X-Nico

45 unusual facts about Royal Navy


1921 in Northern Ireland

The main points of the agreement include the creation of an Irish Free State within the Commonwealth, an Oath of Allegiance to the Crown and the Royal Navy will be able to use certain Free State ports.

Antoine de Sartine

Antoine de Sartine inherited a strong French Navy, resurrected by Choiseul after the disasters of the Seven Years' War (in which France had lost Canada, Louisiana, and India); a resurrected French Navy which would later defeat the British Navy in the War of American Independence.

Barca-longa

They were used in Spain and Portugal for fishing but were employed by the British Royal Navy in Mediterranean waters, for shore raids or as dispatch boats.

Battle of Fort Charlotte

He learned in April that additional reinforcements, including British Royal Navy vessels, had arrived at Pensacola.

Bowman Flag

It commemorates (by the motto England expects that every man will do his duty) the Royal Navy’s victory at the Battle of Trafalgar (21 October 1805) a landmark event for Britain’s Australasian colonies.

British Hovercraft Corporation BH.7

Mk.2 first flew in November 1969 and was evaluated by the Royal Navy, being allocated the pennant number P235 and aircraft serial number XW255.

Cellular manufacturing

By 1808, using machinery designed by Marc Isambard Brunel and constructed by Henry Maudslay, the Block Mills were producing 130,000 blocks (pulleys) for the Royal Navy per year in single unit lots, with 10 men operating 42 machines arranged in three production flow lines.

Christmas on a Rational Planet

It also contains the first casual reference to the Faction Paradox, which become an important element in the BBC books Eighth Doctor Adventures and subsequent spin-off series, and an explicit explanation that the mark carried by the Third Doctor during his exile on Earth was a branding used to distinguish criminals by the Time Lords (in reality, this mark was a tattoo of a cobra that Jon Pertwee picked up while serving in the Royal Navy).

CSS Tallahassee

The iron Confederate cruiser Tallahassee was named after the Confederate state capital of Tallahassee in Florida and was built on the River Thames by J & W Dudgeon of Cubitt Town, London for London, Chatham & Dover Rly. Co. to the design of Capt. T. E. Symonds, Royal Navy, ostensibly for the Chinese opium trade.

E-class submarine

The E class of 58 submarines of the Royal Navy, built between 1912 and 1916 that served in World War I

Ethel Gee

She thus handled top secret documents on Britain's underwater warfare work and HMS Dreadnought, the Royal Navy's first nuclear submarine.

Finsthwaite Heights

Wainwright's walk starts from Newby Bridge, climbs through woodland passing a tower which has a 1799 inscription commemorating the Royal Navy, passes through the village, and climbs to the man-made tarns of Low Dam and High Dam.

First National Government of New Zealand

At the start of the war it had been assumed that the Royal Navy would protect New Zealand, but the Fall of Singapore showed this to be a false assumption.

Frederick Vosper

Few other details of his early life are available, but in 1885 he was at Devonport serving with the Royal Navy on the training ship Lion.

Galleass

The galleass was a popular type of vessel for England's Henry VIII, who had more than a dozen constructed for the English Navy during the 1530s and 1540s for his wars with the French.

Guard ship

A guard ship is a warship stationed at some port or harbour to act as a guard, and in former times in the Royal Navy to receive the men impressed for service.

Gunboat

With the introduction of steam power in the early 19th century, the Royal Navy and other navies built considerable numbers of small vessels propelled by side paddles and later by screws.

Habeas Corpus Parliament

I must needs put you in mind how necessary it will be to have a good Strength at Sea, next Summer, since our Neighbours are making naval Preparations...

Harry Benjamin

Following an ill-fated professional visit to the United States, the liner in which Benjamin was returning to Germany was caught mid-Atlantic both by the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, and the Royal Navy.

High-pressure nervous syndrome

"Helium tremors" were first widely described in 1965 by Royal Navy physiologist Peter B. Bennett, who also founded the Divers Alert Network.

History of the Halifax Regional Municipality

At the same time, the towns people and especially seafarers were constantly on-guard of the press gangs of the Royal Navy.

Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn was ordered to live in at the headquarters of the Royal Navy's, North American Station in Halifax (1794- 1800).

HMAS Eduardo

She was the Royal Navy's MFV 2045, which was loaned to the RAN and commissioned on 8 March 1945.

HMS Reclaim

HMS Reclaim was a deep diving and submarine rescue vessel of the British Royal Navy.

HMS Usk

At least three ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Usk.

Howard Townsend

His father was an industrialist, having carried on the business of the Stirling Iron Works which forged the Hudson River Chain that prevented the British Royal Navy from sailing up the Hudson River during the American Revolution.

John Wrighton

From 1958, Wrighton served on a short-service commission with the Royal Navy, achieving the rank of Surgeon Lieutenant, after which he was placed on the emergency list and retired in May, 1961.

Julius Carlebach

Carlebach went to school in London, and was a soldier in the Royal Navy for ten years and managed an orphanage for Jewish children in Norwood.

Machias Memorial High School

The school yearbook, the Margaretta, is named after HMS Margaretta, a British schooner captured on the Machias River during the American Revolutionary War.

Mathew Macnider

The MacNiders quickly became one of the leading mercantile families there, selling Canadian timber and supplies to the Royal Navy and trading in wine and spices from Europe and the British West Indies to Quebec, London and Scotland.

MV Dubai Moon

The ship sent a distress call which was picked by Royal Navy frigate HMS Chatham.

Naval Service Bill

Prior to the bill's introduction Canada did not have a navy of its own, a state of affairs that left the Dominion dependent on the British Royal Navy for maritime defence.

P-class cruiser

He signed the Anglo-German Naval Agreement, which allowed Germany to build up its navy to 35 percent of the strength of the British Royal Navy and effectively repudiated the restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles on the German fleet.

Patterson Park

The American defenses were far stronger than anticipated, and U.S. defenders at Fort McHenry successfully stopped British naval forces from advancing close enough to lend artillery support, and British attempts to flank the defense were countered.

Pegasus class

five British Royal Navy ships carrying a single fighter launched by catapult, known as Fighter catapult ships

Penelakut Island

British sailors surveying the area in 1851 cruised into a tiny group of five unnamed islands in the Strait of Georgia, naming the two largest Kuper and Thetis, after their Captain Augustus Leopold Kuper R.N. (1809–1885) and his frigate, HMS Thetis, a 36-gun Royal Navy frigate on the Pacific Station between 1851 and 1853.

Ray Cokes

His father was an officer in the Royal Navy, who was stationed at various navy bases around the world.

Robert Patten Adams

Adams was married twice; his first wife, who died in 1867, being Harriett Matilda, daughter of the Captain George King, R.N. He then married Kate, daughter of the George Francis Huston, JP, of New Norfolk, Tasmania.

Salt-cured meat

The basic Royal Navy diet consisted of salted beef, salted pork, ship's biscuit, and oatmeal, supplemented with smaller quantities of peas, cheese and butter.

Sam Malcolmson

Malcolmson served in the Royal Navy and in 1969, whilst stationed at R.N.A.S. Culdrose in Cornwall, he played 14 games (5 goals) for Falmouth Town A.F.C..

Satsuma Domain

In 1862, in the Namamugi Incident an Englishman was killed by retainers of Satsuma, leading to the bombardment of Kagoshima by the Royal Navy the following year.

Sharpe's Devil

Lord Cochrane, a former Royal Navy officer now in service to the Chilean rebels under Bernardo O'Higgins, ambushes the Espiritu Santo and, with the assistance of Sharpe and Harper, capture it, taking Captain Ardiles prisoner.

Stilo

At 10 km from the city is the promontory of Cape Stilo, where in 1940 the Battle of Punta Stilo was fought by the Italian and British Navies.

Ubisoft Red Storm

Tom Clancy and Doug Littlejohns, a British Royal Navy submarine captain, founded Red Storm Entertainment in 1996.

We Didn't Mean to Go to Sea

These conditions are imposed because of the imminent arrival of their father, Ted Walker, who, after an overseas posting with the Navy, is expected to return by ferry at any time from Holland.


Action of 9 February 1945

The Action of 9 February 1945 refers to the sinking of the German U-boat U-864 in the North Sea off the Norwegian coast during the Second World War by the Royal Navy submarine HMS Venturer.

Army Navy Match

The Army Navy Match is the annual rugby union match played between the senior XV teams of the Royal Navy and British Army.

Arnaud de Borchgrave

He served in the British Royal Navy (1942–1946), from the age of 15, after running away from home and using falsified papers to enlist.

Charles Spencer, 6th Earl Spencer

Cecil Edward Robert Spencer RN DSC Croix de guerre (1894–1928), died unmarried in a riding accident.

Daniel Oliver Guion

Daniel Oliver Guion (London, 20 April 1776 – Ringkøbing, 24 December 1811) was an officer of the Royal Navy.

Dawsonne Drake

During his administration in the Philippines, his term was scandalized by bitter quarrels with various military officers (General William Draper; Admiral Cornish; Major Felt; Captain Thomas Backhouse (command British forces in Manila); and Captain William Brereton, RN).

Defence College of Communications and Information Systems

The College consists of a headquarters based at Blandford Camp in Dorset, the Royal Navy CIS Training Unit at HMS Collingwood, Fareham, Hampshire, The Royal School of Signals at Blandford Camp and the Royal Air Force Number 1 Radio School, collocated with the headquarters of the Defence College of Aeronautical Engineering at Cosford, of which the Aerial Erector School at RAF Digby is a part.

Dumaresq

The Dumaresq is a mechanical calculating device invented around 1902 by Lieutenant John Dumaresq of the Royal Navy.

Elizabeth Wellesley, Duchess of Wellington

One of her brothers was the ornithologist Viscount Walden, and another the Admiral of the Fleet Lord John Hay.

First Battle of Algeciras

As a result, the British Royal Navy became dominant in the Mediterranean Sea and imposed blockades on French and Spanish ports in the region, including the important naval bases of Toulon and Cadiz.

Future of the Royal Navy

At the beginning of the 1990s the Royal Navy was a force designed for the Cold War: with its three small aircraft carriers and a force of anti-submarine frigates and destroyers, its main purpose was to search for – and in the event of an actual declaration of war, to destroy – Soviet submarines in the North Atlantic.

George Walters

The warrant announced the creation of a single decoration available to the Army and Royal Navy, which was intended to reward 'individual instances of merit and valour' and which 'we are desirous should be highly prized and eagerly sought after'.

Hamilton Point

It was discovered by a British expedition under James Clark Ross, 1839–43, who named it "Cape Hamilton" after Captain William Baillie-Hamilton, Royal Navy, then private secretary to the Earl of Haddington, and later Second Secretary to the Admiralty.

Her Majesty's Australian Ship

This prefix is derived from HMS (Her/His Majesty's Ship), the prefix used by the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom, and can be equally applied to warships and shore bases (as Australia follows the British tradition of referring to naval establishments as ships or stone frigates).

History of the Halifax Regional Municipality

He was instrumental in shaping that port's military defences for protecting the important Royal Navy base, as well as influencing the city's and colony's socio-political and economic institutions.

HMNB Devonport

Her Majesty's Naval Base (HMNB) Devonport (formerly HMS Drake), is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the Royal Navy (the others being HMNB Clyde and HMNB Portsmouth).

HMS Brighton

Four ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Brighton, after the seaside town of Brighton.

HMS Euphrates

Four ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Euphrates, after the Euphrates river.

HMS Hector

Eleven ships of the British Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Hector, named after the Trojan hero Hector in the Iliad.

HMS Leven

Three ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Leven, probably after the River Leven, Fife in Scotland.

HMS Norfolk

Five ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Norfolk, after the Duke of Norfolk or the county of Norfolk.

HMS Northumberland

Eight ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Northumberland after the English county of Northumberland, or the Dukedom of Northumberland.

HMS Queen Charlotte

Four ships of the Royal Navy have been named HMS Queen Charlotte after Charlotte, queen consort of King George III of the United Kingdom.

HMS Vesuvius

Twelve ships of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS Vesuvius or HMS Vesuve, after the volcano Mount Vesuvius.

James Holborne of Menstrie

Among the descendents of Major General Holburne are Sir Alexander Holburn, 3rd Baronet, Vice-Admiral Sir Francis Holburne, and Thomas William Holborne, founder of the Holburne Museum of Art in Bath, all of whom served in the Royal Navy.

John Knox Laughton

Beginning his working life as a mathematically-trained civilian instructor for the Royal Navy, he later became Professor of Modern History at King's College London and a co-founder of the Navy Records Society.

John Quilliam

Captain John Quilliam RN (born Marown, Isle of Man 29 September 1771 - died Michael, Isle of Man 10 October 1829) was a Royal Navy officer and the First Lieutenant on HMS Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar.

Newfoundland Ranger Force

Those members who had departed joined a variety of military forces, including the Newfoundland Heavy Artillery, the Royal Air Force, the Royal Canadian Air Force, the Royal Canadian Navy and the Royal Navy.

Point Hope, Alaska

The cape at Point Hope was renamed by Captain Frederick William Beechey of the Royal Navy, who wrote on August 2, 1826: "I named it Point Hope in compliment to Sir William Johnstone Hope".

Port Victoria Grain Griffin

After its return from France, the prototype B.1 (serial no. N.50), was sent to the RNAS Marine Experimental Depot at Port Victoria on the Isle of Grain for conversion to a two-seat reconnaissance aircraft, to be fitted with folding wings for operation from the Royal Navy's aircraft carriers.

PULHHEEMS

PULHHEEMS is tri-service, which is to say that it is used by the British Army, the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force.

Royston Tickner

He served in the Royal Navy in World War II and from 1947 took a break from the theatre to work as a lighthouse keeper, miner, fireman and publican, before returning to acting in 1958.

Salford Quays lift bridge

Except for Royal Navy visits and dredging, most vessels entering the Salford Quays turning circle are pleasure craft, and are most commonly seen between April and October, when Mersey Ferries operate the Manchester Ship Canal Cruise service from Liverpool to Salford Quays.

Service Prosecuting Authority

It was formed on 1 January 2009 by the merger of the separate prosecuting authorities of the British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Air Force and is headed by Andrew Cayley QC, a civil servant, as Director Service Prosecutions.

Southgate River

Its namesake was Captain James Johnson Southgate, a retired ship-master, who came to Victoria in 1859 via San Francisco and launched a commission and general mercantile business, largely in connection with the Pacific Station of the Royal Navy at Esquimalt, operating as J.J. Southgate & Co.

Swords, Dublin

In attendance at this Presidential ceremony was Admiral Sir Jock Slater, R.N., a former British First Sea Lord then serving as Chairman of the Executive Committee of the R.N.L.I..

Tony Bastable

Bastable later moved into independent production, and he produced training and promotional films for companies such as the Ford Motor Company, the National Bus Company, the Royal Navy, the Department of Transport and the Institute of Advanced Motorists.

Vectoring nozzles

Viffing was used to great effect during the Anglo-Argentinian Falklands War, where 28 Royal Navy and 6 RAF jets did not incur any losses in dogfighting against a force of more than 200 Argentine Air Force jets.

Wentwood

Many stands of substantial mature Welsh Oaks were felled to meet the demand for stout oak heartwoods in Royal Navy battleships and men o' war of the Napoleonic era of the 19th century, such as HMS Victory and others, but the heart of the forest remained preserved for charcoal production, a necessity for the iron industry and local ironworks.

Wetting-down

Wetting-down is a raucous ceremony for newly promoted officers observed in the U.S. and Royal navies, and the U.S. Coast Guard.

World of Warships

These ships can be either real ships or prototypes from a variety of forces such as the Imperial Japanese Navy, Kriegsmarine, US Navy, Royal Navy, and the Soviet Navy.