Briefly describe how the development of steam powered ships transformed naval warfare. Solution Development of steam powered ships And transformation in naval warfare A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is an ocean faring seaworthy vessel that is propelled by one or more steam engines that typically drive (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first steamships came into practical usage during the early 1800s; The first steam engines worked by filling a cylinder with steam, then condensing it to water. The vacuum created drew the piston into the cylinder. These “atmospheric” engines were useful for pumping out mines and other tasks where their weight was not important. They were far too heavy and bulky to use aboard ships, however. James Watts’s improved steam engine drove the piston in the opposite direction—expanding steam, rather than atmospheric pressure on a vacuum was the driving force. Such engines could be made small enough to power a ship. Their earliest use was to turn a pair of huge side wheels. Steam gave navies a great strategic advantage. Steam warships no longer depended on weather and could cross the oceans much faster than sailing ships. “Seizing the weather gauge” (maneuvering into the best location to take advantage of the wind) had long been a favorite tactic of British seamen. It no longer gave any advantage. For that reason, Britain, although it was the home of the first steam engines and it utterly depended on its navy for its primacy in world affairs, tried to retard the development of steam-powered ships. British naval personnel were the most skilled in the world; British shipyards devoted to building sailing men-of-war were the biggest in the world; British technology in preserving food for long journeys, manufacturing the heavy, short-range cannons, called carronades, and everything else needed for wooden, sail- driven warships, led the world. If the world’s navies went to steam, all of that would be worthless. In 1828, the British admiralty expressed their views on steam-powered warships: Their lordships feel it is their bounden duty to discourage to the utmost of their ability the employment of steam vessels, as they consider that the introduction of steam is calculated to strike a fatal blow at the naval supremacy of the Empire. Steamships. In his classic study, Sea Power in the Machine Age, Bernard Brodie observed that navies were relatively late in utilization of the technological advances of the machine age. Progress in steampower development was followed closely by the various admiralties—Great Britain, France, and the United States being most active. During the nineteenth century, the steam warship was by far the most important of the great naval revolutions, the most significant such innovation in warships since the fifteenth century. Steampower completely revised naval tactics and strategy; now ships could go anywhere, any time. During a transition period at midcentury, the largest warships retaine.

1. Briefly describe how the development of steam powered ships transformed naval warfare.
Solution
Development of steam powered ships
And transformation in naval warfare
A steamship, often referred to as a steamer, is an ocean faring seaworthy vessel that is propelled
by one or more steam engines that typically drive (turn) propellers or paddlewheels. The first
steamships came into practical usage during the early 1800s;
The first steam engines worked by filling a cylinder with steam, then condensing it to water. The
vacuum created drew the piston into the cylinder. These “atmospheric” engines were useful for
pumping out mines and other tasks where their weight was not important. They were far too
heavy and bulky to use aboard ships, however. James Watts’s improved steam engine drove the
piston in the opposite direction—expanding steam, rather than atmospheric pressure on a
vacuum was the driving force. Such engines could be made small enough to power a ship. Their
earliest use was to turn a pair of huge side wheels.
Steam gave navies a great strategic advantage. Steam warships no longer depended on weather
and could cross the oceans much faster than sailing ships. “Seizing the weather gauge”
(maneuvering into the best location to take advantage of the wind) had long been a favorite tactic
of British seamen. It no longer gave any advantage. For that reason, Britain, although it was the
home of the first steam engines and it utterly depended on its navy for its primacy in world
affairs, tried to retard the development of steam-powered ships. British naval personnel were the
most skilled in the world; British shipyards devoted to building sailing men-of-war were the
biggest in the world; British technology in preserving food for long journeys, manufacturing the
heavy, short-range cannons, called carronades, and everything else needed for wooden, sail-
driven warships, led the world. If the world’s navies went to steam, all of that would be
worthless.
In 1828, the British admiralty expressed their views on steam-powered warships:
Their lordships feel it is their bounden duty to discourage to the utmost of their ability the
employment of steam vessels, as they consider that the introduction of steam is calculated to
strike a fatal blow at the naval supremacy of the Empire.
Steamships. In his classic study, Sea Power in the Machine Age, Bernard Brodie observed that
navies were relatively late in utilization of the technological advances of the machine age.
Progress in steampower development was followed closely by the various admiralties—Great
Britain, France, and the United States being most active. During the nineteenth century, the

2. steam warship was by far the most important of the great naval revolutions, the most significant
such innovation in warships since the fifteenth century. Steampower completely revised naval
tactics and strategy; now ships could go anywhere, any time. During a transition period at
midcentury, the largest warships retained masts and sails while adding steampower and either
paddle wheels or screw propellers. Actually, the transition from the warfare ofsailing ships to
modern naval warfare involved multiple technological developments: steam propulsion, iron
(later, steel) construction, armor plate, replacement of paddle wheels with screw propellers,
advances in naval ordnance such as the shell gun and rifling, the development of torpedoes and
mines, and even some experimentation with the ram. Former reliance on wind and weather for
the sailing ships was superseded by dependence on fuel sources—first the burning of wood, then
coal, and finally oil. Logistical supplies of these sources became decisive factors. Naval
steampower used on a global basis made overseas bases essential.
The earliest steampowered engines, initially developed in Great Britain through the
collaboration of James Watt and Matthew Bolton in the late eighteenth century, were crude,
inefficient, and bulky. They were initially used to pump water to facilitate mining at deeper
levels. Installation of increasingly efficient engines in vehicles for water transport took place in
Great Britain, France, and the United States in the early nineteenth century. Key contributions
were made by James Rumsey, John Fitch, Robert Fulton—all Americans—and a Swedish
immigrant to America, John Ericsson. For the steam engine, reciprocation into rotary motion,
compound pressurization, and separation of the condenser as a detached unit contributed to
efficiency, portability, and use at sea.
In the continuous naval competition between the British and French, invasion panics arose in
Great Britain in the early 1840s when the French announced advances in steam warship design.
In 1845, the British Admiralty sponsored a demonstration to determine which was superior, the
paddle wheel or screw propeller; the latter clearly won. Steam warships proved their
effectiveness and capability irrespective of wind and weather when used by the British and
French during the Russian (Crimean) War, 1854–56. The French Gloire of 1859 was the first
seagoing armored warship, built of wood with a covering of iron plate. The following year, the
British response, HMS Warrior, contained an iron hull. Metal hulls facilitated larger size. In the
next decade, the British entry,
Further advances in steampower, metal boilers, ex pansion systems utilizing high pressures,
reduction gears, and more efficient propeller designs followed. By the 1880s, the navy had
converted entirely to steampower and the age of sail was over. Steam remains the basis of
propulsion for sea transportation, generated today by petroleum or nuclear fuel.

3. During the early 19th Century, steam propulsion was hailed as the most important naval
development since the cannon. Other advancements during this time were stronger engines,
screw propellers, and coal was used instead of wood. Following the War of 1812, the Navy
underwent technological changes. Before the Civil War, new scientific advances foreshadowed
the incredible technological revolution that continues into today's world.
Smaller than the army, more isolated from public attention than the soldiers, the navy evolved
more slowly institutionally than did the army. It adopted a bureau system in 1824 in order to
centralize administration but failed to name a commanding admiral. The United States Naval
Academy was not founded until 1845. Prior to that date officers were commissioned directly
from civil life or earned their commissions through the midshipman system. Meeting the
challenges of rapidly changing naval technology, in gunnery, steam propulsion, and iron hull
construction forced the sea service to move beyond the old system of learning to sail and fight
through the direct experience of sailing and fighting.
The nature of the naval service hindered institutional development. In peacetime the navy served
largely overseas to represent American commercial interests, protect citizens and their property,
and explore and chart unknown waters. The navy's wartime service was two-fold: to protect
American coasts and attack enemy commercial shipping. Given these peacetime and wartime
roles, the navy served in small squadrons across a wide geographic area with only a slow and
tenuous communications link with the Navy Department. Such service gave a great deal of
independence to squadron and ship commanders, and made it difficult to impose central control
over the entire force.
A captain that fought the Invincible Armadla would have been more at home in the typical
warship of 1840, than the average captain of 1840 could have been at that time in the advanced
types of the Civil War. As a, matter of fact, it was, no uncommon thing in 1861 to find officers in
command of steamers whio had never served in steamers before, and who were far more anxious
about their boilers than about their enemy. Naval science had advanced more in the last twenty-
five years than in the two hundred years preceding.
Friction between the United States and Mexico, aggravated by an ever-increasing American
population in the southwest and admission of the Texas Republic into the Union, resulted in war
in 1846. The Navy's Home and Pacific Squadrons blockaded the enemy's east and west coasts
during the Mexican War, seized numerous ports, and conducted amphibious operations. From
the Gulf of Mexico, Commodore M. C. Perry, with small sidewheel steamers and schooners,
fought his way up tortuous rivers to capture Frontera, San Juan Bautista and other enemy
strongholds and supply sources. Sailors from the Pacific Squadron under Commodores John
Stoat and Robert Stockton landed at Monterey, San Francisco, and San Diego, assuring success

4. in the California campaign. Veracruz, key to ultimate victory on the Gulf, fell before a brilliantly
executed amphibious assault planned by Commodore David Conner. Over 12,000 troops were
put ashore with their equipment in a single day, and at the request of General Winfield Scott
naval gunners and their heavy cannon landed. Joined by guns of the fleet and Army artillery, the
naval battery pounded the enemy into submission, and opened the way for the capture of Mexico
City.
World Wide Developments
In 1842 the Russian Ministry of the Navy established the Steamship Committee and appointed
Admiral Pyotr Rikord to direct it. The Baltic Fleet was supplied with four steamer frigates, and,
in 1849, the first 23-gun screw-propeller frigate was built and christened the Archimede.
However, the pace of modernization began to lose momentum.
The Crimean War persuaded all maritime powers that sailing ships must be converted to steam
power for a nation to secure its waters. During the 1854 Crimean War British and French naval
forces operated in the Baltic and off the Crimea. Steam, screws, and shells were used extensively
for the first time.
With the adoption of steamers for naval warfare, sailing ships gradually disappeared from the
composition of navies. Yet as late as the beginning of the Crimean war, the Black Sea fleet
counted only 7 steam-frigates, of 1960 steam-power, armed with 49 guns, the remainder of the
fleet being composed of sailing ships. The allied fleets contained the following number of
steamers: England 24, of 5859 steam-power; the French 12, of 4960 steam-power. The number
of guns on the Russian fleet was about 2000, and on the allies 2449. The impossibility of sailing
ships accepting battle with freely manoeuvring steamers was then fully demonstrated, for the
greater part of the Black Sea fleet was destroyed. It is not to be wondered at that the Baltic fleet,
composed of weakly constructed vessels, made even a less successful show against the allies.
The Russian Black Sea Fleet was concentrated at Sevastopol under Vice-Admiral Kornilov.
Admiral Menshikov, responsible for defending the Crimea. From October 1854 to August of
1855, the British and French continued to besiege and bombard the town, making periodic
attempts to invade the fortress. On 28 August 1855, the remaining Russians abandoned
Sevastopol. The entire Russian Black Sea Fleet was annihilated; three admirals, 106 officers and
3,777 sailors were killed; nearly 14,000 seamen and officers were wounded.
In early June of 1855, the Allied naval commanders brought more than 100 ships to Kronstadt,
including twenty screw-driven ships of the line and four screw frigates. The disparity between
Allied and Russian vessels was now even more obvious; to battle the fleet of Dandas and Peno,
the Baltic sailors had only one screw- propeller frigate, the Polkan. Although they were bolstered
by an additional sixteen mortar floating batteries and sixteen screw- propeller gunboats, the

5. Allies still refused to attack Kronstadt. The fortress's recently refurbished, batteries posed a
threat to the French and British. Part of the Russian resistance was also credited to the
deployment of newly created blockade mines. Although these early mines were primitive in
design and their explosive force was too weak to penetrate the thick hull of an enemy ship, that
is, their charge was insufficient to cause sinking, they had a psychological effect, and during a
reconnaissance mission, four allied steamers suffered mine damage. Unopposed in the Black Sea
after the fall of Sevastopol, the Allies took Kerch in 1855, raided the Russian coast, and forced
Kinburn to surrender. Ascending the throne after Nicholas I's death, Alexander II began peace
negotiations. A treaty was concluded in paris on 18 March of 1856, stripping Russia of its fleet
and coastal fortifications on the Black Sea. In exchange for Kars, the Allies returned the
devastated port city of Sevastopol to Russia.
The first appearance of armored ships also dated back to the time of the Crimean war.The
bombardment of Sevastopol by the combined Anglo-French fleets showed the allies that their
wooden vessels might easily be set on fire and destroyed, in a battle with fortresses. The
consequence of this discovery was an attempt to protect vessels with iron plates,and in 1854
France began the construction of three armoured floating batteries destined for attack upon the
Russian coast fortifications in the Black Sea. The English, with the intention of attacking
Kronstadt in 1856, constructed seven floating batteries. The Russian shells directed against these
batteries only occasioned damage when they accidentally fell into the embrasures. From this the
conclusion was drawn that if vessels were built well protected with armor, and able to
manoeuvre freely in the open sea, they would be indestructible. The Crimean War bore witness
to steam-powered, armored shell-firing vessels that blasted apart Russian fortifications in the
Baltic and Black Seas with impunity.
Having used steam powered ironclad barges during the Crimean war, and with their experiments
in early 1857 with rifled guns, the French decided that armor was necessary for their next class
of warships.
Gunboats were traditionally shallow draft sailing vessels armed with a couple of long guns
mounted and firing forward, supplemented by a broadside armament of carronades. The Crimean
Gunboats of the 1850s were essentially a steam powered variant of this design.
John Ericsson Ericsson's 1854 "sub-aquatic" concept, submitted to Napoleon III during the
Crimean War, had all the basic attributes of the Monitor: low-freeboard, light-draft, iron-hull,
and a heavily-armored rotating turret mounting a small heavy battery. The outbreak of the Civil
War found Ericsson returning to the service of the Navy. Once back, he produced a revolutionary
armored ship, USS Monitor, that carried two Dahlgren guns in a rotating turret.
Also known as the "Leviathan", Great Eastern was constructed and launched in 1858 for the
Eastern Steam Navigation Co. to establish a steamship route from Great Britain to the Far East

6. and Australia around the Cape of Good Hope. These routes were dominated by the "clippers".
The Great Eastern was the world's largest steamship until the Oceania in 1899 exceeded her
length of 211 meters [692 feet] and in 1906 the Lusitania entered service surpassing the Great
Eastern's 22,500 ton displacement. Commercially the vessel was a flop - perhaps because she
was a transportation solution in search of a problem. The market for such large ship passenger
transportation was still under-developed. The opening of the Suez Canal then dealt another blow
cutting journey times to the Far East and Australia. Great Eastern was too big for the canal. Great
Eastern's last voyage was from the Scottish Clyde to Liverpool and a Birkenhead scrap-yard in
1889.
France decided to build sea going 'ironclads' with iron armour on top of the wooden hull. The
French hoped this would give them a technological edge over the Royal Navy. In 1858, by order
of the Emperor Napoleon III, the building of the first armoured frigate Gloire was begun on the
plan of the celebrated engineer Dupuy de Lome. This frigate, in the words of its builder, was to
be "a lion in a flock of sheep.''The cost of construction reached £280,000 -that is,almost three
times the cost of the greatest line-of-battle ships, but in view of the immense results that were
expected, this outlay was not considered extravagant.
Even as their first French ironclad, Gloire, was under construction Britain built an answer, the
impressive HMS Warrior, half as big again and with an iron hull. She can still be seen today at
Portsmouth where she is preserved.
Commissioned in 1861, HMS Warrior brought together a series of technological innovations
which highlighted Britain's industrial power and her determination to remain in complete
command of the sea; she was built completely of iron, her steam engines produced a speed of
14.5 knots and she was armed with new breech-loading type guns. Britain had shown she could
out-build any potential rival and the French naval challenge soon collapsed.
Warrior had a relatively uneventful career and served in home waters as the only dry dock large
enough to take her was in Britain. Since the aim of her construction was to deter the French,
however, she completely succeeded in her role. A French decision to build only ironclads in the
future led to a similar decision in London and ironclads soon replaced wooden ships as the major
fleet units in the Royal Navy.
Meantime the other maritime powers, recognising that they were almost defenceless without
increase of their fleets of armoured vessels, began with feverish activity to attempt to attain what
is apparently unattainable -that is, to build armored vessels which would resist the action of the
strongest artillery.