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Childers Incident
The ''Childers'' Incident of 2 January 1793 marked the opening shots between British and French forces during the French Revolutionary Wars, the first phase of a 23-year-long war between the two countries. Following the French Revolution of 1789, diplomatic relations between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the First French Republic, French Republic had steadily deteriorated and France was in political and social turmoil. One of the strongest hotbeds of republican activity was the principal Atlantic naval base of the French Navy at Brest, France, Brest in Brittany, the scene of a significant mutiny in 1790. On 2 January a small British warship, the 14-gun brig HMS Childers (1778), HMS ''Childers'' under Commander Robert Barlow (Royal Navy officer), Robert Barlow, was ordered to enter the Roadstead of Brest to reconnoitre the state of readiness of the French fleet. As ''Childers'' entered the Goulet de Brest, the vessel came under fire from French batteries flying the Flag of Fra ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Goulet De Brest
The Goulet de Brest is a 3-km-long strait linking the roadstead of Brest to the Atlantic Ocean. Only 1.8 km wide, the is situated between the Pointe du Petit Minou and the Pointe du Portzic to the north and the îlot des Capucins and the Pointe des Espagnols to the south. At each turn of the tide, the ocean refills the roadstead in a current that can attain 4 to 5 knot (unit), knots. Sailing ships would thus wait in the cove of Camaret-sur-Mer for a favourable current to carry them into the . On 2 January 1793, the Childers Incident, ''Childers'' Incident – the first shots of the war between Great Britain and France during the French Revolutionary Wars – took place in the . Military significance It is the only opening into the roadstead of Brest, France, Brest, and thus the only access to the town. Consequently, successive French governments have lined the with military installations to protect the town and the naval fleet based there, and to keep a watch on shipp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Louis XVI
Louis XVI (''Louis-Auguste''; ; 23 August 175421 January 1793) was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as ''Citizen Louis Capet'' during the four months just before he was executed by guillotine. He was the son of Louis, Dauphin of France, son and heir-apparent of King Louis XV, and Maria Josepha of Saxony. When his father died in 1765, he became the new Dauphin. Upon his grandfather's death on 10 May 1774, he became King of France and Navarre, reigning as such until 4 September 1791, when he received the title of King of the French, continuing to reign as such until the monarchy was abolished on 21 September 1792. The first part of his reign was marked by attempts to reform the French government in accordance with Enlightenment ideas. These included efforts to abolish serfdom, remove the ''taille'' (land tax) and the '' corvée'' (labour tax), and increase tolerance toward non-Catholics as well as ab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
îlot Des Capucins
Îlot des Capucins (''Islet of the Capuchins'') is a rocky islet at the foot of a cliff in the commune of Roscanvel on the Crozon peninsula. Its name comes from a rock near the island, shaped like a praying monk. It has a strategic position at the entrance to the goulet de Brest and so a fort sited on it controlled the whole of Camaret Bay, with views stretching from pointe du Grand Gouin (to the southwest), to fort de Bertheaume (to the northwest). The fort was built in 1848 after plans drawn 150 years earlier by Vauban, built in schist and granite Granite () is a coarse-grained ( phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies und ... and made up of an underground battery (1890) and a rapid-fire battery (1890)Michel Dion, ''Batteries, réduits, tours, forts, casemates... de Camaret et Roscanvel, Association du Mémo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pointe Du Portzic
The Portzic Lighthouse (french: phare du Portzic) is situated on the north-eastern extremity of the Goulet de Brest (Finistère, France) and is the nearest lighthouse to the town of Brest. It is a tall octagonal tower. On the seaward side of the bottleneck entrance to the goulet, the lighthouse faces the Pointe des Espagnols. It was built on military land in 1848, at the same time as the phare du Petit Minou (started slightly earlier to the north of the Goulet. It was electrified in 1953 and automated in 1994 (though a semaphore post set up at its base in 1987 to regulate traffic in and out of the goulet is still permanently manned). Characteristics *Signals: 1 main light for the sector with 2 flashes every 10 seconds (2 second flash then 6 second flash), accompanied by 2 twinkling directional lights in the direction of the Goulet, one continuous (one flash per second, known as the North signal, indicates to a navigator that he finds himself to the north of the channel), the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pointe Du Petit Minou
The Petit Minou Lighthouse () is a lighthouse in the roadstead of Brest, standing in front of the Fort du Petit Minou, in the commune of Plouzané. By aligning it with the Phare du Portzic, it shows the safe route to follow for ships to enter the roadstead. It also has a red signal that indicates a dangerous sector around the plateau of les Fillettes (literally "the girls"), one of the submerged rocks in the Goulet de Brest — sailors remember this by using the mnemonic "Le Minou rougit quand il couvre les Fillettes" ("the Minou blushes when he covers the girls"). Built between 1694 and 1697, the Fort du Petit Minou was a fort built in the commune of Plouzané in France to defend the goulet de Brest. As part of the massive fortification campaign of France under the direction of the Marquis de Vauban, construction on the Fort du Petit Minou bastion was finished in 1697. Two hundred and forty cannons and a formidable moat helped protect a waterway leading to the military port to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
British Admiralty
The Admiralty was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for the command of the Royal Navy until 1964, historically under its titular head, the Lord High Admiral – one of the Great Officers of State. For much of its history, from the early 18th century until its abolition, the role of the Lord High Admiral was almost invariably put "in commission" and exercised by the Lords Commissioner of the Admiralty, who sat on the governing Board of Admiralty, rather than by a single person. The Admiralty was replaced by the Admiralty Board in 1964, as part of the reforms that created the Ministry of Defence and its Navy Department (later Navy Command). Before the Acts of Union 1707, the Office of the Admiralty and Marine Affairs administered the Royal Navy of the Kingdom of England, which merged with the Royal Scots Navy and the absorbed the responsibilities of the Lord High Admiral of the Kingdom of Scotland with the unification of the Kingdom of G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rade De Brest
The roadstead of Brest (''rade de Brest'') is a roadstead or bay located in the Finistère department in Brittany in northwestern France. The surface area is about 180 km² (70 sq mi). The port of Brest and one of the two French naval bases, Brest Arsenal, are located on its northern edge. It is linked to the Atlantic Ocean (called the Iroise Sea at this point) by the ''Goulet de Brest'', a strait about 1.8 km wide. Three main rivers drain into the roadstead: the Penfeld (the town of Brest and the first buildings of the naval base were built on its banks), the Élorn (or river of Landerneau) and the Aulne (or river of Châteaulin). Strategic importance For a number of centuries, Brest has been an important military port. The easily defensible roadstead of Brest therefore has a number of military installations, for example: *Brest arsenal, on the north of the bay; *the submarine base of the Île Longue, to the south-west; *the École Navale naval college and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spanish Armament
The Nootka Crisis, also known as the Spanish Armament, was an international incident and political dispute between the Nuu-chah-nulth Nation, the Spanish Empire, the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the fledgling United States of America triggered by a series of events revolving around sovereignty claims and rights of navigation and trade. It took place during the summer of 1789 at the Spanish outpost Santa Cruz de Nuca, in Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island in present-day British Columbia, Canada. The commander of the outpost, Jose Esteban MartÃnez, seized some British commercial ships which had come for the maritime fur trade and to build a permanent post at Nootka Sound. Public outcry in Britain led to the mobilization of the Royal Navy, and the possibility of war. Both sides called upon allies, the Dutch joined the side of Britain; Spain mobilized their navy and her key ally France also mobilized theirs, but the latter soon announced they would not go to war. Without French help, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Kingdom of France, France. The modern Royal Navy traces its origins to the early 16th century; the oldest of the British Armed Forces, UK's armed services, it is consequently known as the Senior Service. From the middle decades of the 17th century, and through the 18th century, the Royal Navy vied with the Dutch Navy and later with the French Navy for maritime supremacy. From the mid 18th century, it was the world's most powerful navy until the World War II, Second World War. The Royal Navy played a key part in establishing and defending the British Empire, and four Imperial fortress colonies and a string of imperial bases and coaling stations secured the Royal Navy's ability to assert naval superiority ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Pitt The Younger
William Pitt the Younger (28 May 175923 January 1806) was a British statesman, the youngest and last prime minister of Great Britain (before the Acts of Union 1800) and then first Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, prime minister of the United Kingdom (of Great Britain and Ireland) as of January 1801. He left office in March 1801, but served as prime minister again from 1804 until his death in 1806. He was also Chancellor of the Exchequer for all of his time as prime minister. He is known as "Pitt the Younger" to distinguish him from his father, William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, who had previously served as prime minister and is referred to as "William Pitt the Elder" (or "Chatham" by historians). Pitt's prime ministerial tenure, which came during the reign of King George III of the United Kingdom, George III, was dominated by major political events in Europe, including the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars. Pitt, although often referred to as a Tory (British polit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prime Minister Of Great Britain
The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern prime ministers hold office by virtue of their ability to command the confidence of the House of Commons, they sit as members of Parliament. The office of prime minister is not established by any statute or constitutional document, but exists only by long-established convention, whereby the reigning monarch appoints as prime minister the person most likely to command the confidence of the House of Commons; this individual is typically the leader of the political party or coalition of parties that holds the largest number of seats in that chamber. The prime minister is '' ex officio'' also First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and the minister responsible for national security. Indeed, certain privileges, such as r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant. The Sea has played a central role in the history of Western civilization. Geological evidence indicates that around 5.9 million years ago, the Mediterranean was cut off from the Atlantic and was partly or completely desiccated over a period of some 600,000 years during the Messinian salinity crisis before being refilled by the Zanclean flood about 5.3 million years ago. The Mediterranean Sea covers an area of about , representing 0.7% of the global ocean surface, but its connection to the Atlantic via the Strait of Gibraltar—the narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates the Iberian Peninsula in Europe from Morocco in Africa—is only wide. The Mediterranean ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
