
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  211. An account by a leading tactical expert on perhaps the greatest victory in the history of the sailing navy, which was a remarkable display of seamanship and which, unlike Trafalgar, really did neutralize a threat of invasion.
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  213. Willis, Sam. The Admiral Benbow: The Life and Times of a Naval Legend. Hearts of Oak. London: Quercus, 2010.
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  215. One of a trilogy (see Willis 2012, cited under the Victories of 1794–1815) that ably and accessibly puts the career of the unfortunate commander into the context of the British navy of the late 17th and early 18th centuries.
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  217. The Victories of 1794–1815
  218.  
  219. No period of the history of the British navy is better covered that this one, the period of its greatest triumphs against France and her allies. Choosing a short list is no easy task. The classic comprehensive overview of the navy of the period is Lavery 2012. Willis 2012 provides an excellent analysis of the Glorious First of June and is a continuation of the author’s trilogy begun with a useful study of an important ship’s career in Willis 2010 (cited under the Wars against Bourbon France). Trafalgar and its context are probably best approached through Adkin 2005, and Duffy 2005 is an essential corrective to more-conventional accounts, while the campaign is set in perspective in Corbett 2005. The best overall Lord Nelson biography is Knight 2006. The vital naval campaign in the Baltic that turned the tide of the war far more than Trafalgar is analyzed in Voelcker 2009, and its logistics are examined in Davey 2012. The main overall study of British naval logistics in this period, the key factor in victory, is Knight and Wilcox 2010. The War of 1812, when, after a slow start, the British navy defeated the Americans, is best appreciated through Lambert 2013.
  220.  
  221. Adkin, Mark. The Trafalgar Companion: A Guide to History’s Most Famous Sea Battle and the Life of Admiral Lord Nelson. London: Aurum, 2005.
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  223. A remarkably comprehensive encyclopedia that lives up to what it says in the title.
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  225. Corbett, Sir Julian. The Campaign of Trafalgar. Stroud, UK: Nonesuch, 2005.
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  227. A modern reprint of Corbett’s classic and critical study, first published in 1910 (London: Longmans, Green), that not only puts this famous campaign into its proper perspective but also demonstrates the limitations of British sea power alone against an enemy dominating Continental Europe. It was so controversial it led to an admiralty committee being set up that reported in 1913. The later document was reprinted by the Naval & Military Press of Uckfield in 2006.
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  229. Davey, James. The Transformation of British Naval Strategy: Seapower and Supply in Northern Europe, 1808–1812. Forum Navales Skriftserie 44. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell, 2012.
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  231. An excellent study of the logistical backup to the vital Baltic campaign; part of the new emphasis on these more-fundamental aspects of British naval history.
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  233. Duffy, Michael. “‘. . . All Was Hushed Up’: The Hidden Trafalgar.” Mariners Mirror 91.2 (2005): 216–240.
  234. DOI: 10.1080/00253359.2005.10656946Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  235. A very important article that clearly demonstrates that heroism was not the universal virtue of the British fleet at this battle.
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  237. Knight, Roger. The Pursuit of Victory: The Life and Achievement of Horatio Nelson. London: Penguin, 2006.
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  239. The best and most scholarly and critical biography of the admiral who more than anyone else symbolized the virtues of the British navy.
  240. Find this resource:
  241. Knight, Roger, and Martin Wilcox. Sustaining the Fleet, 1793–1815: War, the British Navy and the Contractor State. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell, 2010.
  242. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  243. The major work on British naval logistics in this period.
  244. Find this resource:
  245. Lambert, Andrew. The Challenge: Britain against America in the Naval War of 1812. London: Faber, 2013.
  246. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  247. The latest paperback edition of a well-written and convincing account of the British victory in this maritime war.
  248. Find this resource:
  249. Lavery, Brian. Nelson’s Navy: The Ships, Men and Organisation, 1793–1815. Rev. ed. London: Conway, 2012.
  250. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  251. A new and revised edition of this classic and comprehensive encyclopedia of the British navy of the era, first published in 1989.
  252. Find this resource:
  253. Voelcker, Tim. Admiral Saumarez versus Napoleon: The Baltic, 1807–12. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell, 2009.
  254. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  255. A perceptive analysis of a vital campaign that displayed the diplomatic as well as the fighting skills of the British navy.
  256. Find this resource:
  257. Willis, Sam. The Glorious First of June: Fleet Battle in the Reign of Terror. Hearts of Oak. London: Quercus, 2012.
  258. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  259. The final member of the author’s “Hearts of Oak” trilogy (also see Willis 2010, cited under the Wars against Bourbon France), this provides an excellent and remarkably clear account and analysis of the first fleet action of the French Revolutionary War. The author’s understanding of sailing tactics comes through. The Hearts of Oak trilogy is completed by The Fighting Temeraire: Legend of Trafalgar (London: Quercus, 2010), which tells the story of a ship that played a vital role at Trafalgar and whose famous passing marked the end of an era.
  260. Find this resource:
  261. Pax Britannica and Technological Transformation
  262.  
  263. There is still no overarching history of the British navy after 1815. The closest basic approach is the opening chapters of Grove 2005 (cited under General Overviews). A major comprehensive study of the first half of the period is in Bartlett 1963. Morriss 1997 covers the same time frame through the life of a leading policymaker. The British naval contribution to the Russian War of the 1850s is covered in Lambert 2011. The latter part of the 19th century is best covered in Beeler 1997, followed, not very satisfactorily, by Marder 1976. The interaction of warships with the Pax Britannica can be found in Preston and Major 2007. The technological transformation of the navy is studied against a broader context in Greenhill and Giffard 1994. The best survey of British naval technological transformation in this period is Brown 1990, supplemented by Beeler 2003. The impact of change on the naval officer corps still relies on Lewis 1965.
  264.  
  265. Bartlett, C. J. Great Britain and Sea Power, 1815–1853. Oxford: Clarendon, 1963.
  266. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  267. A classic study that still remains important; a facsimile edition was reissued in 1993 (Aldershot, UK: Gregg Revivals).
  268. Find this resource:
  269. Beeler, John F. British Naval Policy in the Gladstone-Disraeli Era, 1866–1880. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1997.
  270. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  271. The other major book on British 19th-century naval policy (besides Bartlett 1963), by the leading expert on the period.
  272. Find this resource:
  273. Beeler, John F. The Birth of the Battleship: British Capital Ship Design, 1870–1881. London: Caxton, 2003.
  274. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  275. A reprint of the 2001 book that in many ways was a technical supplement to his earlier book (Beeler 1997). An extremely important volume that illustrates what were the true design dynamics of the littoral combatants of the time, and the technological trends leading to the ships described in the title.
  276. Find this resource:
  277. Brown, David K. Before the Ironclad: The Development of Ship Design, Propulsion and Armament in the Royal Navy, 1815–60. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute, 1990.
  278. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  279. The most accessible edition of the first of David Brown’s monumental illustrated studies of British naval warship development. He clearly demonstrates that the British navy adopted steam propulsion as soon as it was possible. The story is continued in his Warrior to Dreadnought: Warship Design and Development, 1860–1905 (Barnsley, UK: Seaforth, 2010), which covers the coming of armor and the eventual birth of a proper steam “battleship” and “cruiser.”
  280. Find this resource:
  281. Greenhill, Basil, and Ann Giffard. Steam, Politics and Patronage: The Transformation of the Royal Navy, 1815–54. London: Conway Maritime, 1994.
  282. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  283. A remarkable study that puts the coming of steam very effectively into the wider British naval context of the time.
  284. Find this resource:
  285. Lambert, Andrew. The Crimean War: British Grand Strategy against Russia, 1853–56. 2d ed. Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2011.
  286. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  287. A second edition of Professor Lambert’s original and seminal doctoral study that demonstrated the central importance of the navy in winning the “Russian War,” a title his publishers did not allow him to use.
  288. Find this resource:
  289. Lewis, Michael. The Navy in Transition, 1814–64: A Social History. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1965.
  290. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  291. Still a useful study of the effects of the coming of steam on the social structure of the British navy.
  292. Find this resource:
  293. Marder, Arthur J. The Anatomy of British Sea Power: A History of British Naval Policy in the Pre-dreadnought Era, 1880–1905. London: Frank Cass, 1976.
  294. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  295. The latest reprint of an old but classic book, originally published in 1940, that is far from being the last word on the subject but still contains useful material and deserves attention.
  296. Find this resource:
  297. Morriss, Roger. Cockburn and the British Navy in Transition: Admiral Sir George Cockburn, 1772–1853. Studies in Maritime History. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1997.
  298. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  299. A good study of one of the key figures in the history of the early-19th-century British navy.
  300. Find this resource:
  301. Preston, Antony, and John Major. Send a Gunboat! The Victorian Navy and Supremacy at Sea, 1854–1904. Rev. ed. London: Conway, 2007.
  302. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  303. The latest revised version of a classic study, by a naval expert and an academic historian, of the origins of the gunboat in the Russian War and its utility in the exercise of British naval power in the days of its supremacy.
  304. Find this resource:
  305. Naval Race and the First World War
  306.  
  307. This is the most controversial period in British naval history, with the classical view of Arthur Marder’s multivolume magnum opus (see Marder 2013) being challenged in Sumida 1993 and Lambert 2002. Their conclusions have been in turn challenged from different perspectives in Brooks 2005 and Grimes 2012. The best book on the Battle of Jutland remains Gordon 1996. Marder’s criticisms of the naval staff are countered in Black 2011, capital ships are comprehensively examined in Burt 2012, and warship design overall is studied in Brown 2010.
  308.  
  309. Black, Nicholas. The British Naval Staff in the First World War. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell, 2011.
  310. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  311. A robust defense of a much-maligned institution, and essential reading for understanding the performance of the British navy in the First World War.
  312. Find this resource:
  313. Brooks, John. Dreadnought Gunnery and the Battle of Jutland: The Question of Fire Control. Cass Series: Naval Policy and History 32. London: Routledge, 2005.
  314. DOI: 10.4324/9780203316207Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  315. An important book that takes the Sumida thesis on gunnery (Sumida 1993) head on. The author defends British fire control equipment and explains what he sees as the true reasons for the mixed performance of British capital ship gunnery.
  316. Find this resource:
  317. Brown, David K. The Grand Fleet: Warship Design and Development, 1906–1922. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth, 2010.
  318. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  319. The relevant volume in the Brown series of in-depth studies of warship design.
  320. Find this resource:
  321. Burt, R. A. British Battleships of World War One. Rev. ed. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth, 2012.
  322. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  323. A comprehensive catalogue of the dreadnought-era battleships and battle cruisers that composed the Grand Fleet.
  324. Find this resource:
  325. Gordon, Andrew. The Rules of the Game: Jutland and British Naval Command. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute, 1996.
  326. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  327. The latest edition of a serious study of the battle and the command doctrines it reflected, which has had considerable impact. It does, however, give an interpretation of the results that is somewhat overfavorable to the British.
  328. Find this resource:
  329. Grimes, Shawn T. Strategy and War Planning in the British Navy, 1887–1918. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell, 2012.
  330. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  331. A significant new look at the subject, taking issue with the Simida/Lambert thesis as regards planning for war in the North Sea against Germany. Interesting and useful, if not totally convincing.
  332. Find this resource:
  333. Halpern, Paul G. A Naval History of World War I. London: Routledge, 2003.
  334. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  335. A global history that puts its central actor, the British navy, into the wider perspective. Very good for operations outside the North Sea. First published in 1994.
  336. Find this resource:
  337. Lambert, Nicholas A. Sir John Fisher’s Naval Revolution. Studies in Maritime History. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 2002.
  338. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  339. The latest edition of a key work that developed the Sumida thesis (Sumida 1993) into a radical reassessment of British naval policy and strategy before the First World War. It is now being challenged.
  340. Find this resource:
  341. Marder, Arthur J. From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow: The Royal Navy in the Fisher Era, 1904–1919. Vol. 1, The Road to War, 1904–1914. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth, 2013.
  342. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  343. Continued in Vol. 2, The War Years: To the Eve of Jutland 1914–1916 (Barnsley, UK: Seaforth, 2013); Vol. 3, Jutland and After (May 1916–December 1916) (London: Oxford University Press, 1978); Vol. 4, 1917, Year of Crisis (London: Oxford University Press, 1969), and Vol. 5, Victory and Aftermath (January 1918–June 1919) (London: Oxford University Press, 1970). Despite being a little moth-eaten around the intellectual edges, this monumental work remains standard and fundamental as a comprehensive history and is being reissued. Vol. 1 must be used with particular care—see Sumida 1993 and Lambert 2002.
  344. Find this resource:
  345. Sumida, Jon Tetsuro. In Defence of Naval Supremacy: Finance, Technology and British Naval Policy, 1889–1914. London: Routledge, 1993.
  346. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  347. The latest edition of a vitally important reassessment of the subject, which must be set against Marder’s work. Sumida created a new orthodoxy that is now, in turn, being questioned by the latest revisionists.
  348. Find this resource:
  349. Interwar Period and the Second World War
  350.  
  351. The main narrative source on the British naval policy between the world wars is Roskill 1968–1976. Bell 2000 is a more recent assessment of policy and strategy. The important question of the development of antisubmarine capability is in Franklin 2003. Naval rearmament is covered in Gordon 1988. The most extended history of the navy in the Second World War is Stephen Roskill’s multivolume official history, the first of which is cited here (Roskill 2004). Barnett 2000 is a more modern single-volume survey of the navy’s war. The vital role played by the navy in resisting invasion in 1940 is emphasized in Cumming 2010. The Second World War navy as an institution is most comprehensively covered in Lavery 2008. Technological development overall is surveyed in Brown 2012; capital ships are catalogued in Burt 2012.
  352.  
  353. Barnett, Correlli. Engage the Enemy More Closely: The Royal Navy in the Second World War. Classic Military History. London: Penguin, 2000.
  354. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  355. Apart from a very weak opening chapter, this is an excellent, comprehensive, and typically opinionated survey of the British navy’s activities in World War II. It is an excellent read, but some of its judgments must be taken with a pinch of salt. Originally published in 1991 (London: Hodder & Stoughton); republished as recently as 2013 (London: Faber).
  356. Find this resource:
  357. Bell, Christopher M. The Royal Navy, Seapower and Strategy between the Wars. Studies in Military and Strategic History. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2000.
  358. DOI: 10.1057/9780230599239Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  359. A more recent overview of British naval development in the interwar period, updating Roskill 1968–1976.
  360. Find this resource:
  361. Brown, David K. Nelson to Vanguard: Warship Design and Development, 1923–1945. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth, 2012.
  362. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  363. The usual highly informed approach to an analysis of British warship development in this era.
  364. Find this resource:
  365. Burt, R. A. British Battleships, 1919–1945. Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword, 2012.
  366. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  367. A typically well-illustrated and detailed Burt analytical catalogue of the British navy’s capital ships.
  368. Find this resource:
  369. Cumming, Anthony J. The Royal Navy and the Battle of Britain. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute, 2010.
  370. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  371. An important, serious study that demonstrates how it was the Royal Navy and not the Royal Air Force that prevented invasion in 1940.
  372. Find this resource:
  373. Franklin, George D. Britain’s Anti-submarine capability, 1919–1939. Cass Series: Naval Policy and History 17. London: Frank Cass, 2003.
  374. DOI: 10.4324/9780203495261Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  375. A crucially important book that explodes the myth of the Royal Navy’s lack of preparation for antisubmarine warfare; a very necessary antidote to Roskill’s work.
  376. Find this resource:
  377. Gordon, G. A. H. British Seapower and Procurement between the Wars: A Reappraisal of Rearmament. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute, 1988.
  378. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  379. The most accessible version of a perceptive analysis of naval rearmament.
  380. Find this resource:
  381. Lavery, Brian. Churchill’s Navy: The Ships, Men, and Organisation, 1939–1945. London: Conway, 2008.
  382. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  383. A unique encyclopedia that gives the Royal Navy of the Second World War the same treatment as the author’s earlier work on the navy in the age of Lord Nelson.
  384. Find this resource:
  385. Roskill, Stephen W. Naval Policy between the Wars. 2 vols. New York: Walker, 1968–1976.
  386. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  387. Vol. 1, The Period of Anglo-American Antagonism, 1919–1929; Vol. 2, The Period of Reluctant Rearmament, 1930–1939. Still the starting point for any consideration of the Royal Navy at this time; the judgments are not unquestionable but they must be taken into consideration.
  388. Find this resource:
  389. Roskill, Stephen W. The War at Sea: 1939–1945; History of the Second World War. 3 vols. Uckfield, UK: Naval & Military Press, 2004.
  390. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  391. The modern reprint of the official history of the British navy in the Second World War, and the foundation of any serious study of the subject. The author tended to be rather more critical than other official historians and acquired an academic reputation with this work, although his judgments are not unquestionable. The second part of Vol. 3 begins in June 1944.
  392. Find this resource:
  393. The Post-1945 Navy
  394.  
  395. The standard account of the post-1945 British naval policy is Grove 1987, brought up to date by Grove 2011. This is usefully supplemented on the technical side by Harding 2005 while Hampshire 2013 provides a most important supplementary analysis of the 1960s, on the basis of documentary sources not available to Eric Grove. Warship design is examined in a well-informed way in Brown and Moore 2012. The main naval event of the period, the Falklands War of 1982, is best approached via Brown 1989 and Clapp and Southby-Tailyour 2007. Moore 2001 provides the best in-depth study of the key issue of the Royal Navy’s relationship with nuclear weapons, while Childs 2009 and Childs 2012 bring a well-informed and perceptive journalist’s eye to bear on the British navy of the late 20th and the early 21st centuries, as well as the future.
  396.  
  397. Brown, David. The Royal Navy and the Falklands War. London: Arrow, 1989.
  398. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  399. Written by the former head of the Naval Historical Branch, this is still a key source on the British navy in its greatest post-1945 conflict.
  400. Find this resource:
  401. Brown, David K., and George Moore. Rebuilding the Royal Navy: Warship Design since 1945. Barnsley, UK: Seaforth, 2012.
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  403. A reprint of the 2003 work that completed Brown’s comprehensive survey of British naval ship design; coauthorship was necessary due to the main author’s failing health. A highly informative study, essential reading for those interested in the period.
  404. Find this resource:
  405. Childs, Nick. The Age of Invincible: The Ship That Defined the Modern Royal Navy. Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword, 2009.
  406. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  407. A perceptive study of the “through-deck cruisers” and their central role in the Royal Navy of the 1980s onward.
  408. Find this resource:
  409. Childs, Nick. Britain’s Future Navy. Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword, 2012.
  410. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  411. A book that takes a perceptive look at the future of the 21st-century British navy.
  412. Find this resource:
  413. Clapp, Michael, and Ewen Southby-Tailyour. Amphibious Assault Falklands: The Battle of San Carlos Water. 2d ed. Barnsley, UK: Pen & Sword, 2007.
  414. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  415. The latest edition of an important book that clarified the command structure of the Falklands Task Force. First published in 1996 (London: Leo Cooper).
  416. Find this resource:
  417. Grove, Eric J. Vanguard to Trident: British Naval Policy since World War II. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute, 1987.
  418. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  419. The standard work on the post-1945 British navy.
  420. Find this resource:
  421. Grove, Eric J. “The Royal Navy in the Twenty-First Century: Does It Have a Role beyond the Defence of Britain’s Seas?” Mariner’s Mirror 97.1 (2011): 298–313.
  422. DOI: 10.1080/00253359.2011.10709047Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  423. Brings Vanguard to Trident up to the 2010 Strategic Defence and Security Review, of which it is very critical.
  424. Find this resource:
  425. Hampshire, Edward. From East of Suez to the Eastern Atlantic: British Naval Policy, 1964–70. Corbett Centre for Maritime Policy Studies. Farnham, UK: Ashgate, 2013.
  426. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  427. A key documentary-based study of a critical period; adds substantially to the account in Grove 1987.
  428. Find this resource:
  429. Harding, Richard, ed. The Royal Navy, 1930–2000: Innovation and Defence. Cass Series: Naval Policy and History. London: Frank Cass, 2005.
  430. DOI: 10.4324/9780203337684Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  431. A selection of essays on the introduction of new technology, containing much useful material on this period.
  432. Find this resource:
  433. Moore, Richard. The Royal Navy and Nuclear Weapons. Cass Series: Naval Policy and History. London: Frank Cass, 2001.
  434. Save Citation »Export Citation »E-mail Citation »
  435. A comprehensive study of an important subject.
  436. Find this resource:
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