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| This Week in Books, May 12, 2019 | |
| 2019-05-12 | |
| Naval Warfare Under Oars William Ledyard Rodgers, Vice Admiral, U.S. Navy Naval Institute Press, 1967 Originally published in the late 1930's, Vice Admiral Rodgers spent years accumulating the knowledge for his study of strategy, tactics, and ship design from the 4th to the 16th centuries. That is, from the Romans to England vs. Spanish Armada. Vice Admiral Rodgers is concise in his conclusions, and includes a number of diagrams and illustrations which support his conclusions. Page 73 From this survival of the old Norse ship and many incidental allusions in the contemporary sagas we are able to derive a fairly clear idea of the much larger ships which were built by the end of the tenth century, and the number of men they carried. The largest ship named in the sagas is one which King Canute of Denmark, England, and Norway built and which had, so it is said, 60 rowers' benches. But this tale may be rejected with little consideration, for until wooden ships were strapped with iron less than a century and a half ago, they lacked sea-going strength if over 200 feet long, and 60 benches would have needed a craft of over 200 feet. The most celebrated ship of the Norsemen was the Long Serpent of King Olaf Tryggevesson, built just before the close of the tenth century, and on which he met his death at the battle of Svold in 1000 A.D. She was remembered for several generations as the standard for comparison, and was said to be the most costly ship ever built in Norway. Interestingly, the book was written and published right at the cusp of further-than-sight detection and the age of the aircraft carrier. Not knowing this, he includes Alonzo de Chaves preparing the Spanish navy for conflict with the Turks with his statement of orders. Page 146 The commander in chief must keep record of all. After battle, having assembled his fleet he takes care of the wounded and makes a list of dead, and the distribution of booty. He must make port and get supplies and repairs. Wise advice from hundreds of years ago. The book concludes with a study of Spain vs. England, the infamous Spanish Armada, so callously covered in all of my history classes — one teacher being just about, "Spanish Armada, ha ha storm, sail around Britain." There was a lot going on there. As for the fleet, here is Spain attempting to kit out their ships: Page 269 As for the ships, there was not great difference in the build of merchantmen and men-of-war at that time. They could be changed from one class to the other by adding or removing a few pieces of artillery and this at first thought might seem an advantage for the sovereign, as he did not need to maintain a permanent navy, having only to requisition ships and man them with his own subjects or any foreigners who happened to be in port. Really the advantage was not great. In these merchant ships impressed for the royal service it was necessary to make many alterations to fit them for war. The guns had to be placed aboard and emplacements built for them and many fittings and sometimes an extra temporary deck had to be built in to accommodate the soldiers. Storerooms for powder and shot were also built in and there was loss of charter money while the ships were fitting out. It is a scholarly book, but not without a bit of flair. For instance, I do not think Vice Admiral Rodgers had a favorable opinion about Queen Elizabeth. The explanations are clear, the math understandable, the diagrams perfect in that old school drafting sense. In a sense this is the sequel to his book Greek and Roman Naval Warfare, but this book stands alone.
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| Posted by:swksvolFF |