Maritime history

Maritime history is a broad thematic element of global history. As an academic subject, it crosses the boundaries of standard disciplines, focusing on understanding mankind's various relationships to the oceans, seas, and major waterways of the globe. Nautical history records and interprets past events involving ships, shipping, navigation, and seamen.

Maritime history is the broad overarching subject that includes fishing, whaling, international maritime law, naval history, the history of ships, ship design, shipbuilding, the history of navigation, the history of the various maritime-related sciences (oceanography, cartography, hydrography, etc.), sea exploration, maritime economics and trade, shipping, yachting, seaside resorts, the history of lighthouses and aids to navigation, maritime themes in literature, maritime themes in art, the social history of sailors and sea-related communities.

History

Ancient times

Prehistory

In ancient maritime history, the first boats are presumed to have been dugout canoes, developed independently by various stone age populations, and used for coastal fishing and travel. The Indigenous of the Pacific Northwest are very skilled at crafting wood. Best known for totem poles up to 80 feet tall, they also construct dugout canoes over 60 feet long for everyday use and ceremonial purposes. ^[1]

The earliest seaworthy boats may have been developed as early as 45,000 years ago, according to one hypothesis explaining the habitation of Australia. In the history of whaling, humans begain whaling in pre-historic times. The oldest known method of catching whales is to simply drive them ashore by placing a number of small boats between the whale and the open sea and attempting to frighten them with noise, activity, and perhaps small, non-lethal weapons such as arrows. Typically, this was used for small species, such as Pilot Whales, Belugas and Narwhals.

The earliest known reference to an organization devoted to ships in ancient India is to the Mauryan Empire from the 4th century BC. The word navigation is derived from the sanskrit word "Navgath" also. It is believed that the navigation as a science originated on the river Indus some 5000 years ago. Pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact refers to interactions between the Americans and peoples of other continents – Europe, Africa, Asia, or Oceania – before the arrival of Christopher Columbus in 1492. Many such events have been proposed at various times, based on historical reports, archaeological finds, and cultural comparisons.

Egypt

The Ancient Egyptians had knowledge to some extent of sail construction.^[2] This is governed by the science of aerodynamics. A primary feature of a properly designed sail is an amount of "draft", caused by curvature of the surface of the sail. According to the Greek historian Herodotus, Necho II sent out an expedition of Phoenicians, which in three years sailed from the Red Sea around Africa to the mouth of the Nile. Many current historians tend to believe Herodotus on this point, even though Herodotus himself was in disbelief that the Phoenicians had accomplished the act.

Hannu was an ancient Egyptian explorer (around 2750 BC) and the first explorer of whom there is any knowledge. Hannu made the first recorded exploring expedition. He wrote his account of his exploration in stone. Hannu travelled along the Red Sea to Punt. He sailed to what is now part of eastern Ethiopia and Somalia. He returned to Egypt with great treasures, including precious myrrh, metal and wood.

The Sea Peoples was a confederacy of seafaring raiders who sailed into the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, caused political unrest, and attempted to enter or control Egyptian territory during the late 19th dynasty, and especially during Year 8 of Ramesses III of the 20th Dynasty.^[3] The Egyptian Pharaoh Merneptah explicitly refers to them by the term "the foreign-countries (or 'peoples'^[4]) of the sea"^[5]^[6] in his Great Karnak Inscription.^[7] Although some scholars believe that they "invaded" Cyprus, Hatti and the Levant, this hypothesis is disputed.

The Tokhari were a Turkish tribe and a ancient group of prisoners vanquished in a naval battle by Rameses III in the thirteenth century. Their physiognomy would indicate the Celtic type and facial features represented the qualities of Aryans (high cheek-bones, structure). Tokhari are most likely a group of Scythians or some north western tribe belonging to the Nordic race at that time but amidst the Roman Empire they were also Kushans spreading the religion of Hinduism.

The Mediterranean

Minoan traders from Crete were active in the eastern Mediterranean by the 2nd millenium BC. The Phoenicians were an ancient civilization centered in the north of ancient Canaan, with its heartland along the coast of modern day Lebanon, Syria and northern Israel.^[8] Phoenician civilization was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean during the first millennium BC, between the period of 1200 BC to 900 BC. Though ancient boundaries of such city-centered cultures fluctuated, the city of Tyre seems to have been the southernmost. Sarepta between Sidon and Tyre, is the most thoroughly excavated city of the Phoenician homeland. The Phoenicians often traded by means of a galley, a man-powered sailing vessel. They were the first civilization to create the bireme. There is still debate on the subject of whether the Canaanites and Phoenicians were different peoples or not.

Many in ancient western societies, such as Ancient Greece, were in awe of the seas and deified them, believing that man no longer belonged to himself when once he embarked on a sea voyage. They believed that he was liable to be sacrificed at any time to the anger of the great Sea God. Before the Greeks, the Carians were an early Mediterranean seagoing people that travelled far. Early writers do not give a good idea about the progress of navigation nor that of the man's seamanship. One of the early stories of seafaring was that of Odysseus.

In Greek mythology, the Argonauts were a band of heroes who, in the years before the Trojan War, accompanied Jason to Colchis in his quest to find the Golden Fleece. Their name comes from their ship, the Argo which in turn was named after its builder Argus. Thus, "Argonauts" literally means "Argo sailors". The voyage of the Greek navigator Pytheas of Massalia is an example of a very early voyage.^[9] A competent astronomer and geographer,^[9] Pytheas ventured from Greece to Western Europe and the British Isles.^[9]

The periplus, literally "a sailing-around', in the ancient navigation of Phoenicians, Greeks, and Romans was a manuscript document that listed in order the ports and coastal landmarks, with approximate distances between, that the captain of a vessel could expect to find along a shore. Several examples of periploi have survived.

The concept of an underwater boat has roots deep in antiquity. The very first report of someone attempting to put the idea into practice seems to have been an attempt by Alexander the Great. According to Aristotle, Alexander the Great had developed a primitive submersible for reconnaissance missions by 332BC.

Piracy, which is a robbery committed at sea or sometimes on the shore, dates back to Classical Antiquity and, in all likelyhood, much further. The Tyrrhenians and Thracians were known as pirates in ancient times. The island of Lemnos long resisted Greek influence and remained a haven for Thracian pirates. By the 1st century BC, there were pirate states along the Anatolian coast, threatening the commerce of the Roman Empire.

The Persian Wars

In Ionia (the modern Aegean coast of Turkey) the Greek cities, which included great centres such as Miletus and Halicarnassus, were unable to maintain their independence and came under the rule of the Persian Empire in the mid 6th century BC. In 499 BC the Greeks rose in the Ionian Revolt, and Athens and some other Greek cities went to their aid. In 490 BC the Persian Great King, Darius I, having suppressed the Ionian cities, sent a fleet to punish the Greeks. The Persians landed in Attica, but were defeated at the Battle of Marathon by a Greek army led by the Athenian general Miltiades. The burial mound of the Athenian dead can still be seen at Marathon. Ten years later Darius' successor, Xerxes I, sent a much more powerful force by land. After being delayed by the Spartan King Leonidas I at Thermopylae, Xerxes advanced into Attica, where he captured and burned Athens. But the Athenians had evacuated the city by sea, and under Themistocles they defeated the Persian fleet at the Battle of Salamis. A year later, the Greeks, under the Spartan Pausanius, defeated the Persian army at Plataea. The Athenian fleet then turned to chasing the Persians out of the Aegean Sea, and in 478 BC they captured Byzantium. In the course of doing so Athens enrolled all the island states and some mainland allies into an alliance, called the Delian League because its treasury was kept on the sacred island of Delos. The Spartans, although they had taken part in the war, withdrew into isolation after it, allowing Athens to establish unchallenged naval and commercial power.

Achaean League

The Achaean League was a confederation of Greek city states in Achaea, a territory on the northern coast of the Peloponnese. An initial confederation existed during the 5th through the 4th century BC. The Achaean League was reformed early in the 3rd century BC, and soon expanded beyond its Achaean heartland. The League's dominance was not to last long, however. During the Third Macedonian War (171-168 BC), the League flirted with the idea of an alliance with Perseus, and the Romans punished it by taking several hostages to ensure good behavior, including Polybius, the Hellenistic historian who wrote about the rise of the Roman Empire. In 146 BC, the league erupted into open revolt against Roman domination. The Romans under Lucius Mummius defeated the Achaeans, razed Corinth and dissolved the league. Lucius Mummius received the cognomen Achaicus ("conqueror of Achaea") for his role.

Ancient Rome

Ancient Rome was a civilization that grew from a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula circa the 9th century BC to a massive empire straddling the Mediterranean Sea. In its twelve-century existence, Roman civilization shifted from a monarchy, to a republic based on a combination of oligarchy and democracy, to an autocratic empire. It came to dominate Western Europe and the entire area surrounding the Mediterranean Sea through conquest and assimilation.

Punic Wars

The Punic Wars were a series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage. The main cause of the Punic Wars was the clash of interests between the existing Carthaginian Empire and the expanding Roman sphere of influence. The Romans were initially interested in expansion via Sicily, part of which lay under Carthaginian control. At the start of the first Punic War, Carthage was the dominant power of the Mediterranean, with an extensive maritime empire, while Rome was the rapidly ascending power in Italy. By the end of the third war, after the deaths of many hundreds of thousands of soldiers from both sides, Rome had conquered Carthage's empire and razed the city, becoming in the process the most powerful state of the Western Mediterranean. With the end of the Macedonian wars — which ran concurrently with the Punic wars — and the defeat of the Seleucid Emperor Antiochus III the Great in the Roman-Syrian War (Treaty of Apamea, 188 BC) in the eastern sea, Rome emerged as the dominant Mediterranean power and the most powerful city in the classical world. This was a turning point that meant that the civilization of the ancient Mediterranean would pass to the modern world via Europe instead of Africa.

Northern Europe

The Norsemen, or 'people from the North', were people from southern and central Scandinavia which established states and settlements Northern Europe from the late 8th century to the 11th century. Vikings has been a common term for norsemen in the early medieval period, especially in connection with raids and monastic plundering made by norsemen in Great Britain and Ireland.

Leif Ericson was an Icelandic explorer known to be the first European to have landed in North America (presumably in Newfoundland, Canada). During a stay in Norway, Leif Ericsson converted to Christianity, like many Norse of that time. He also went to Norway to serve the King of Norway, Olaf Tryggvason. When he returned to Greenland, he bought the boat of Bjarni Herjólfsson and set out to explore the land that Bjarni had found (located west of Greenland), which was, in fact, Newfoundland, in Canada. The Saga of the Greenlanders tells that Leif set out around the year 1000 to follow Bjarni's route with 15 crew members, but going north.^[10]

Indian subcontinent

In the Indian maritime history, the world's first tidal dock was built in Lothal around 2500 BC during the Harappan civilisation at Lothal near the present day Mangrol harbour on the Gujarat coast^{[citation needed]}. Other ports were probably at Balakot and Dwarka. However, it is probable that many small-scale ports, and not massive ports, were used for the Harappan maritime trade.^[11] Ships from the harbour at these ancient port cities established trade with Mesopotamia,^[12] where the Indus Valley was known as Meluhha.

Emperor Chandragupta Maurya's Prime Minister Kautilya's Arthashastra devotes a full chapter on the state department of waterways under navadhyaksha (Sanskrit for Superintendent of ships) ^[1]. The term, nava dvipantaragamanam (Sanskrit for sailing to other lands by ships) appears in this book in addition to appearing in the Buddhist text, Baudhayana Dharmasastra as the interpretation of the term, Samudrasamyanam. The Mediterranean was the source of the vessel, galley, developed before 1000BC, and development of nautical technology supported the expansion of Mediterranean culture. The Greek trireme was the most common ship of the ancient Mediterranean world, employing the steering power of oarsmen. Mediterranean peoples developed lighthouse technology and built large fire-based lighthouses, most notably the Lighthouse of Alexandria, built in the 3rd century BC (between 285 and 247 BC) on the island of Pharos in Alexandria, Egypt.

Asia and the Far East

File:FirstKnownRudder.jpg

Depiction of a rudder. Pottery model of a junk, 1st Century of the Common Era. Guangzhou National Museum (drawing).

In ancient China, during the Spring and Autumn Period (722 BC–481 BC), large rectangular-based barge-like ships with layered decks and cabins with ramparts acted as floating fortresses on wide rivers and lakes.^[13] These were called 'castle ships' ('lou chuan'), yet there were 4 other ship types known in that period, including a ramming vessel.^[13] During the short-lived Qin Dynasty (221 BC-207 BC) the Chinese sailed south into the South China Sea during their invasion of Annam, modern Vietnam.

During the Han Dynasty (202 BC–220 AD), a ship with a stern-mounted steering rudder along with masts and sails was innovated, known as the junk in Western terminology.^[14] The Chinese had been sailing through the Indian Ocean since the 2nd century BC, with their travels to Kanchipuram in India.^[15]^[16] This was followed up by many recorded maritime travelers following the same route to India, including Faxian, Zhiyan, Tanwujie, etc.^[17] Like in the Western tradition, the earlier Zhou Dynasty Chinese also made use of the floating pontoon bridge, which became a valuable means to blockade the entire Yangtze River during Gongsun Shu's rebellion against the re-established Han government in 33 AD.^[18] Although first described in ancient Ptolemaic Egypt, the Song Dynasty scientist Shen Kuo (1031-1095) was the first to describe the use of the drydock system in China to repair boats out of water. The canal pound lock was invented in China during the previous century, while Shen Kuo wrote of its effectiveness in his day, writing that ships no longer had the grievances of the old flash lock design and no longer had to be hauled over long distances (meaning heavier ships with heavier cargo of goods could traverse the waterways of China).

Japan had become a naval power by at least the 6th century, with their invasions and involvement in political alliances during the Three Kingdoms of Korea. A joint alliance between the Korean Silla Kingdom and the Chinese Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD) heavily defeated the Japanese and their Korean allies of Baekje in the Battle of Baekgang in August 27 to August 28 of the year 663 AD. This decisive victory expelled the Japanese from Korea and allowed the Silla Kingdom to conquer Goguryeo. However, the Japanese invaded Korea again during the Imjin War of the late 16th century, the attack against the Joseon Kingdom led by the famous Japanese warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The exploits of the Korean admiral Yi Sun-sin during this war were made famous with his military strategy and use of the armored 'turtle ship'.

Although there were numerous naval battles beforehand, China's first permanent standing navy was established in 1132 during the Song Dynasty (960-1279 AD).^[19] Gunpowder warfare at sea was also first known in China, with battles such as the Battle of Caishi and the Battle of Tangdao on the Yangtze River in 1161 AD. One of the most important books of medieval maritime literature was Zhu Yu's Pingzhou Table Talks of 1119 AD. Although the Chinese scientist Shen Kuo (1031-1095) was the first to describe the magnetic-needle compass, Zhu Yu's book was the first to specify its use for navigation at sea. Zhu Yu's book also described watertight bulkhead compartments in the hull of Chinese ships, which prevented sinking when heavily damaged in one compartment.^[20] Although the drydock was known, Zhu Yu wrote of expert divers who were often used to repair boats that were damaged and still submersed in water. Divers in China continued to have a maritime significance, as the later Ming Dynasty author Song Yingxing wrote about pearl divers who used snorkeling gear (a watertight leather face mask and breathing tube secured with tin rings) to breath underwater while tied by the waist to the ship in order to be secure while hunting for pearls.^[21]

Age of Navigation

In ancient India and Arabia the lateen-sail ship known as the dhow was used on the waters of the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Persian Gulf. There were also Southeast Asian Seafarers and Polynesians, and the Northern European Vikings, developed oceangoing vessels and depended heavily upon them for travel and population movements prior to 1000 AD. China's ships in the medieval period were particularly massive; multi-mast sailing junks were carrying over 200 people as early as 200 AD. The Astrolabe was the chief tool of Celestial navigation in early maritime history. It was invented in ancient Greece and developed and by Islamic astronomers. In ancient China, the engineer Ma Jun (c. 200-265 AD) invented the South Pointing Chariot, a wheeled device employing a differential gear that allowed a fixed figurine to always point in the southern cardinal direction.

The magnetic needle compass for navigation was not written of until the Dream Pool Essays of 1088 AD by the author Shen Kuo (1031-1095), who was also the first to discover the concept of true north (to discern against a compass' magnetic declination towards the North Pole). By at least 1117 AD, the Chinese used a magnetic needle that was submersed in a bowl of water, and would point in the southern cardinal direction. The first use of a magnetized needle for seafaring navigation in Europe was written of by Alexander Neckham, circa 1190 AD. Around 1300 AD, the pivot-needle dry-box compass was invented in Europe, its cardinal direction pointed north, similar to the modern-day mariners compass. There was also the addition of the compass-card in Europe, which was later adopted by the Chinese through contact with Japanese pirates in the 16th century.

Several medieval Arabic sources have suggested that Muslim explorers from the Al-Andalus (Islamic Iberia, comprising modern Spain and Portugal) may have travelled in expeditions across the Atlantic to the Americas between the 9th and 14th centuries.^[22]^[23]

Ships and vessels

Various ships were in use during the Middle Ages. The longship was a type of ship that was developed over a period of centuries and perfected by its most famous user, the Vikings, in approximately the 9th century. The ships was clinker-built, utilizing overlapping wooden strakes. The knaar, a relative of the longship, was a type of cargo vessel. It differed from the longship in that it was larger and relied solely on its square rigged sail for propulsion. The cog was a design which is believed to have evolved from (or at least been influenced by) the longship, and was in wide use by the 12th century. It too used the clinker method of construction. The caravel was a ship invented in the Mediterranean in the 15th century. Unlike the longship and cog, it used a carvel method of construction. It could be either square rigged (Caravela Redonda) or lateen rigged (Caravela Latina). The carrack was another type of ship invented in the Mediterranean in the 15th century. It was a larger vessel than the caravel. Columbus’s ship, the Santa María was a famous example of a carrack.

Hanseatic League

The Hanseatic League was an alliance of trading guilds that established and maintained a trade monopoly over the Baltic Sea, to a certain extent the North Sea, and most of Northern Europe for a time in the Late Middle Ages and the early modern period, between the 13th and 17th centuries. Historians generally trace the origins of the League to the foundation of the Northern German town of Lübeck, established in 1158/1159 after the capture of the area from the Count of Schauenburg and Holstein by Henry the Lion, the Duke of Saxony. Exploratory trading adventures, raids and piracy had occurred earlier throughout the Baltic (see Vikings) — the sailors of Gotland sailed up rivers as far away as Novgorod, for example — but the scale of international economy in the Baltic area remained insignificant before the growth of the Hanseatic League. German cities achieved domination of trade in the Baltic with striking speed over the next century, and Lübeck became a central node in all the sea-borne trade that linked the areas around the North Sea and the Baltic Sea.

The 15th century saw the climax of Lübeck's hegemony. (Visby, one of the midwives of the Hanseatic league in 1358, declined to become a member. Visby dominated trade in the Baltic before the Hanseatic league, and with its monopolistic ideology, suppressed the Gotlandic free-trade competition.) By the late 16th century, the League imploded and could no longer deal with its own internal struggles, the social and political changes that accompanied the Reformation, the rise of Dutch and English merchants, and the incursion of the Ottoman Turks upon its trade routes and upon the Holy Roman Empire itself. Only nine members attended the last formal meeting in 1669 and only three (Lübeck, Hamburg and Bremen) remained as members until its final demise in 1862.

Age of Exploration

The Age of Discovery was a period from the early 15th century and continuing into the early 17th century, during which European ships traveled around the world to search for new trading routes and partners to feed burgeoning capitalism in Europe. They also were in search of trading goods such as gold, silver and spices. In the process, Europeans encountered peoples and mapped lands previously unknown to them.

Christopher Columbus was a navigator and maritime explorer who is one of several historical figures credited as the discoverer of the Americas. It is generally believed that he was born in Genoa, although other theories and possibilities exist. Columbus' voyages across the Atlantic Ocean began a European effort at exploration and colonization of the Western Hemisphere. While history places great significance on his first voyage of 1492, he did not actually reach the mainland until his third voyage in 1498. Likewise, he was not the earliest European explorer to reach the Americas, as there are accounts of European transatlantic contact prior to 1492. Nevertheless, Columbus's voyage came at a critical time of growing national imperialism and economic competition between developing nation states seeking wealth from the establishment of trade routes and colonies. Therefore, the period before 1492 is known as Pre-Columbian.

John Cabot was a Genoese navigator and explorer commonly credited as one of the first early modern Europeans to land on the North American mainland, aboard the Matthew in 1497. Sebastian Cabot was an Italian explorer may have sailed with his father John Cabot in May, 1497. John Cabot and perhaps Sebastian, sailing from Bristol, took their small fleet along the coasts of a "New Found Land". There is much controversy over where exactly Cabot landed, but two likely locations that are often suggested are Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. Cabot and his crew (including perhaps Sebastian) mistook this place for China, without finding the passage to the east they were looking for. Some scholars maintain that the name America comes from Richard Amerik, a Bristol merchant and customs officer, who is claimed on very slender evidence to have helped finance the Cabot voyages.

Jacques Cartier was a French navigator who first explored and described the Gulf of St-Lawrence and the shores of the Saint Lawrence River, which he named Canada. Juan Fernández was a Spanish explorer and navigator. Probably between 1563 and 1574 he discovered the Juan Fernández Islands west of Valparaíso, Chile. He also discovered the Pacific islands of San Félix and San Ambrosio (1574). Among the other famous explorers of the period were Vasco da Gama, Pedro Álvares Cabral, Yermak, Juan Ponce de León, Francisco Coronado, Juan Sebastián Elcano, Bartolomeu Dias, Ferdinand Magellan, Willem Barentsz, Abel Tasman, Jean Alfonse, Samuel de Champlain, Willem Jansz, Captain James Cook, Henry Hudson, and Giovanni da Verrazzano.

Peter Martyr d'Anghiera was an Italian-born historian of Spain and of the discoveries of her representatives during the Age of Exploration. He wrote the first accounts of explorations in Central and South America in a series of letters and reports, grouped in the original Latin publications of 1511-1530 into sets of ten chapters called "decades." His Decades are thus of great value in the history of geography and discovery. His De Orbe Novo (published 1530; "On the New World") describes the first contacts of Europeans and native Americans and contains, for example, the first European reference to India rubber.

Richard Hakluyt was an English writer, and is principally remembered for his efforts in promoting and supporting the settlement of North America by the English through his works, notably Divers Voyages Touching the Discoverie of America (1582) and The Principal Navigations, Voiages, Traffiques and Discoueries of the English Nation (1598–1600).

European expansion

The maritime history of Europe is a term used to describe significant past events relating to the northwestern region of Eurasia in areas concerning shipping and shipbuilding, shipwrecks, naval battles, and military installations and lighthouses constructed to protect or aid navigation and the development of Europe. Although Europe is the world's second-smallest continent in terms of area, is has a very long coastline, and has arguably been influenced more by its maritime history than any other continent. Europe is uniquely situated between several navigable seas and intersected by navigable rivers running into them in a way which greatly facilitated the influence of maritime traffic and commerce.

When the carrack and then the caravel were developed in Iberia that European thoughts returned to the fabled East. These explorations have a number of causes. Monetarists believe the main reason the Age of Exploration began was because of a severe shortage of bullion in Europe. The European economy was dependent on gold and silver currency, but low domestic supplies had plunged much of Europe into a recession. Another factor was the centuries long conflict between the Iberians and the Muslims to the south. The eastern trade routes were controlled by the Ottoman Empire after the Turks took control of Constantinople in 1453, and they barred Europeans from those trade routes.^[24] The ability to outflank the Muslim states of North Africa was seen as crucial to their survival. At the same time, the Iberians learnt much from their Arab neighbours. The carrack and caravel both incorporated the Arab lateen sail that made ships far more manoeuvrable. It was also through the Arabs that Ancient Greek geography was rediscovered, for the first time giving European sailors some idea of the shape of Africa and Asia.

European colonization

In 1492, Christopher Columbus reached the Americas, after which European exploration and colonization rapidly expanding. The post-1492 era is known as the Columbian Exchange period. The first conquests were made by the Spanish, who quickly conquered most of South and Central America and large parts of North America. The Portuguese took Brazil. The British, French and Dutch conquered islands in the Caribbean Sea, many of which had already been conquered by the Spanish or depopulated by disease. Early European colonies in North America included Spanish Florida, the British settlements in Virginia and New England, French settlements in Quebec and Louisiana, and Dutch settlements in New Netherlands. Denmark-Norway revived its former colonies in Greenland from the 18th until the 20th century, and also colonised a few of the Virgin Islands.

From its very outset, Western colonialism was operated as a joint public-private venture. Columbus' voyages to the Americas were partially funded by Italian investors, but whereas the Spanish state maintained a tight reign on trade with its colonies (by law, the colonies could only trade with one designated port in the mother country and treasure was brought back in special convoys), the English, French and Dutch granted what were effectively trade monopolies to joint-stock companies such as the East India Companies and the Hudson's Bay Company.

In the exploration of Africa, there was the proliferation of conflicting European claims to African territory. By the 15th century, Europeans explored the African coast in search of a water route to India. These expeditions were mostly conducted by the Portuguese, who had been given papal authority to exploit all non-Christian lands of the Eastern Hemisphere. The Europeans set up coastal colonies to prosecute the slave trade, but the interior of the continent remained unexplored until the 19th century This was a cumulative period resulted in European colonial rule in Africa and altered the future of the African continent.^[25]

Imperialism in Asia traces its roots back to the late 15th century with a series of voyages that sought a sea passage to India in the hope of establishing direct trade between Europe and Asia in spices. Before 1500 European economies were largely self-sufficient, only supplemented by minor trade with Asia and Africa. Within the next century, however, European and Asian economies were slowly becoming integrated through the rise of new global trade routes; and the early thrust of European political power, commerce, and culture in Asia gave rise to a growing trade in lucrative commodities—a key development in the rise of today's modern world capitalist economy. European colonies in India were set up by several European nations beginning at the beginning of the 16th century. Rivalry between reigning European powers saw the entry of the Dutch, British and French among others.

Clipper route

During this time, the clipper route was established by clipper ships between Europe and the Far East, Australia and New Zealand. The route ran from west to east through the Southern Ocean, in order to make use of the strong westerly winds of the Roaring Forties. Many ships and sailors were lost in the heavy conditions along the route, particularly at Cape Horn, which the clippers had to round on their return to Europe. In September 1578, Sir Francis Drake, in the course of his circumnavigation of the world, discovered Cape Horn. This discovery went unused for some time, as ships continued to use the known passage through the Strait of Magellan.^[26] By the early 1600s, the Dutch merchant Jacob le Maire, together with navigator Willem Schouten, set off to investigate Drake's suggestion of a route to the south of Tierra del Fuego. At the time it was discovered, the Horn was believed to be the southernmost point of Tierra del Fuego; the unpredictable violence of weather and sea conditions in the Drake Passage made exploration difficult, and it was only in 1624 that the Horn was discovered to be an island. It is an interesting testament to the difficulty of conditions there that Antarctica, only 650 kilometres (400 mi) away across the Drake Passage, was discovered as recently as 1820, despite the passage having been used as a major shipping route for 200 years. The clipper route fell into commercial disuse with the introduction of steam ships, and the opening of the Suez and Panama Canals.

End of exploration

The age of exploration is generally said to have ended in the early seventeenth century. By this time European vessels were well enough built and their navigators competent enough to travel to virtually anywhere on the planet. Exploration, of course, continued. The Arctic and Antarctic seas were not explored until the nineteenth century.

Age of Sail

The age of sail, technically and formally speaking, is the period in which international trade and naval warfare were both dominated by sailing ships. The age of sail mostly coincided with the age of discovery, from the 15th to the 18th century. After the 17th century, English naval maps stopped using the term of British Sea for the English Channel. From 15th to the 18th centuries, the period saw square rigged sailing ships carry European settlers to many parts of the world in one of the most important human migrations in recorded history. This period was marked by extensive exploration and colonization efforts on the part of European kingdoms. The sextant, developed in the 1700s, made more accurate charting of nautical position possible.

Notable individuals

Juan of Austria was a military leader whose most famous victory was in the naval Battle of Lepanto in 1571. Philip had appointed Juan to command the naval forces of the Holy League which was pitted against the Ottoman Empire. Juan, by dint of leadership ability and charisma, was able to unite this disparate coalition and inflict a historic defeat upon the Ottomans and their corsair allies in the Battle of Lepanto. His role in the battle is commemorated in the poem "Lepanto" by G.K. Chesterton.

Maarten Tromp was an officer and later admiral in the Dutch navy. In 1639, during the Dutch struggle for independence from Spain, Tromp defeated a large Spanish fleet bound for Flanders at the Battle of the Downs, marking the end of Spanish naval power. In a preliminary battle, the Action of 18 September 1639, Tromp was the first fleet commander known to deliberately use line of battle tactics. His flagship in this period was the Aemilia. In the First Anglo-Dutch War of 1652–1653 Tromp commanded the Dutch fleet in the battles of Dungeness, Portland, the Gabbard and Scheveningen. In the last of these, he was killed by a sharpshooter in the rigging of William Penn's ship. His acting flag captain, Egbert Bartholomeusz Kortenaer, on the Brederode kept up fleet morale by not lowering Tromp's standard, pretending Tromp was still alive.

Cornelis Tromp was a Commander in chief of the Dutch and Danish navy. In 1656 he participated in the relief of Gdańsk (Danzig). In 1658 it was discovered he had used his ships to trade in luxury goods; as a result he was fined and not allowed to have an active command until 1662. Just before the Second Anglo-Dutch War he was promoted to Vice-Admiral on 29 January 1665; at the Battle of Lowestoft he prevented total catastrophe by taking over fleet command to allow the escape of the larger part of the fleet. In 1676 he became Admiral-General of the Danish navy and Knight in the Order of the Elephant. He defeated the Swedish navy in the Battle of Öland, his only victory as a fleet commander.

Charles Hardy was a British naval officer and colonial governor. He was appointed governor and commander-in-chief of the British colony of Newfoundland in 1744. In 1758, he and James Wolfe attacked French posts around the mouth of the St. Lawrence River and destroyed all of the French fishing stations along the northern shores of what is now New Brunswick and along the Gaspé peninsula.

Augustus Keppel, 1st Viscount Keppel was a British admiral who held sea commands during the Seven Years' War and the War of American Independence. During the final years of the latter conflict he served as First Lord of the Admiralty. During the Seven Years' War he saw constant service. He was in North America in 1755, on the coast of France in 1756, was detached on a cruise to reduce the French settlements on the west coast of Africa in 1758, and his ship the Torbay (74) was the first to get into action in the Battle of Quiberon Bay in 1759. In 1757 he had formed part of the court martial which had condemned Admiral Byng, but was active among those who endeavoured to secure a pardon for him; but neither he nor those who had acted with him could produce any serious reason why the sentence should not be carried out. When Spain joined France in 1762 he was sent as second in command with Sir George Pocock in the expedition which took Havana. His health suffered from the fever which carried off an immense proportion of the soldiers and sailors, but the £25,000 of prize money which he received freed him from the unpleasant position of younger son of a family ruined by the extravagance of his father.

Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke was a naval officer of the Royal Navy. During the War of the Austrian Succession he was promoted to Rear Admiral. In the Seven Years' War, Hawke replaced Admiral John Byng as commander in the Mediterranean in 1756.

Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe was a British admiral. During the rebellion in North America, Howe was known to be sympathetic to the colonists - he had in prior years sought the acquaintance of Benjamin Franklin, who was a friend of Howe's sister, a popular lady in London society. During his carrer, Howe displayed a tactical uncommon originality. His performance was unexcelled even by Nelson, who, like Howe's other successors, was served by more highly trained squadrons and benefitted from Howe's example.

Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson was a British admiral famous for his participation in the Napoleonic Wars, most notably in the Battle of Trafalgar, a decisive British victory in the war, where he lost his life.^[27] Nelson was noted for his considerable ability to inspire and bring out the best in his men, to the point that it gained a name: "The Nelson Touch". His actions during these wars meant that before and after his death he was revered like few military figures have been throughout British history. Alexander Davison was a contemporary and close friend of Horatio Nelson. Davison is responsible for several acts that glorified Nelson's public image. These included the creation of a medal commemorating the victory at the Battle of the Nile and the creation of the Nelson Memorial at his estate at Swarland, Northumberland. As a close friend of the Admiral he acted as an intermediary when Nelson's marriage to his wife, Fanny Nelson fell apart due in large part to his affair with Emma Hamilton.

Hyde Parker in 1778 was engaged in the Savannah expedition, and in the following year his ship was wrecked on the hostile Cuban coast. His men, however, entrenched themselves, and were in the end brought off safely. Parker was with his father at the Dogger Bank, and with Richard Howe in the two actions in the Straits of Gibraltar. In 1793, having just become Rear Admiral, he served under Samuel Hood at Toulon and in Corsica, and two years later, now a Vice Admiral, he took part, under The Lord Hotham, in the indecisive fleet actions on 1795-03-13 and the 1795-07-13. From 1796 to 1800 he was in command at Jamaica and ably conducted the operations in the West Indies.

Edward Pellew, 1st Viscount Exmouth was a British naval officer who fought during the American War of Independence, the French Revolutionary, and the Napoleonic Wars. Pellew is remembered as an officer and a gentleman of great courage and leadership, earning his land and titles through courage, leadership and skill - serving as a paradigm of the versatility and determination of Naval Officers during the Napoleonic Wars.

Antoine de Sartine, a French statesman, was the Secretary of State for the Navy under King Louis XVI. Sartine inherited a strong French Navy, resurrected by Choiseul after the disasters of the Seven Years' War when France lost Canada, Louisiana, and India, and which would later defeat the British Navy in the War of American Independence.

James Saumarez, 1st Baron de Saumarez was an admiral of the British Royal Navy, notable for his victory at the Battle of Algeciras. In 1801 he was raised to the rank of Rear Admiral of the Blue, was created a baronet, and received the command of a small squadron which was destined to watch the movements of the Spanish fleet at Cadiz. Between the 6th and 12th of July he performed a brilliant piece of service, in which after a first repulse at Algeciras he routed a much superior combined force of French and Spanish ships at the Battle of Algeciras. For his services Saumarez received the order of the Bath and the freedom of the City of London.

David Porter during the Barbary Wars (1801–07) was 1st lieutenant of Enterprise, New York and Philadelphia and was taken prisoner when Philadelphia ran aground in Tripoli harbor 31 October 1803. After his release 3 June 1805 he remained in the Mediterranean as acting captain of Constitution and later captain of Enterprise. He was in charge of the naval forces at New Orleans 1808–10. As commander of Essex in the War of 1812, Captain Porter achieved fame by capturing the first British warship of the conflict, Alert, 13 August 1812 as well as several merchantmen. In 1813 he sailed Essex around Cape Horn and cruised in the Pacific warring on British whalers. On 28 March 1814 Porter was forced to surrender off Valparaiso after an unequal contest with the frigates HMS Phoebe and Cherub and only when his ship was too disabled to offer any resistance.

Spanish and English Armadas

The Spanish Armada was the Spanish fleet that sailed against England under the command of the Duke of Medina Sidona in 1588. The Spainish Armada was sent by King Philip II of Spain, who had been king consort of England until the death of his wife Mary I of England thirty years earlier. The purpose of the expedition was to escort the Duke of Parma's army of tercios from the Spanish Netherlands across the North Sea for a landing in south-east England. Once the army had suppressed English support for the United Provinces — part of the Spanish Netherlands — it was intended to cut off attacks against Spanish possessions in the New World and the Atlantic treasure fleets. It was also hoped to reverse the protestant revolution in England, and to this end the expedition was supported by Pope Sixtus V, with the promise of a subsidy should it make land^[28]. The command of the fleet was originally entrusted to Alvaro de Bazan, a highly experienced naval commander who died a few months before the fleet sailed from Lisbon in May 1588.

The Spainish Armada consisted of about 130 warships and converted merchant ships. After forcing its way up the English Channel, it was attacked by a fleet of 200 English ships, assisted by the Dutch navy, in the North Sea at Gravelines off the coastal border between France and the Spanish Netherlands. A fire-ship attack drove the Armada ships from their safe anchorage, and in the ensuing battle the Spanish abandoned their rendezvous with Parma's army.

The Spainish Armada was blown north up the east coast of England and in a hasty strategic move, attempted a return to Spain by sailing around Scotland and out into the Atlantic, past Ireland. But very severe weather destroyed a portion of the fleet, and more than 24 vessels were wrecked on the north and western coasts of Ireland, with the survivors having to seek refuge in Scotland. Of the Spaonish Armada's initial complement of vessels, about 50 did not return to Spain. However, the loss to Philip's Royal Navy was comparatively small: only seven ships failed to return, and of these only three were lost to enemy action.

The English Armada was a fleet of warships sent to the Iberian coast by Queen Elizabeth I of England in 1589, during the Anglo-Spanish War (1585–1604). It was led by Sir Francis Drake as admiral and Sir John Norreys as general, and failed in its attempt to drive home the advantage England had won upon the defeat and dispersal of the Spanish Armada in the previous year. With the opportunity to strike a decisive blow against the weakened Spanish lost, the failure of the expedition further depleted the crown treasury that had been so carefully restored during the long reign of Elizabeth I. The Anglo-Spanish war was very costly to both sides, and Spain itself, also fighting France and the United Provinces, had to default on its debt repayments in 1596, following another raid on Cadiz. But the failure of the English Armada was a turning point, and the fortunes of the various parties to this complicated conflict fluctuated until the Treaty of London in 1604, when a peace was agreed.

Spain's rebuilt navy had quickly recovered and exceeded its pre-Armada dominance of the sea, until defeats by the Dutch fifty years later marked the beginning of its decline. With the peace, the English were able to consolidate their hold on Ireland and make a concerted effort to establish colonies in North America.

North American maritime

The maritime history of the United States starts in the modern sense with the first successful English colony established in 1607, on the James River at Jamestown. It languished for decades until a new wave of settlers arrived in the late 17th century and set up commercial agriculture based on tobacco. The connection between the American colonies and Europe, with shipping as its cornerstone, would continue to grow unhindered for almost two hundred years.

The Continental Navy was formed during the American Revolution in 1775. Through the efforts of the Continental Navy's apparent patron, John Adams and vigorous congressional support in the face of stiff opposition, the fleet cumulatively became relatively substantial when considering the limitations imposed upon the Patriot supply poole. The "Six original United States frigates'" were the first United States frigates of the United States Navy, first authorized by the Congress with the Naval Act of 1794 on March 27, 1794 at a cost of $688,888.82.

John Paul Jones was America's first well-known naval hero in the American Revolutionary War. John Paul adopted the alias John Jones when he fled to his brother's home in Fredericksburg, Virginia in 1773 in order to avoid the hangman's noose in Tobago after an incident when he was accused of murdering a sailor under his command. He began using the name John Paul Jones as his brother suggested during the start of the American Revolution. Though his naval career never rose above the rank of Captain in the Continental Navy after his victory over the Serapis with the frigate Bonhomme Richard, John Paul Jones remains the first genuine American Naval hero, and a highly regarded battle commander.

Jonathan Haraden was a privateer during the American Revolution, being the First Lieutenant of the sloop-of-war Tyrannicide, fourteen guns. On board for two years, he captured many prizes, becoming her commander in 1777.

George H. Preble was an American naval officer and writer, notable for his history of the flag of the United States and for taking the first photograph of the Fort McHenry flag that inspired The Star-Spangled Banner. George entered the Navy as a midshipman on 10 December 1835, serving on the United States until 1838.

Edward Preble was a U.S. naval officer. Following his Revolutionary War service, he was appointed 1st Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy. In January 1799, he assumed command of the 14 gun brig Pickering and took her to the West Indies to protect American commerce during the Quasi-War with France. Commissioned Captain 7 June 1799, he took command of Essex in December and sailed in January 1800 for the Pacific to provide similar protective services for Americans engaged in the East Indies trade. Given command of the 3rd Squadron, with Constitution as his flagship, in 1803, he sailed for the Barbary coast and by October had promoted a treaty with Morocco and established a blockade off Tripoli in the First Barbary War.

War of 1812

Stephen Decatur was an American naval officer notable for his heroism in the Barbary Wars and in the War of 1812. He was the youngest man to reach the rank of captain in the history of the U.S. Navy, and the first American celebrated as a national military hero who had not played a role in the American Revolution.

James Lawrence was an American naval hero. During the War of 1812, he commanded the USS Chesapeake in a single-ship action against the HMS Shannon (commanded by Philip Broke). He is probably best known today for his dying command "Don't give up the ship!", which is still a popular naval battle cry.

John H. Aulick was an officer in the United States Navy whose service extended from the War of 1812 to the end of the antebellum era. During the War of 1812, he served in Enterprise and took part in her battle with HMS Boxer on 4 September 1813. After that engagement ended in an American victory, Aulick served as prize master of the prize.

Thomas MacDonough was an early 19th century American naval officer, most notably as commander of American naval forces in Lake Champlain during the War of 1812. One of the leading members of "Preble's Boys", a small group of naval officers who served during the First Barbary War, MacDonough's actions during the decisive Battle of Lake Champlain are often cited as a model of tactical preparation and execution.

End of the sail

Like most periodic eras the definition is inexact and close enough to serve as a general description. The age of sail runs roughly from the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, the last significant engagement in which oar-propelled galleys played a major role, to the Battle of Hampton Roads in 1862, in which the steam-powered CSS Virginia destroyed the sailing ships USS Cumberland and USS Congress, finally culminating with the advance of steam power, rendering sail power obsolete.

Submarines

The history of submarines covers the historical chronology and facts related to submarines, the ships and boats which operate underwater. The modern underwater boat proposal was made by the Englishman William Bourne who designed a prototype submarine in 1578. Unfortunately for him these ideas never got beyond the planning stage. The first submersible proper to be actually built in modern times was built in 1620 by Cornelius Jacobszoon Drebbel, a Dutchman in the service of James I: it was based on Bourne's design. It was propelled by means of oars. The precise nature of the submarine type is a matter of some controversy; some claim that it was merely a bell towed by a boat. Two improved types were tested in the Thames between 1620 and 1624.

Age of Steam

Steam technology was first applied to boats in the 1770's. With the advent of economical steam engines, efficient external combustion heat engines that makes use of the heat energy that exists in steam and converting it to mechanical work, the prime mover was steam for ships. The technology only became relevant to trans-oceanic travel after 1815, the year Pierre Andriel crossed the English Channel aboard the steam ship Élise.

Rise of the steam vessels

A steamboat, sometimes called a steamer, became the primary method of propulsion is the age of steam power, typically driving a propeller or paddlewheel. Small and large steamboats and riverboats worked on lakes and rivers. Steamships wgradually replaced sailing ships for commercial shipping through the 19th century. From 1815 on, steamships increased significantly in speed and size.

1850 to the End of the Century

Most warships used steam propulsion until the advent of the gas turbine. Steamships were superseded by diesel-driven ships in the second half of the twentieth century.

The Confederate States Navy (CSN) was the naval branch of the Confederate States armed forces established by an act of the Confederate Congress on February 21, 1861. It was responsible for Confederate naval operations during the American Civil War. The two major tasks of the Confederate Navy during the whole of its existence were the protection of Southern harbors and coastlines from outside invasion, and making the war costly for the North by attacking merchant ships and breaking the Union Blockade.

David Farragut was the first senior officer of the U.S. Navy during the American Civil War. He was the first rear admiral, vice admiral, and full admiral of the Navy. He is remembered in popular culture for his possibly apocryphal order at the Battle of Mobile Bay, usually paraphrased: "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!".^[29]

Franklin Buchanan was an officer in the United States Navy who became an admiral in the Confederate Navy during the American Civil War, and commanded the ironclad CSS Virginia. He was the captain of the ironclad CSS Virginia (formerly the USS Merrimack) during the Battle of Hampton Roads in Virginia. He climbed to the top deck of the Virginia and began furiously firing toward shore with a carbine as the USS Congress was shelled. He soon was brought down by a sharpshooter's minie ball to the thigh. He would eventually recover from his leg wound. He never did get to command the Virginia against the USS Monitor. That honor went to Catesby ap Roger Jones. But Buchanan had handed the US Navy the worst defeat it would take until Pearl Harbor.

Raphael Semmes was an officer in the United States Navy from 1826 to 1860 and the Confederate States Navy from 1860 to 1865. During the American Civil War he was captain of the famous commerce raider CSS Alabama, taking a record fifty-five prizes. Late in the war he was promoted to admiral and also served briefly as a brigadier general in the Confederate States Army.

In Italy, Carlo Pellion di Persano was an Italian admiral and commander of the Regia Marina fleet at the Battle of Lissa. He commanded the fleet from 1860 to 1861, and saw action in the struggle for Italian unification. After unification he was elected to the legislature; he became Minister of Marine in 1862 and in 1865 he was nominated a Senator. However, his career was marred during the war with Austria when he commanded the Italian fleet at Lissa. After the defeat, he was condemned for incapacity, and discharged.

Again in America, Charles Edgar Clark was an officer in the United States Navy during the American Civil War and the Spanish-American War. He commanded the battleship Oregon at the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, San Francisco, and when war with Spain was deemed inevitable, he received orders to proceed to Key West, Florida, with all haste. After a most remarkable voyage of over 14,000 miles, around Cape Horn, he joined the American fleet in Cuban waters on May 26, and on July 3 commanded his ship at the destruction of Cervera's squadron.

George Dewey was an admiral of the United States Navy, best known for his victory (without the loss of a single life of his own forces due to combat; one man died of a heart attack) at the Battle of Manila Bay during the Spanish-American War. He was also the only person in the history of the United States to have attained the rank of Admiral of the Navy, the most senior rank in the United States Navy.

Garrett J. Pendergrast was an officer in the United States Navy during the American Civil War. He commanded Boston during the Mexican-American War in 1846. In 1856, he commissioned Merrimack, the ship that would later become the Virginia.

Lewis Nixon was a shipbuilding executive, naval architect, and political activist. Nixon graduated first in his class from the Naval Academy in 1882 and was sent to study naval architecture at the Royal Naval College where, again, he graduated first in the class in 1885. In 1890 with help from assitant naval constructor David W. Taylor he designed the Indiana class battleships which included USS Indiana (BB-1), USS Massachusetts (BB-2) and USS Oregon (BB-3).

Patricio Montojo was the Spanish naval commander at the Battle of Manila Bay (May 1, 1898), a decisive battle of the Spanish-American War. At the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, Montojo was in command of the Spanish Squadron that was destroyed by the U.S. Asiatic Squadron in the Battle of Manila Bay on May 1, 1898. Montojo was wounded during this battle, as was also one of his two sons who were participating in this battle. United States naval forces under Commodore George Dewey decisively defeated Spain's Pacific fleet, at anchor in Manila Bay, the Philippines. Most of the seven Spanish vessels sank or surrendered.

20th Century

In the 1900s, the internal combustion engine and gas turbine came to replace the steam engine in most ship applications. Trans-oceanic travel, transatlantic and transpacific, was a particularly important application, with steam powered Ocean liners replacing sailing ships, then culminating in the massive Superliners which included the RMS Titanic. The event with the Titanic lead to the Maritime Distress Safety System.

Maritime events of World War I

At the start of the war, the German Empire had cruisers scattered across the globe. Some of them were subsequently used to attack Allied merchant shipping. The British Royal Navy systematically hunted them down, though not without some embarrassment from its inability to protect allied shipping. For example, the detached light cruiser Emden, part of the East-Asia squadron stationed at Tsingtao, seized or destroyed 15 merchantmen, as well as sinking a Russian cruiser and a French destroyer. However, the bulk of the German East-Asia squadron – consisting of the armoured cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, light cruisers Nürnberg and Leipzig and two transport ships – did not have orders to raid shipping and was instead underway to Germany when it was lost at the Battle of the Falkland Islands in December 1914.^[30]

File:HMS Audacious (1912).jpg

Rescuing sailors from the sinking HMS Audacious.

Soon after the outbreak of hostilities, Britain initiated a Naval Blockade of Germany, preventing supplies from reaching its ports. The strategy proved effective, cutting off vital military and civilian supplies, although this blockade violated generally accepted international law codified by several international agreements of the past two centuries.^{[citation needed]} A blockade of stationed ships within a three mile radius was considered legitimate,^{[citation needed]} however Britain mined international waters to prevent any ships from entering entire sections of ocean, causing danger to even neutral ships.^{[citation needed]} Since there was limited response to this tactic, Germany expected a similar response to its unrestricted submarine warfare.^{[citation needed]}

German U-boats attempted to cut the supply lines between North America and Britain.^{[citation needed]} The nature of submarine warfare meant that attacks often came without warning, giving the crews of the merchant ships little hope of survival.^{[citation needed]} The United States launched a protest, and Germany modified its rules of engagement. After the infamous sinking of the passenger ship RMS Lusitania in 1915, Germany promised not to target passenger liners. Britain armed its merchant ships. Finally, in early 1917 Germany adopted a policy of unrestricted submarine warfare, realizing the Americans would eventually enter the war. Germany sought to strangle Allied sea lanes before the U.S. could transport a large army overseas.

The U-boat threat lessened in 1917, when merchant ships entered convoys escorted by destroyers.^{[citation needed]} This tactic made it difficult for U-boats to find targets. The accompanying destroyers might sink a submerged submarine with depth charges. The losses to submarine attacks were reduced significantly. But the convoy system slowed the flow of supplies. The solution to the delays was a massive program to build new freighters. Troop ships were too fast for the submarines and did not travel the North Atlantic in convoys.^{[citation needed]}

The First World War also saw the first use of aircraft carriers in combat, with HMS Furious launching Sopwith Camels in a successful raid against the Zeppelin hangars at Tondern in July 1918.

Maritime events of World War II

Battle of the Atlantic

In the North Atlantic, German U-boats attempted to cut supply lines to the United Kingdom by sinking merchant ships. In the first four months of the war they sank more than 110 vessels. In addition to supply ships, the U-boats occasionally attacked British and Canadian warships. One U-boat sank the British carrier HMS Courageous, while another managed to sink the battleship HMS Royal Oak in her home anchorage of Scapa Flow.

In the summer of 1941, the Soviet Union entered the war on the side of the Allies. Although the Soviets had tremendous reserves in manpower, they had lost much of their equipment and manufacturing base in the first few weeks following the German invasion. The Western Allies attempted to remedy this by sending Arctic convoys, which travelled from the United Kingdom and the United States to the northern ports of the Soviet Union - Archangel and Murmansk. The treacherous route around the North Cape of Norway was the site of many battles as the Germans continually tried to disrupt the convoys using U-boats, bombers, and surface ships.

Following the entry of the United States into the war in December 1941, U-boats sank shipping along the East Coast of the United States and Canada, the waters around Newfoundland, the Caribbean Sea, and the Gulf of Mexico. They were initially so successful that this became known among U-boat crews as the second happy time. Eventually, the institution of shore blackouts and an interlocking convoy system resulted in a drop in attacks and U-boats shifted their operations back to the mid-Atlantic.

The turning point of the Battle of the Atlantic took place in early 1943 as the Allies refined their naval tactics, effectively making use of new technology to counter the U-Boats. The Allies produced ships faster than they were sunk, and lost fewer ships by adopting the convoy system. Improved anti-submarine warfare meant that the life expectancy of a typical U-boat crew would be measured in months. The vastly improved Type 21 U-boat appeared as the war was ending, but too late to affect the outcome. In December 1943, the last major sea battle between the Royal Navy and the German Navy took place. At the Battle of North Cape, Germany's last battlecruiser, the Scharnhorst, was sunk by HMS Duke of York, HMS Belfast, and several destroyers.

Pacific War

The Pacific War was the part of World War II—and preceding conflicts—that took place in the Pacific Ocean, its islands, and in East Asia, between July 7, 1937, and August 14, 1945. The most decisive actions took place after the Empire of Japan attacked various countries, later known as the Allies (or Allied powers), on or after December 7, 1941, including an attack on United States forces at Pearl Harbor.

Between 1942 and 1945, there were four main theatres in the Pacific War, corresponding with and defined by the major Allied commands in the war against Japan. U.S. sources refer to two theaters within the Pacific War: the Pacific Theater of Operations (PTO) and the China Burma India Theater (CBI). However these were not operational commands. In the PTO, the Allies divided operational control of their forces between two supreme commands, known as Pacific Ocean Areas and Southwest Pacific Area.

Island hopping was an important military strategy in the Pacific Theater of World War II. The strategy employed by the Allies of World War II Combined Chiefs of Staff, beginning with Operation Cartwheel, was to bypass heavily fortified Japanese positions and instead concentrate the limited Allied resources on strategically important islands that were not well defended but capable of supporting the drive to the main islands of Japan. This strategy was possible in part because the Allies used submarine and air attacks to blockade and isolate Japanese bases, weakening their garrisons and reducing the Japanese ability to resupply and reinforce. Thus troops on islands which had been bypassed, such as the major base at Rabaul, were useless to the Japanese war effort and left to "wither on the vine."

Hard-fought battles on the Japanese home islands of Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and others resulted in horrific casualties on both sides, but finally produced a Japanese retreat. Faced with the loss of most of their experienced pilots, the Japanese increased their use of kamikaze tactics in an attempt to create unacceptably high casualties for the Allies. Upwards of a third of the U.S. fleet was hit,^{[citation needed]} and the U.S. Navy recommended against an invasion of Japan in 1945.^{[citation needed]} It proposed to force a Japanese surrender through a total naval blockade and air raids.^{[citation needed]}

Latter half of the 20th Century

In the latter half of the 20th century, various vessels, notably aircraft carriers, nuclear submarines, and Nuclear powered icebreakers, made use of Nuclear marine propulsion. Sonar and radio augmented existing navigational technology.

Various blockades were setup in international action. The Egyptian set up blockades of the Straits of Tiran prior to the 1956 Suez War and the 1967 Arab-Israeli War. The United States set up a blockade of Cuba during the Cuban missile crisis in 1962. The Israelis set ip a sea blockade of the Gaza Strip since the outbreak of the Second Intifada (2000) and up to the present. The Israeli blockades of some or all the shores of Lebanon at various times during the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990), the 1982 Lebanon War, and the 1982-2000 South Lebanon conflict - resumed during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict.

Cuban Missile Crisis

The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation during the Cold War between the Government of the United States, the Government of the Soviet Union, and the Government of Cuba. After the U.S. started deploying 15 Jupiter IRBM near İzmir, Turkey, U.S. reconnaissance imagery revealed similar installations being installed in Cuba, as a response to the American threat. The event coincided with the Sino-Indian War, which began on the same date that the US declared its blockade on Cuba. Historians speculate the Chinese attack on disputed territory in India was timed to occur at the same time as the Cuban Missile Crisis.^[31] On October 22, the Organization of American States unanimously supported the decision to quarantine Cuba and, by the end of the day, 180 U.S. Navy ships were prepared for the blockade. Nikita Khrushchev claimed that the blockade was illegal, and ordered ships to bypass the quarantine.

The blockade went into effect at 10 a.m. on October 24. At the time, nineteen ships were en-route to Cuba from the Soviet Union. Sixteen of these were clearly identified as reversing course, and only the tanker Bucharest continued towards the U.S. lines. The other two, the Gagarin and Komiles were later discovered only a few miles from the U.S. lines, and that they were being escorted by a Soviet submarine positioned between the two ships. The USS Essex was instructed to block the progress of the submarine, including the use of "small explosives" if need be. At 10:25 a.m. John McCone received an intelligence message and announced that the ships had gone dead in the water. Dean Rusk leaned over to McGeorge Bundy and noted "We're eyeball to eyeball, and I think the other fellow just blinked." After secret negotiations and after much deliberation between the Soviet Union and Kennedy's cabinet, Kennedy agreed to remove all missiles set in place on the border of the Soviet Union because of NATO in exchange for Khrushchev removing all missiles on Cuba.

Gulf of Tonkin Incident

Photograph taken from the USS *Maddox* August 2, 1964 and showing North Vietnamese patrol boats.

The Gulf of Tonkin Incident was an alleged pair of attacks by naval forces of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (commonly referred to as North Vietnam) against two American destroyers, the USS Maddox and the USS Turner Joy. The attacks were alleged to have occurred on 2 August and 4 August, 1964 in the Gulf of Tonkin. Later research, including a report released in 2005 by the National Security Agency, indicated that the second attack most likely did not occur, but also attempted to dispel the long-standing assumption that members of the administration of President Lyndon B. Johnson had knowingly lied about the nature of the incident.^[32] The outcome of the incident was the passage by Congress of the Southeast Asia Resolution (better known as the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution), which granted Johnson the authority to assist any Southeast Asian country whose government was considered to be jeopardized by "communist aggression". The resolution served as Johnson's legal justification for escalating American involvement in the Vietnam Conflict.

Falklands War

The Falklands War was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom over the disputed Falkland Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. Britain was initially taken by surprise by the Argentine attack on the South Atlantic islands, but launched a naval task force to engage the Argentine Navy and Air Force, and retake the islands by amphibious assault. The British eventually prevailed and the islands remained under British control.

Panama canal handover

Though controversial within the United States, a process of handing the Panama canal lead to Panamanian control of the Panama Canal Zone by the Panama Canal Authority (ACP). It was effective at noon on December 31, 1999. Before this handover, the government of Panama held an international bid to negotiate a 25-year contract for operation of the Canal's container shipping ports (chiefly two facilities at the Atlantic and Pacific outlets), which was won by the Chinese firm Hutchison Whampoa, a Hong Kong-based shipping concern whose owner Li Ka Shing is the wealthiest man in Asia. Conditions on of the handover to the Panama Canal Authority byt the United States was the permanent neutrality of the Canal and the explicit statements that allowed the United States to come back anytime.

21st Century

Since the turn of the millennium, the construction of stealth ships have occured. These are ships which employs stealth technology construction techniques in an effort to ensure that it is harder to detect by one or more of radar, visual, sonar, and infrared methods. These techniques borrow from stealth aircraft technology, although some aspects such as wake reduction are unique to stealth ships' design.

References

Citations and notes

^ Pacific Northwest Coastal Indians website
^ Hatshepsut oversaw the preparations and funding of an expedition of five ships, each measuring seventy feet long, and with several sails. Various other instances of Egyptian sailing vessels exist, also.
^ A convenient table of sea peoples in hieroglyphics, transliteration and English is given in the dissertation of Woodhuizen, 2006, who developed it from works of Kitchen cited there
^ As noted by Gardiner V.1 p.196, other texts have "foreign-peoples"; both terms can refer to the concept of "foreigners" as well. Zangger in the external link below expresses a commonly held view that "sea peoples" does not translate this and other expressions but is an academic innovation. The Woudhuizen dissertation and the Morris paper identify Gaston Maspero as the first to use the term "peuples de la mer" in 1881.
^ Gardiner V.1 p.196.
^ Manassa p.55.
^ Line 52. The inscription is shown in Manassa p.55 plate 12.
^ http://phoenicia.org/syria.html
^ ^a ^b ^c Encyclopædia Britannica (1911). "Navigation". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition) 19. Ed. Chisholm, Hugh. Page703.
^ Another saga, The Saga of Eric the Red, relates that Leif discovered the American mainland while returning from Norway to Greenland in 1000 (or possibly 1001), but does not mention any attempts to settle there. However, the Saga of the Greenlanders is usually considered the more reliable of the two.
^ Possehl, Gregory. Meluhha. in: J. Reade (ed.) The Indian Ocean in Antiquity. London: Kegan Paul Intl. 1996, 133–208
^ (eg Lal 1997: 182-188)
^ ^a ^b Needham, Volume 4, Part 3, 678-679.
^ Needham, Volume 4, Part 3, 649-650.
^ Sun, 161-167.
^ Chen, 67-71.
^ Sun, 220-221.
^ Needham, Volume 4, Part 3, 680.
^ Needham, Volume 4, Part 3, 476.
^ Needham, Volume 4, Part 3, 463.
^ Needham, Volume 4, Part 3, 668.
^ Tabish Khair (2006). Other Routes: 1500 Years of African and Asian Travel Writing, p. 12. Signal Books. ISBN 1904955118.
^ Dr. Youssef Mroueh (2003). Pre-Columbian Muslims in the Americas. Media Monitors Network.
^ Rankin, Rebecca B., Cleveland Rodgers (1948). "Chapter 1". New York: the World's Capital City, Its Development and Contributions to Progress. Harper.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^ Robert O. Collins, Historical Problems of Imperial Africa, (Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1994), 7
^ Voyage of the Golden Hind, from The Golden Hind. Retrieved February 5, 2006.
^ The Nelson Society (2007-02-15). "Chronology". Retrieved 2007-03-02.
^ Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "The Spanish Armada". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
^ Davis, p. 682. The Reuters
^ John M. Taylor, "Audacious Cruise of the Emden", The Quarterly Journal of Military History, Volume 19, Number 4, Summer 2007, pp. 39-47
^ Frontier India India-China Section Note alleged connections to Cuban Missile Crisis
^ http://www.nsa.gov/vietnam/

General resources

Listed by date

Shiflett, T. D. (2005). America's Line of Battle: Its Construction & History. Tiger Lily Publications LLC. ISBN 0977607216
Callo, J. F. (2004). Who's Who in Naval History. ISBN 0415308283
Harrisse, H. (1980). John Cabot, the discoverer of North America and Sebastian, his son a chapter of the maritime history of England under the Tudors, 1496-1557. London: Stevens.
Scharf, J. T. (1977). History of the Confederate States navy from its organization to the surrender of its last vessel : Its stupendous struggle with the great navy of the United States; the engagements fought in the rivers and harbors of the South, and upon the high seas; blockade-running, first use of iron-clads and torpedoes, and privateer history. [New York]: Fairfax Press.
Mahan, A. T. (1969). Types of naval officers drawn from the history of the British Navy; with some account of the conditions of naval warfare at the beginning of the eighteenth century, and of its subsequent development during the sail period. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press.
Corbett, S. J. S. (1965). Drake and the Tudor navy, with a history of the rise of England as a maritime power. New York: B. Franklin.
Morison, S. E. (1961). The maritime history of Massachusetts, 1783-1860. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Stevens, W. O., & Westcott, A. F. (1942). A history of sea power. New York: Doubleday, Doran & Company, inc.
Clark, G. R., Stevens, W. O., Alden, C. S., & Krafft, H. F. (1927). A short history of the United States navy. Philadelphia &: J.B. Lippincott company.
Krafft, H. F., & Norris, W. B. (1920). Sea power in American history; the influence of the navy and the merchant marine upon American development. New York: Century Co.
Davenport, C. B., & Scudder, M. T. (1919). Naval officers, their heredity and development. Washington: Carnegie Institution of Washington.
Law, F. H. (1918). Robert Southey's life of Nelson. New York: Macmillan.
Stevens, W. O. (1916). The boy's book of famous warships. New York: R.M. McBride & Co.
Allen, G. W. (1913). A naval history of the American Revolution.
Snider, C. H. J. (1913). In the wake of the eighteentwelvers; fights & flights of frigates & fore-'n'-afters in the war of 1812-1815 on the Great Lakes. London: John Lane.
Paullin, C. O. (1912). Diplomatic negotiations of American naval officers, 1778-1883. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Press.
Hill, F. S. (1905). Twenty-six historic ships. Putnam.
Mahan, A. T. (1905). Sea power in its relations to the War of 1812. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company.
Burgoyne, A. H. (1903). Submarine navigation past and present. London: G. Richards.
Hollis, I. N. (1900). The frigate Constitution; the central figure of the Navy under sail. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin and Co.
Wilson, H. W. (1900). The downfall of Spain; naval history of the Sapnish-American war. London: Low, Marston and Co.
Colomb, P. H. (1899). Naval warfare, its ruling principles and practice historically treated. London: W.H. Allen and Co.
Maclay, E. S. (1899). A history of American privateers. New York: D. Appleton and Co.
Rawson, E. K. (1899). Twenty famous naval battles; Salamis to Santiago. New York: T.Y. Crowell & Co.
Mahan, A. T. (1898). The influence of seapower upon the French revolution and empire, 1793-1812. Boston: Little, Brown & Co.
Abbot, W. J. (1896). The naval history of the United States. New York: P.F. Collier.
James, B., Laughton, J. K., & Sulivan, J. Y. F. (1896). Journal of Rear-Admiral Bartholomew James, 1752-1828. [London]: Printed for the Navy Records Society.
Wilson, H. W. (1896). Ironclads in action; a sketch of naval warfare from 1855 to 1895. London: S. Low, Marston and Co.
Toogood, C. G., Brassey, T. A., & James, W. (1895). Index to James' Naval history, edition 1886. [London]: Printed for the Navy Records Society.
Shippen, E. (1883). Naval battles, ancient and modern. Philadelphia [etc.]: J.C. McCurdy & co.
Hale, E. E. (1880). Stories of the sea told by sailors. Boston: Roberts Brothers.
Finlay, G., & Tozer, H. F. (1877). A history of Greece, from its conquest by the Romans to the present time, B.C. 146 to A.D. 1864. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Norie, J. W. (1842). The naval gazetteer, biographer and chronologist; containing a history of the late wars from 1793 to 1801; and from 1803 to 1815, and continued, as to the biographical part to the present time. London: C. Wilson.
Brenton, E. P. (1837). The naval history of Great Britain, from the year MDCCLXXXIII. to MDCCCXXXVI.. London: H. Colburn.
Campbell, J. (1841). Lives of the British admirals, and naval history of Great Britain.
Cooper, J. F. (1839). The history of the Navy of the United States of America. Philadelphia: Lea & Blanchard.
James, W., & Chamier, F. (1837). The naval history of Great Britain: from the declaration of war by France in 1793 to the accession of George IV. London: R. Bentley.
Kimball, H. (1831). American naval battles: being a complete history of the battles fought by the navy of the United States from its establishment in 1794 to the present time, including the wars with France, and with Tripoli, the late war with Great Britain and with Algiers, with an account of the attack on Baltimore, and of the battle of New Orleans. Boston: J.J. Smith, jr.
Brannan, J. (1823). Official letters of the military and naval officers of the United States during the war with Great Britain in the years 1812, 13, 14, & 15 : with some additional letters and documents elucidating the history of that period. [Washington?: s.n.].
Schomberg, I. (1802). Naval chronolgy; or, an historical summary of naval & maritime events.
Hervey, F. (1779). The naval history of Great Britain; from the earliest times to the rising of the Parliament in 1779. Describing, particularly, the glorious atchievements in the last war. Also the lives and actions of illustrious commanders and navigators. London: Printed by W. Adlard, for J. Bew.
Needham, Joseph (1986). Science and Civilization in China: Volume 4, Part 3. Taipei: Caves Books Ltd.
Sun, Guangqi (1989). History of Navigation in Ancient China. Beijing: Ocean Press. ISBN 7-5027-0532-5.
Chen, Yan (2002). Maritime Silk Route and Chinese-Foreign Cultural Exchanges. Beijing: Peking University Press. ISBN 7-301-03029-0.

External links

Scholarly organisations for the study of maritime history

Other

The Institute of Maritime History , a non-profit institute focused on research, preservation and education in maritime history.
The Sketchbooks of Antoine Roux , Peabody Essex Museum’s interactive feature, showcases sketches and watercolor paintings which depict the maritime culture of Marseille France during the 19th century.
Maritime Heritage Network, a non-profit collaboration among organizations focused on the maritime history of Puget Sound and the Pacific Northwest.
The Sextant, an online community of maritime history and nautical archaeology.

[1] Pacific Northwest Coastal Indians website

[2] Hatshepsut oversaw the preparations and funding of an expedition of five ships, each measuring seventy feet long, and with several sails. Various other instances of Egyptian sailing vessels exist, also.

[3] A convenient table of sea peoples in hieroglyphics, transliteration and English is given in the dissertation of Woodhuizen, 2006, who developed it from works of Kitchen cited there

[4] As noted by Gardiner V.1 p.196, other texts have "foreign-peoples"; both terms can refer to the concept of "foreigners" as well. Zangger in the external link below expresses a commonly held view that "sea peoples" does not translate this and other expressions but is an academic innovation. The Woudhuizen dissertation and the Morris paper identify Gaston Maspero as the first to use the term "peuples de la mer" in 1881.

[5] Gardiner V.1 p.196.

[6] Manassa p.55.

[7] Line 52. The inscription is shown in Manassa p.55 plate 12.

[8] ttp://phoenicia.org/syria.html

[eb703-9] Encyclopædia Britannica (1911). "Navigation". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th edition) 19. Ed. Chisholm, Hugh. Page703.

[10] Another saga, The Saga of Eric the Red, relates that Leif discovered the American mainland while returning from Norway to Greenland in 1000 (or possibly 1001), but does not mention any attempts to settle there. However, the Saga of the Greenlanders is usually considered the more reliable of the two.

[11] Possehl, Gregory. Meluhha. in: J. Reade (ed.) The Indian Ocean in Antiquity. London: Kegan Paul Intl. 1996, 133–208

[12] (eg Lal 1997: 182-188)

[needham_volume_4_part_3_678_679-13] Needham, Volume 4, Part 3, 678-679.

[needham_volume_4_part_3_649_650-14] Needham, Volume 4, Part 3, 649-650.

[sun_161_167-15] Sun, 161-167.

[chen_67_71-16] Chen, 67-71.

[sun_220_221-17] Sun, 220-221.

[needham_volume_4_part_3_680-18] Needham, Volume 4, Part 3, 680.

[needham_volume_4_part_3_476-19] Needham, Volume 4, Part 3, 476.

[needham_volume_4_part_3_463-20] Needham, Volume 4, Part 3, 463.

[needham_volume_4_part_3_668-21] Needham, Volume 4, Part 3, 668.

[22] Tabish Khair (2006). Other Routes: 1500 Years of African and Asian Travel Writing, p. 12. Signal Books. ISBN 1904955118.

[23] Dr. Youssef Mroueh (2003). Pre-Columbian Muslims in the Americas. Media Monitors Network.

[24] Rankin, Rebecca B., Cleveland Rodgers (1948). "Chapter 1". New York: the World's Capital City, Its Development and Contributions to Progress. Harper.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

[25] Robert O. Collins, Historical Problems of Imperial Africa, (Princeton: Markus Wiener Publishers, 1994), 7

[26] Voyage of the Golden Hind, from The Golden Hind. Retrieved February 5, 2006.

[nelsocchron-27] The Nelson Society (2007-02-15). "Chronology". Retrieved 2007-03-02.

[28] Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "The Spanish Armada". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

[29] Davis, p. 682. The Reuters

[30] John M. Taylor, "Audacious Cruise of the Emden", The Quarterly Journal of Military History, Volume 19, Number 4, Summer 2007, pp. 39-47

[31] Frontier India India-China Section Note alleged connections to Cuban Missile Crisis

[32] ttp://www.nsa.gov/vietnam/

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