Sea Power and Maritime Affairs

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Sea Power and Maritime Affairs

• Lesson 6 Developments of Naval technology and
  Strategy, 1865-1890

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Learning Objectives

• Know the principal changes affecting warship hull
  design and propulsion during the period
  1865-1890.
• Know the principal milestones in the evolution of
  warship armament during the period.
• Know the principal naval weapons systems
  conceived or adopted by nations desiring
  inexpensive methods to overcome or neutralize
  expensive naval hardware, such as the capital
  ship.
• Know the technological responses of the major
  naval powers to counter the threats of low cost
  weapons.

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Learning Objectives

• Know the reasons H.M.S. Warrior marks the
  beginning and end of this period as a major step
  in the evolution of the principal weapons of
  naval might.
• Know congressional attitudes toward the Navy in
  this postwar period.
• Comprehend the difficulty in maintaining
  technological leadership and the debate over
  whether to remain technologically current.
• Comprehend the reasons for the rebuilding of the
  US Navy and the historical conditions accounting
  for the emergence and success of Captain Alfred
  Thayer Mahans lectures and books.

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Remember our Themes!

• The Navy as an Instrument of Foreign Policy
• Interaction between Congress and the Navy
• Interservice Relations
• Technology
• Leadership
• Strategy and Tactics
• Evolution of Naval Doctrine

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International Affairs - Late 19th Century

• Pax Britannica
• Era of peace continues - British Empire dominates
  the seas.
• Japan - Meiji Restoration
• Continued increase in foreign trade.
• Rapid modernization begins.
• German and Italian unifications - 1870-71.
• Austro-Hungarian Empires Dual Monarchy - 1867.
• Continued collapse of Ottoman Empire through
  1800s.
• Balkan Peninsula Independence of European
  states.
• New era of European imperialism
• European powers vigorously compete to establish
  colonies on remaining world territories.

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Unification of Germany - 1871
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Ottovon Bismarck

• Iron Chancellor
• of the
• German Empire

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Evolution of Warship Construction

• Construction materials
• Steel hulls replace iron hulls.
• Steel has higher strength and less weight than
  iron.
• Compartment divisions.
• Protective decks.
• Armor protection.
• Iron to steel-plated iron to steel.
• Location of armor
• Vulnerable areas get more armor.
• Unable to armor the entire ship due to weight of
  armor.
• Rams

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H.M.S. Warrior
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U.S.S. Monitor
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Battle of Lissa - 1866

• First battle between ironclad fleets.
• Adriatic Sea off Dalmatian coast (present-day
  Croatia).
• Italians attempt amphibious assault of the island
  of Lissa without command of the sea.
• Austrian Fleet takes V formation.
• Breaks the Italian line.
• Ferdinand Maximilian sinks Re dItalia with the
  ram.
• Rams in warship design
• Remain prominent until late into the nineteenth
  century.

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Iron-clad Screw-Frigate Re DItalia
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Evolution of Armaments

• Muzzle loaders to breech loaders.
• Safety and rate of fire increases.
• Rifled guns.
• Increased accuracy and ranges.
• Mounting of guns.
• Hydraulic recoil mechanisms.
• Cartridge shells.
• Round and charge are combined.
• Rate of fire increases.
• Greater penetrating power and range.
• Self-propelled torpedo
• Invented by Englishman Robert Whitehead in 1866.

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Ship Propulsion Innovations

• More efficient steam engines developed.
• Increases in speed.
• Longer ranges.
• Coaling stations required at regular intervals
  while transiting overseas.
• Further incentive to acquire overseas colonies.
• Many ships still use sail as alternate means of
  propulsion.
• Hybrids with stacks and sails.

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New Propulsion Ships Coaling
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Revolving Turret
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Low Cost Weapons vs Capital Ships

• Capital ships
• Large ships with heavy guns - core of a battle
  fleet.
• Battleships (Heavily armored).
• Cruisers (Faster but less heavily armored than
  battleships).
• New low cost weapons
• Self-propelled torpedoes launched from torpedo
  boats.
• Mines - Stationary torpedoes to protect
  coastlines and ports.

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Countermeasures

• Continued advances in compartmentation.
• New ship types
• Torpedo boat destroyer shortened to just
  destroyer used to screen capital ships from
  torpedo attacks.
• Minesweepers used to clear minefields.

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New Submarine Design
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Torpedo Boat
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Torpedoes
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Post-Civil War U.S. Navy

• 1865-1870 -- Decline of the Navy.
• Large reductions in naval appropriations 700 to
  52 ships.
• Isolationism due to the need for
• Reconstruction of the South.
• Continued westward expansion.
• Primary mission Protection of maritime trade
  overseas.

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Post-Civil War U.S. Navy

• Naval Doctrine
• Commerce raiding and coastal defense still
  emphasized.
• Alabama Claims -- 1871-2
• International arbitration at Geneva.
• Great Britain pays United States large award.
• Based on Union merchant ships captured by
  Confederate commerce raiders which were built in
  Great Britain.

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Rebirth of the U.S. Navy

• Naval funding begins to increase in 1880.
• ABCD ships - construction begins in 1883.
• Steam (Sail used as secondary means of
  propulsion).
• Steel hulls and heavy armor.
• Rifled breech-loading guns.
• Battleships - construction begins in 1889.

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Rebirth of the U.S. Navy

• Naval Institute established by naval officers -
  1873.
• Proceedings - professional journal for naval
  personnel.
• Office of Naval Intelligence established - 1882.
• Naval War College established - 1884.
• Engineering Duty Officers enter the Line -- 1899.
• Increased importance of technical knowledge is
  apparent.

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Naval War College

• Commerce raiding and coastal defense
  Accepted strategies of the U.S. Navy after
  Civil War.
• Strategies seem obsolete to an influential group
  of American naval leaders.
• Commodore Stephen B. Luce
• Establishes Naval War College in 1885 at Newport,
  Rhode Island to
• Apply modern scientific methods to the study and
  raise naval warfare from the empirical stage to
  the dignity of a science.
• Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan is one of the first
  instructors to serve under Luce.

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Alfred Thayer Mahan

• Historians generally have been unfamiliar
  with the conditions of the sea, having as to it
  neither special interest nor special knowledge
  and the profound determining influence of
  maritime strength upon great issues has
  consequently been overlooked.

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The Influence of Sea Power Upon History
1660-1783

• Published in 1890 - Mahans first book.
• Based on a series of Naval War College lectures.
• Strong arguments for the U.S.
• Maintaining naval strength during peacetime.
• Building a fleet of capital ships.
• Acquiring colonies abroad for secure coaling
  stations.
• Ideas strongly appeals to
• - Industrialists - Merchants
• - Nationalists - Imperialists

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Discussion
Next time The Dawning of the Age of Mahan