Sea Power, Steam, and Steel: The Royal Navy in Transition 1812–1922
After the defeat of Napoleon in 1815 Great Britain was the undisputed world super power. Her political and economic dominance was nurtured and sustained by global supremacy at sea, and the Royal Navy was the greatest military organization the world had yet seen, reaching new pinnacles of capability and reach.
But the golden age of sail was coming to a close, with technical developments in propulsion, communications, and weapons, and with consequent changes in geo-politics. Britain’s navy welded these developments—not always with good grace or timeliness—into a different sort of navy, technically advanced, flexible, better managed than before. Other nations followed, and sometimes led these developments, creating new global tensions.
In the interactive seminars of this new course we study the immense changes in the Royal Navy from its last campaigns completely under sail (starting with a brief look at the War of 1812), through the development of steam propulsion and steel hulls, the naval arms races of the late nineteenth century, to gunboat diplomacy, the Dreadnought fleet battles of the First World War, and the beginnings of new kinds of naval warfare on, below, and above the seas.
Course Assignments
Students are required to write one paper of between 1,500 and 2,000 words and to deliver one related oral presentation of a maximum of 10 minutes. The topic of the assignments are discussed with the tutor before the start of the course and at an individual assignment tutorial during the course.
Topics which students should consider may include any of those listed in the course outline above, or others related to relevant aspects of the Royal Navy between 1812 and 1922. If a student chooses a topic from the above seminars, it may be possible to discuss the tutor’s material before the scheduled session. Students are invited to contact the tutor by e-mail in advance of the course to discuss their assignment: justin.reay@bodley.ox.ac.uk
Tutor Biography
Justin Reay, F.S.A., studied the history of art at the University of Oxford, and is a manager at the University’s Bodleian Library where he is editing Samuel Pepys’ naval papers. He is a regular tutor for the University’s Department for Continuing Education summer programmes. A Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, and an advisor to history organizations, Justin is frequently published in history journals; his book on the history of the Admiralty will be published early in 2009.
Field Study Days
Thursday, July 9, Portsmouth Royal Naval Dockyard*:
- Naval Historical Branch: Lecture on the the Submarine War, Lt.-Cmdr. Dr. Malcolm Llewelyn-Jones, RN, NHB Historian
- Admiralty Library: Group analysis and presentation of naval action reports
- HMS Warrior: Guided study of propulsion, hull construction, and weaponry
Thursday, July 16, Imperial War Museum, London and HMS Belfast:
- Lecture on the Royal Navy and British society; IWM Historian
- Guided tour of Museum, Dr. Nick Hewitt
- IWM Reading Room: Access to research material and oral histories
- HMS Belfast, Washington Treaty light cruiser (launched 1938): Guided tour
Thursday, July 23, Fleet Air Arm Museum, RNAS Yeovilton*:
- Guided tour of Fleet Air Arm Museum and Fly Navy 100 exhibition
- Guided tour of Reserve Collection in Cobham Hall
- Archives Room: Material relating to the early years of naval aviation
- Lecture on early naval aviation, David Morris, Curator
* Security information for each delegate will be needed in advance of this visit.
Reading List
Required reading (all in print in the USA):
Geoffrey Bennett, The Battle of Jutland (Wordsworth, 1999). [ISBN 1 84022 204 2]
Robert Gardner and Andrew Steam Lambert, Steel and Shellfire: The Steam Warship 1815–1905 (Conway, 2001). [ISBN 0 78581 413 2]
Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of British Naval Mastery (Humanity Books, 2006). [ISBN 1 59102 374 2]
Lawren Sondhaus, Naval Warfare 1815–1914 (Routledge, 2001). [ISBN 0 41521 478 5]
Julian Thompson, The War at Sea 1914–1918 (Pan/Imperial War Museum, 2006). [ISBN 0 330 49172 5]
Recommended background reading, not essential but helpful:
(some are out of print but are available in the United States through Amazon.com or in libraries)
Geoffrey Bennett, Naval Battles of the First World War (Penguin, 2002). [ISBN 0 14139 087 5]
David K. Brown, Before the Ironclad: Ship Design, Propulsion and Armament in the Royal Navy 1815–60 (Conway, 1999). [ISBN 0 85177 532 2]
Paul G. Halpern, A Naval History of World War I (Routledge, 1995). [ISBN 1 85728 498 4]
J. R. Hill and B. Ranft, eds., The Oxford Illustrated History of the Royal Navy, chapters 6 to 11 only (Oxford University Press, 2002). [ISBN 0 19 860527 7]
Richard Hill, War at Sea in the Ironclad Age (Cassell, 2000). [ISBN 0 304 36267 0]
Capt. Peter Hore, The Habit of Victory: The Story of the Royal Navy 1545 to 1945, chapters 8 to 10 only (Sidgwick & Jackson, 2005). [ISBN 0 283 07312 8]
John Keegan, The Price of Admiralty : The Evolution of Naval Warfare (Penguin, 1990). [ISBN 01 4009 650 7]
Arthur J. Marder, From the Dreadnought to Scapa Flow: The Road to War 1904–1914, vol. 1 (Oxford University Press, 1972).
John Terraine, Business in Great Waters: The U-boat Wars 1916–1945, Introduction and Part 1 only (Wordsworth, 1999). [ISBN 1 84022 201 8]
Credit and Enrollment Information
X410 (3 semester units in History)
(EDP 285205)