Few other countries had fallen so deeply in love with a branch of the armed forces as the British did with the Royal Navy. It is an effort for us now to appreciate the extent to which the Navy was at the heart of national political, economic and cultural life. It was in large part the firmly implanted conviction that Britain’s destiny was to rule the waves — a tradition that went back into the mists of time — that made that prophecy self-fulfilling. The British sense of national identity was in large part forged at sea. British history is inexplicable without reference to this fact. — Ben Wilson, Preface
I am the monarch of the sea,
The ruler of the Queen's Navee,
Whose praise Great Britain loudly chants. — Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore (1878)
Discussions, Comments etc.
- The Royal Navy: A Brief Introduction
- Macaulay on the Terrible Condition of Britain’s Navy in the Late Seventeenth Century
- Grave of Rear Admiral Charles John Austen (Jane Austen’s brother), Trincomalee, Sri Lanka
- The Franklin Expedition and the Search for the North-West Passage (1845-1859; note that Franklin was a Royal Navy Officer)
- Nelson and the Victorians: Legend and Legacy
- Neptune Resigning to Britannia the Empire of the Sea by William Dyce (1846
- Edmund Gabriel and the suppression of the Angolan slave trade
- The failure to grasp the military implications of new naval technology in the Crimean War
- Sir Joseph Porter's Song ("When I was a Lad I served a Term") from H.M.S. Pinafore, or, "The Lass that Loved a Sailor": attacking the long-standing aristocratic tradition of purchasing commissions (1878)
- The Ancient Mariner — another “Terrible Tale of the Sea” (cartoon, with discussion of the battle for adequate naval funding)
- Punch — "Waking-Up" (cartoon, indicating a response to the need for funding)
- Punch — "Ruling the Waves (?)" (another cartoon about the need to modernise and expand)
- Judy — A Message from the Sea (calling for a change of government to help finance the navy)
- The Royal Naval Exhibition of 1891
Uniforms, ranks and flags
- Rank Marks of the British Navy
- Flags of, or Associated with, the British Navy
- Petty Officers and Seamen of the Royal Navy
- Officers of the Royal Navy
- British Naval officer c. 1840
- Three British Navy Officers. 1860
- Lieutenant
- Midshipman
- Royal Navy. Lieutenant, full dress
- Royal Navy. Boatswain's Mate (whites)
- Royal Navy. Captain
- Royal Navy. Chief Boatswain
- Royal Navy. Paymaster
- Royal Navy. Lieutenant (ball dress)
- Royal Navy. Master-at-arms
- Royal Navy. Midshipman, full dress
- Royal Navy. Ship's Corporal
- Seaman
Military Actions
- Battle of Trafalgar (Clarkson Stanfield's painting of 1836)
- Unity is strength (French and Turkish soldiers with a British sailor)
- Balaclava; British sailor encampment
- British naval gunners on gun deck, c. 1850
- Landing of the British Division at Old Fort, near Sebastopol. 1854
- “You Broke the British Square”: The Battle of Tamai, 13 March 1884 (involving a battalion of Royal Marine Light Infantry with a Gardiner Gun detachment of the Royal Navy)
Prominent Naval Figures
- Sir John Barrow (Second Secretary to the Admiralty, 1804-1845)
- Admiral Sir Compton Domville (Vanity Fair caricature by "Spy," 1906)
Ships and Ship-Building
- H.M.S. Temeraire (Turner's painting of The Fighting Temeraire
- Her Majesty’s War-steamer Terrible (“a paddle-wheel steam man-of-war”), 1845
- Experimental firing of the Bellerophon at the H.M.S. Royal Sovereign at Spithead.
- The Steam-frigate Janus, 1844
- Her Majesty’s War-steamer Terrible (“a paddle-wheel steam man-of-war”), 1845
- H.M.S. Arrogant, 1848
- Clarkson Stanfield's Men of War off Portsmouth, Hampshire, 1855
- The steam frigate Northumberland, 1866
- H.M.S. Hotspur, 1871
- H.M.S. Agincourt, 1871
- H.M.S. torpedo gun-boat Rattlesnake, 1887
- H.M.S. Demon, 1891
- H.M.S. Thunderer fitted with netting for protection against torpedoes.
- H.M.S. Glory, 1899
- Building H.M.S. Achilles: wood-engraving by Edward G. Dalziel, from Dickens's "Chatham Dockyard"
Naval Institutions
- The Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, and its Environs: Their Victorian Interest
- The Army and Navy Clubhouse, Pall Mall
- Portsmouth Dockyard by James Tissot (great ships in the background)
- Queen Victoria's Changing Views of Southampton (with the Royal Victoria Hospital, Empress Dock, etc.)
- The Old Naval Bakery, now the Maritime Museum, Vittoriosa, Malta
Related Material
- Military technology for land and sea warfare
- "Eternal Father, Strong to Save" (The Navy Hymn)
- Merchant Shipping
- Nineteenth-Century Ships, Boats, and Naval Architecture and Engineering
- Shipwreck and Other Maritime Disasters
- The Role of the Victorian Army
- Nautical Fiction
- Nineteenth-century Painters of Land- and Seascapes
Bibliography
Clowes, William L. The Royal Navy: A History, from the Earliest Times to the Death of Queen Victoria. Vol. VII.. 7 Vols. London: Sampson Low, Marston & Co., 1897. Internet Archive, from a copy in the Wellcome Library. Web. 30 December 2023.
Field, Cyril. The British Navy Book. London: Blackie, n.d. HathiTrust, from a copy in the Library of the University of California, Los Angeles. Web. 30 December 2023.
"The Merchant Navy." The Honourable Company of Master Mariners. Web. 31 December 2023.
Rasor, Eugene L. Reform in the Royal Navy: a social history of the lower deck, 1850 to 1880. Hamden, Conn.: Archon Books, 1976.
Wilson, Ben. Empire of the Deep: The Rise and Fall of the British Navy. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2013.
Created 5 December 2014
Last modified 12 January 2024