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HMS Royal George (1756)
HMS ''Royal George'' was a ship of the line of the Royal Navy. A first-rate with 100 guns on three decks, she was the largest warship in the world at the time of her launch on 18 February 1756. Construction at Woolwich Dockyard had taken ten years. The ship saw immediate service during the Seven Years' War, including the Raid on Rochefort in 1757. She was Admiral Sir Edward Hawke's flagship at the Battle of Quiberon Bay in 1759. The ship was laid up following the conclusion of the war in 1763, but was reactivated in 1777 for the American Revolutionary War. She then served as Rear Admiral Robert Digby's flagship at the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1780. ''Royal George'' sank on 29 August 1782 whilst anchored at Spithead off Portsmouth. The ship was intentionally rolled so maintenance could be performed on the hull, but the roll became unstable and out of control; the ship took on water and sank. More than 800 people died, making it one of the most deadly maritime disasters in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First-rate
In the rating system of the British Royal Navy used to categorise sailing warships, a first rate was the designation for the largest ships of the line. Originating in the Jacobean era with the designation of Ships Royal capable of carrying at least 400 men, the size and establishment of first-rates evolved over the following 250 years to eventually denote ships of the line carrying at least 80 guns across three gundecks. By the end of the eighteenth century, a first-rate carried no fewer than 100 guns and more than 850 crew, and had a measurement (burthen) tonnage of some 2,000 tons. Origins The concept of a rating system for British naval vessels dates to the accession of James I of England, following which the fleet was formally divided into "great", "middling" and "lesser" craft. A 1618 commission of enquiry added a further designation of "Ships Royal" for the largest and most prestigious vessels in the fleet, each capable of carrying at least 400 men. The first Ships Roy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
HMS Cambridge (1755)
HMS ''Cambridge'' was an 80-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, designed by Sir Joseph Allin and built at Deptford Dockyard by Adam Hayes to the draught specified by the 1745 Establishment as amended in 1750, and launched on 21 October 1755. Early career ''Cambridge''’s first captain was Sir Peircy Brett, who had previously been in command of HMY ''Royal Caroline''. He was moved to the ''Cambridge'' in expectation of the outbreak of hostilities with France. With the outbreak of the Seven Years' War, Brett left the command in November or December 1756. He was replaced by Captain William Gordon. Gordon also did not spend long aboard ''Cambridge'', leaving in April 1757 to take command of the newly launched HMS ''Princess Amelia''. His successor was Captain Thomas Burnet, who was promoted to Post-Captain on 5 May. ''Cambridge'' then became Commodore Sir John Moore's flagship on the West Indies Station. ''Cambridge'' remained on this station for several yea ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laid Up
A reserve fleet is a collection of naval vessels of all types that are fully equipped for service but are not currently needed; they are partially or fully decommissioned. A reserve fleet is informally said to be "in mothballs" or "mothballed"; an equivalent expression in unofficial modern US naval usage is "ghost fleet". In earlier times, especially in British usage, the ships were said to be "laid up in ordinary". Overview Such ships are held in reserve against a time when it may be necessary to call them back into service. They are usually tied up in backwater areas near naval bases or shipyards in order to speed the reactivation process. They may be modified for storage during such a period, for instance by having rust-prone areas sealed off or wrapped in plastic or, in the case of sailing warships, the masts removed. While being held in the reserve fleet, ships typically have a minimal crew (known informally as a skeleton crew) to ensure that they stay in somewhat usable co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Royal Engineers
The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the '' Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is headed by the Chief Royal Engineer. The Regimental Headquarters and the Royal School of Military Engineering are in Chatham in Kent, England. The corps is divided into several regiments, barracked at various places in the United Kingdom and around the world. History The Royal Engineers trace their origins back to the military engineers brought to England by William the Conqueror, specifically Bishop Gundulf of Rochester Cathedral, and claim over 900 years of unbroken service to the crown. Engineers have always served in the armies of the Crown; however, the origins of the modern corps, along with those of the Royal Artillery, lie in the Board of Ordnance established in the 15th century. In Woolwich in 1716, the Board formed the Roy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Pasley
General Sir Charles William Pasley (8 September 1780 – 19 April 1861) was a British soldier and military engineer who wrote the defining text on the role of the post- American Revolution British Empire: ''An Essay on the Military Policy and Institutions of the British Empire'', published in 1810. This text changed how Britons thought their empire should relate to the rest of the world. He warned that Britain could not keep its Empire by its "splendid isolation". Britain would need to fight to gain its empire, and by using the colonies as a resource for soldiers and sailors it grew by an average of per year between the Battle of Waterloo and the American Civil War. Serving in the Royal Engineers in the Napoleonic Wars, he was Europe's leading demolitions expert and siege warfare specialist. Life Pasley was born at Eskdale Muir, Dumfriesshire, on 8 September 1780. He was highly intelligent, capable of translating the New Testament from Greek at the age of eight. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diving Helmet
A diving helmet is a rigid head enclosure with a breathing gas supply used in underwater diving. They are worn mainly by professional divers engaged in surface-supplied diving, though some models can be used with scuba equipment. The upper part of the helmet, known colloquially as the ''hat'' or ''bonnet'', may be sealed directly to the diver using a ''neck dam'', connected to a diving suit by a lower part, known as a ''breastplate'', or ''corselet'', depending on regional language preferences. or simply rest on the diver's shoulders, with an open bottom, for shallow water use. The helmet isolates the diver's head from the water, allows the diver to see clearly underwater, provides the diver with breathing gas, protects the diver's head when doing heavy or dangerous work, and usually provides voice communications with the surface (and possibly other divers). If a helmeted diver becomes unconscious but is still breathing, most helmets will remain in place and continue to deliv ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Deane (inventor)
John Deane (1800–1884; known as The ''Infernal Diver''), with his brother Charles, invented the diving helmet and performed diving operations at the wreck of the ''Mary Rose''. They received their education at The Royal Hospital School, Greenwich and were both in attendance in 1812. When he was 14, John joined the East India Company and sailed for seven years. In the 1820s, John was present in England when horses were trapped by fire in a stable. To get through the smoke and fire fumes he put on a medieval knight-in-armour helmet air-pumped by hose from a fire brigade water pump and rescued all the horses. In 1823, he patented a "Smoke Helmet" to be used by firemen in smoke-filled areas; the full title is given as ''"Apparatus or Machines to be worn by Persons entering Rooms or other places filled with Smoke of other Vapour, for the purpose of extinguishing Fire, or extricating Persons or Property therein"''. The apparatus comprised a copper helmet with an attached flexible ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Anthony Deane
Charles Anthony Deane (1796–1848) was a pioneering diving engineer, inventor of the diving helmet. Life Born in Deptford, Charles and his brother John studied at the Greenwich Hospital School for Boys (the former buildings of which are now the National Maritime Museum) to become merchant seamen, going to sea at the age of 14 for a period of 7 years before returning to Deptford. Charles Deane then took up employment as a caulker at Barnard's Shipyard. During this time he realised the problem of fighting fires within the holds of ships. In the 1820s John Deane was present in England when horses were trapped by fire in a stable. To get through the smoke and fire fumes he put on a medieval knight-in-armor helmet air-pumped by hose from a fire brigade water pump, and rescued all the horses.http://scubaeds.com/10.html Scuba Ed's - History of scuba diving In 1823 he patented a "Smoke Helmet" to be used by firemen in smoke-filled areas; the full title is given as ''"Apparatus or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Diving Bell
A diving bell is a rigid chamber used to transport divers from the surface to depth and back in open water, usually for the purpose of performing underwater work. The most common types are the open-bottomed wet bell and the closed bell, which can maintain an internal pressure greater than the external ambient. Diving bells are usually suspended by a cable, and lifted and lowered by a winch from a surface support platform. Unlike a submersible, the diving bell is not designed to move under the control of its occupants, nor to operate independently of its launch and recovery system. The wet bell is a structure with an airtight chamber which is open to the water at the bottom, that is lowered underwater to operate as a base or a means of transport for a small number of divers. Air is trapped inside the bell by pressure of the water at the interface. These were the first type of diving chamber, and are still in use in modified form. The closed bell is a pressure vessel for human ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charles Spalding
Charles Spalding (29 October 1738 – 2 June 1783) was an Edinburgh confectioner and amateur engineer who made improvements to the diving bell. He died while diving to the wreck of the ''Belgioso'' in Dublin Bay using a diving bell of his own design. Early life Charles Spalding was born in Canongate in Scotland on 29 October 1738, the son of Charles Spalding and Ann Findlay. His father was a bookseller in Canongate. As the son of a merchant, the younger Spalding eventually became a shop-lad. Possessing a natural inclination towards mechanics, Spalding spent much of his free time as a youth exploring this interest. Spalding eventually became the proprietor of a sugar refining and confectionery shop across from the Royal Exchange on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. Improvements to Halley's diving bell Spalding's introduction to diving was more the result of necessity than choice. Heavily invested in the brig ''Peggy'', Spalding suffered a severe financial blow when she sank ''en ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Solent
The Solent ( ) is a strait between the Isle of Wight and Great Britain. It is about long and varies in width between , although the Hurst Spit which projects into the Solent narrows the sea crossing between Hurst Castle and Colwell Bay to just over . The Solent is a major shipping lane for passenger, freight and military vessels. It is an important recreational area for water sports, particularly yachting, hosting the Cowes Week sailing event annually. It is sheltered by the Isle of Wight and has a complex tidal pattern, which has benefited Southampton's success as a port, providing a "double high tide" that extends the tidal window during which deep-draught ships can be handled. Portsmouth lies on its shores. Spithead, an area off Gilkicker Point near Gosport, is known as the place where the Royal Navy is traditionally reviewed by the monarch of the day. The area is of great ecological and landscape importance, particularly because of the coastal and estuarine hab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Territorial Waters
The term territorial waters is sometimes used informally to refer to any area of water over which a sovereign state has jurisdiction, including internal waters, the territorial sea, the contiguous zone, the exclusive economic zone, and potentially the extended continental shelf. In a narrower sense, the term is used as a synonym for the territorial sea. Baseline Normally, the baseline from which the territorial sea is measured is the low-water line along the coast as marked on large-scale charts officially recognized by the coastal state. This is either the low-water mark closest to the shore, or alternatively it may be an unlimited distance from permanently exposed land, provided that some portion of elevations exposed at low tide but covered at high tide (like mud flats) is within of permanently exposed land. Straight baselines can alternatively be defined connecting fringing islands along a coast, across the mouths of rivers, or with certain restrictions across the mout ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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