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Lesson 10:
Retrenchment
1865-1890
Learning Objectives
• Know congressional attitudes toward the Navy in this postwar period.
• Comprehend the difficulty in maintaining technological leadership and the debate over whether to remain technologically current.
• Comprehend the reasons for the rebuilding of the US Navy and the historical conditions accounting for the emergence and success of Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan’s lectures and books.
Learning Objectives
• Know the major changes affecting warship hull, armament, and propulsion design during the period 1865-1890.
• Know the principal naval weapons systems conceived by nations desiring cheap methods to level the playing field with the capital ship.
• Know the responses of the major naval powers to counter the threats of low cost weapons.
Remember our Themes!
• The Navy as an Instrument of Foreign Policy• Interaction between Congress and the Navy• Interservice Relations• Technology• Leadership• Strategy and Tactics• Evolution of Naval Doctrine
International Affairs late 1800s
• “Pax Britannica”– Era of peace continues - British Empire dominates the seas.
• Japan - Meiji Restoration– Continued increase in foreign trade.– Rapid modernization begins.
• German and Italian unifications – 1860s & 70’s.• Austro-Hungarian Empire’s “Dual Monarchy” - 1867.• Continued collapse of Ottoman Empire through 1800’s.
– Balkan Peninsula: Independence of European states.
• New era of European imperialism:– European powers vigorously compete to establish colonies
on remaining world territories.
von Roon, von Moltke, von Bismarck
Battle of Lissa - 1866• First battle between ironclad fleets.
• Adriatic Sea off Dalmatian coast (present-day Croatia).
• Italians attempt amphibious assault of the island of Lissa without command of the sea.
• Austrian Fleet takes “V” formation.– Breaks the Italian line.
– Ferdinand Maximilian sinks Re d’Italia with the ram.
• Rams in warship design:– Remain prominent until late into the nineteenth century.
Iron-clad Screw-Frigate Re D’Italia
Evolution of Warship Construction
• Construction materials:– Steel hulls replace iron hulls.– Steel has higher strength and less weight than iron.
• Compartment divisions.• Protective decks.• Armor protection.
– Iron to steel-plated iron to steel.– Location of armor:
• Vulnerable areas get more armor.• Unable to armor the entire ship due to weight of
armor.• Rams
Evolution of Armaments
• Muzzle loaders to breech loaders.– Safety and rate of fire increases.
• Rifled guns.– Increased accuracy and ranges.
• Mounting of guns.– Hydraulic recoil mechanisms.
• Cartridge shells.– Round and charge are combined.– Rate of fire increases.– Greater penetrating power and range.
• Self-propelled torpedo:– Invented by Englishman Robert Whitehead in 1866.
Ship Propulsion Innovations
• More efficient steam engines developed.– Vertical Triple Expansion (VTE)– Increases in speed.– Longer ranges.– Coaling stations required at regular intervals
while transiting overseas.• Further incentive to acquire overseas colonies.
• Many ships still use sail as alternate means of propulsion.– Hybrids with stacks and sails.
Low Cost Weapons vs “Capital” Ships
• Capital ships:– Large ships with heavy guns - core of a battle fleet.
• Battleships (Heavily armored).• Cruisers (Faster but less heavily armored than
battleships).
• New low cost weapons:– Self-propelled torpedoes launched from “torpedo
boats”.– Mines - Stationary torpedoes to protect coastlines and
ports.
Countermeasures
• Continued advances in compartmentation.
• New ship types:– “Torpedo boat destroyer” shortened to just
“destroyer” used to screen capital ships from torpedo attacks.
– Minesweepers used to clear minefields.
Post-Civil War U.S. Navy
• 1865-1870 -- Decline of the Navy.– Large reductions in naval appropriations: 700 to 52
ships.– Isolationism due to the need for:
• Reconstruction of the South• Continued westward expansion
• Primary mission:– Protection of maritime trade overseas– Costal Defense
Congress and the Rebirth of the U.S. Navy
• Naval funding begins to increase in 1870s.• Three distinct construction programs
authorized– 1873– 1883
• ABCD ships• Steam (Sail used as secondary means of propulsion).• Steel hulls and heavy armor.• Rifled breech-loading guns.
– 1889• First three battleships authorized
Congress Acts Why?
• 1873 & 1883– Modernize ships– Stimulate steel & shipbuilding industry– Ships to be employed in the usual way
• Cruisers abroad protecting commerce
• 1889– Focused more towards “continentalist” views
• Defense of Coasts form another major power• Evolving major power tactics
Professional Rebirth of the U.S. Navy
• Naval Institute established by naval officers - 1873.– Proceedings - professional journal for naval
personnel.• Office of Naval Intelligence established - 1882.• Naval War College established - 1884.• Engineering Duty Officers enter the Line -
1899.– Increased importance of technical knowledge is
apparent.
Naval War College• Commerce raiding and coastal defense
– Accepted strategies of the U.S. Navy after Civil War.
• Strategies seem obsolete to an influential group of American naval leaders.
• Commodore Stephen B. Luce– Establishes Naval War College in 1885 at
Newport, Rhode Island to:• “Apply modern scientific methods to the study and
raise naval warfare from the empirical stage to the dignity of a science.”
– Captain Alfred Thayer Mahan is one of the first instructors to serve under Luce.
The Influence of Sea Power Upon History 1660-1783
• Published in 1890 - Mahan’s first book.– Based on a series of Naval War College lectures.
• Strong arguments for the U.S.:– Maintaining naval strength during peacetime.– Building a fleet of capital ships.– Acquiring colonies abroad for secure coaling
stations.• Ideas strongly appeals to:
- Industrialists - Merchants- Nationalists - Imperialists
