Sea Power and
Maritime Affairs
Lesson 8: Developments in Naval
Technology and its Impact on Strategy
and Policy, 1865-1890
Learning Objectives:
• Know the status of the U.S. Navy after the Civil War.
• Know the principal changes in warship hull design,
propulsion, and armaments during the period 18651890.
• Know the principal milestones in the evolution of
warship armament during the period.
• Know principal naval weapons systems conceived or
adopted by nations desiring inexpensive methods to
overcome or neutralize expensive naval hardware, such
as the capital ship.
Learning Objectives:
• Know the technological responses of the major naval
powers to counter the threats of low cost weapons.
• 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 changes in naval
technology prior to World War I.
Learning Objectives:
• Comprehend (explain) the difficulty in maintaining
technological leadership and the debate over whether to
remain technologically current.
• Comprehend the reasons for the rebuilding of the U.S.
Navy and the historical conditions accounting for the
emergence and success of Captain Alfred Thayer
Mahan's lectures and book.
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
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 Empire’s “Dual Monarchy” - 1867.
• Continued collapse of Ottoman Empire through 1800’s.
• Balkan Peninsula: Independence of European states.
• New era of European imperialism:
• European powers vigorously compete to establish colonies
on remaining world territories.
Unification of Germany - 1871
Otto
von
Bismarck
“Iron Chancellor”
of the
German Empire
Evolution of Warship Construction:
• Construction materials:
•
•
Steel hulls replace iron hulls.
Steel has higher strength and less weight than iron.
• Compartmentation.
• 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
H.M.S. Warrior (1860):
U.S.S. Monitor (1862):
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 d’Italia with the
ram.
• Rams in warship design:
• Remain prominent until late into the nineteenth
century.
Iron-clad Screw-Frigate Re D’Italia:
Battle of Lissa
Lissa
Battle of Lissa
Lissa
Battle of Lissa
Lissa
Battle of Lissa
Lissa
Evolution of Armament:
• 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.
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.
New Propulsion Ships Coaling
Revolving Turret:
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.
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.
New Submarine Design:
Torpedo Boat:
Torpedoes
Automobile Torpedo in Action
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.
Post-Civil War U.S. Navy
• Naval Doctrine
• Commerce raiding and coastal defense still
emphasized.
• Alabama Claims -- 1871-1872
• 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.
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.
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.
Naval War College:
• Commerce raiding and coastal defense were
the accepted strategies of the U.S. Navy after
the Civil War.
• Strategies seemed 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.
Alfred Thayer Mahan
“An untroubled assurance of peace
is no guarantee that war
will not come.”
“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.”
The Influence of Sea Power Upon
History: 1660-1783
• Published in 1890 - Mahan’s first book.
• Based on 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
- Nationalists
- Merchants
- Imperialists
Learning Objectives:
• Know the status of the U.S. Navy after the Civil War.
• Know the principal changes in warship hull design,
propulsion, and armaments during the period 18651890.
• Know the principal milestones in the evolution of
warship armament during the period.
• Know principal naval weapons systems conceived or
adopted by nations desiring inexpensive methods to
overcome or neutralize expensive naval hardware, such
as the capital ship.
Learning Objectives:
• Know the technological responses of the major naval
powers to counter the threats of low cost weapons.
• Know the reasons HMS 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 changes in naval
technology prior to World War I.
Learning Objectives:
• Comprehend (explain) the difficulty in maintaining
technological leadership and the debate over whether to
remain technologically current.
• Comprehend the reasons for the rebuilding of the U.S.
Navy and the historical conditions accounting for the
emergence and success of Captain Alfred Thayer
Mahan's lectures and book.
Discussion
Next time: The Dawning of the Age of Mahan