Some thoughts on how an online naval game can illuminate the deliberations of the 1905 Committee on Designs.

Some thoughts on how an online naval game can illuminate the deliberations of the 1905 Committee on Designs.

John Hodgkinson was one of those very rare Victorian sailors who wrote an extensive account of life on the lower deck of the Royal Navy. His five years in HMS Highflyer included experiencing the 'smell of powder' in the Second Anglo-Chinese War of 1856 to 1860. When he returned from war, and seeing no prospects in the service, he bought himself out of his engagement and anonymously wrote a book about his experiences.

Victorian admiral who served as a boy in the Crimean War and as a Rear Admiral on the China Station at the turn of the nineteenth century. A fine seaman and a progressive officer, his career was blighted by his own lack of tact when advocating change within the Royal Navy.

These broadside ironclads of the Royal Navy were the flagships of the Channel Squadron all their active lives, from 1867 to 1887. They were every inch what the mid-Victorian public expected of a battleship; the largest ships in commission, the longest single screw ships ever built and spreading an impressive suite of sails on no less than five masts. And yet they were obsolescent within five years, and obsolete within ten.

On the afternoon of 22 June 1893, the flagship of the Royal Navy's premier fleet was sunk in collision with a companion battleship, with the death of 358 men. The collision was caused by a minor, but fatal, error in the orders of the fleet commander, Vice Admiral Tryon. Although the error was immediately obvious to his captains, none of them took action to avoid the inevitable collision. Why?

Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebrations included a naval review in the waters of Spithead on 26 June 1897 of 165 warships of the Royal Navy. The occasion was a not so subtle demonstration of the absolute supremacy of the Royal Navy at the height of its power. But the seeds of decline of British naval mastery can be traced in the careers of three ships of foreign nations invited to witness this show of dominance.