The most dramatic artefact of the military industrial revolution was the steam-powered warship. In the mid nineteenth century the major naval powers began to revolutionize their navies, dispensing with wood,sail and cannonballs and embracing steel, steam and shells. At the height of the Victorian era, it was the ironclad warship that made it possible for colonial powers to acquire and control their overseas empires.
INHOUD
Introduction: technical and strategic context
1 The technical background
Technology as a driver; Constant development; Hull design and construction; Propulsion; Armament; Test beds; Communications; Operational capabilities
2 Navies and their people
Beginnings of formal training; Development of officer and rating structures; The engineer; Comparison of personel in major navies; Effect of caol fuel on naval management
3 Theories of sea warfare
British strategic theory; Counter currents in France; The Jeune Ecole; Alfred Mahan; Command of the sea and decisive battle versus the guerre de course; German thinking; Tactical theory: the gun, ram and torpedo
4 The American Civil war
The background; Confederate and Union strenghts, weaknesses and strategies; Hampton Roads; The Mississippi campaign; Commerce raiding and blockade; Matériel and tactical development
5 Navies and imperial expansion
Sea power as a driver; The Indian Mutiny; The Far East; The New Zealand War; The second Ashanti War; The Sudan campaign; French expansion; The Boer wars; The Boxer rising; Naval brigades in the Ironclad age
6 Fleet action
European wars, 1864-70; Lissa; The Guerra del Pacifico; Three exercises in British naval supremacy 1878-85; The Sino-Japanese war and the Yalu; The Spanish-American conflict and Santiago; The Russo-Japanese war; The Yellow Sea and Tsushima