Archive Results For: Opium Wars
Documents:-The Letters of Commander John Corbett, 1855–1857
This is an account of two years in the life of (then) Commander John Corbett, constructed from his letters sent home, his sketches and paintings, and contemporary newspaper reports. It starts with the shipwreck of HMS Wolverene in the Caribbean in 1855 and his subsequent court martial in Bermuda. It continues with the commissioning of […] Read More
Filed under: Opium Wars | Other (Nineteenth C)
Subjects include: Biography | Manpower & Life at Sea
Book Review-‘‘Nemesis’: The first iron warship and her world’ byA. G. Marshall
Adrian Marshall’s ‘Nemesis’ makes a significant contribution not only to a history of this unique ship, but to the history of the nineteenth-century Asian world in which she sailed. Nemesis was the first of a generation of steam-powered ironclad vessels with watertight compartments. It was also the first iron vessel to round the Cape of […] Read More
Filed under: Opium Wars | East India Company
Subjects include: Shipbuilding & Design | Weapons
Book Review-‘The Pre-Dreadnought Revolution: Developing the bulwarks of sea power’ by W. Berry
In the Victorian period, the Royal Navy faced a fundamental problem in its most serious form; that of reconciling the ‘out of area’ roles of colonial and trade protection, including survey work and the suppression of slavery, with the defence of ‘home waters’, most notably against the révanchist France of Napoleon III (1851–70). The additional […] Read More
Filed under: Napoleonic War | WW1 | Opium Wars | Crimean War
Subjects include: Navies | Strategy & Diplomacy | Weapons
The Royal Navy and the Developments of Mobile Logistics 1851–94
The first attempt by the Royal Navy at providing a mobile workshop facility was in 1851 when the schooner HMS Spider was equipped with basic tools for making and repairing articles for the Devonport Steam Reserve. In early 1854, with the imminent outbreak of hostilities with Russia likely, the wooden sail assisted paddle steamer HMS […] Read More
Filed under: Baltic | English Channel | Opium Wars | Crimean War | Other (location)
Subjects include: Harbours & Dockyards | Logistics | Navies | Shipbuilding & Design
The Battle of Fatshan Creek
The Anglo-Chinese War of 1839–42 failed to persuade the Chinese to grant commercial access to ports agreed by the Treaty of Nanking. Murder of a French missionary led to the outbreak of war between Britain and China. British warships assaulted the forts and fought with well-armed junks in the maze of channels in the Canton […] Read More
Filed under: Opium Wars | Pacific
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics | Strategy & Diplomacy
The First Reduction of the Taku Forts – 1858
From a distinguished naval family, Thomas Saumarez 1827-1902 kept a journal which culminates in his command of a squadron of 15 steam gun-ships sent to China in 1856. Access to the Pei Ho river, and to Tientsin and possibly Pekin, was controlled by a boom commanded by the Taku forts. His journal describes how Cormorant, […] Read More
Filed under: Opium Wars | Pacific
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics
The Coming of the Chinese Steamer
The article relates the introduction of steam propulsion to China in the mid to late 19th century both for naval and mercantile purposes. The author describes the contributions of two “scholar-generals”, Tseng Kuo-fan and Tso Tsung-T’sang to the development of a steam powered Chinese navy for use in conflicts on inland waters as well as […] Read More
Filed under: Opium Wars | Other (Nineteenth C) | Internal Waterways
Subjects include: Merchant Marines | Navies | Shipbuilding & Design
The First Naval Expedition on the Yangtze River 1842
This article describes how a British Fleet, under Sir William Parker, consisting of a line-of-battle ship, some frigates, sloops and transports, in all seventy sailing vessels, proceeded under canvas up the Yangtze River, as far as Nanking, assisted only by five small steamers. It lists the actions that it conducted on the way up river […] Read More
Filed under: Opium Wars | Pacific
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics
Admiral the Honourable Sir George Elliott
The author quotes extensively from a memoir written by Sir George Elliott in 1855 which was made available by the Marquess of Northampton, his great-grandson and SNR member. He also cross-references with occasional quotations from other contemporary sources. Elliott had a long, varied and successful naval career, starting with the blockade of Toulon in 1795 […] Read More
Filed under: Atlantic | Napoleonic War | Baltic | War of 1812 | English Channel | Opium Wars | French Revolution | Mediterranean | Indian Ocean | Other (location)
Subjects include: Battles & Tactics | Biography | Manpower & Life at Sea | Shipbuilding & Design
Ships of India, 1834 – 1934
This article discusses the vessels of the Indian Navy as the ships of the East India Company were called after 1834. The Company was moving from sail to steam and the specification, construction and service career of several ships are described. Contributions to hostilities in China and the Crimea are recorded. The East India Company’s […] Read More
Filed under: WW1 | Interwar | Opium Wars | Crimean War | Other (Twentieth C) | Other (Nineteenth C) | Indian Ocean | East India Company
Subjects include: Navies | Shipbuilding & Design