Where did France build up its fleet in 1805-1814?
score:11
Where were these 80 French Ships of the Line constructed? In all of the same ports, harbors and rivers of France that the previous ships had been, with the addition of other construction yards in allied/occupied countries in Europe. Given that France either directly occupied or held sway over most of continental Europe, they didn't have the same shortages of materials (timber especially) that the British did.
From 1807 till 1813 Bonaparte was building or massing line of battleships at the Texel, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Flushing, Antwerp, Cherbourg, Brest, L'Orient and Rochefort, Bordeaux, Toulon, Genoa, Naples and Venice and was building frigates in lesser dockyards. He was building new harbors or fortifying old ones at Flushing, Antwerp, Cherbourg, and Pola. New ships built in Genoa seized opportunities to slip along the coast and join the main Mediterranean fleet in Toulon. Pola was fortified as an intended (but never used) base for his new Adriatic squadron, whose ships were best built in the dockyards at Venice but had difficulty in getting in and out of that port's shallow waters.
The French Fleet, 1807-1814: Britain's problem and Madisson's opportunity, Glover
Why didn't the British raid these ports to destroy these newly built vessels? The simple answer is that it would have been too costly. The British success in capturing the Danish fleet at Copenhagen in 1807 might give the impression that they could do that sort of thing at will. However, that success relied on the bulk of the Danish army being in the south of the country defending against possible attack by the French.
However, conducting that kind of operation against a fortified French port would have been a very different proposition. While the attack against the French fleet at Basque Roads (1809) was a notable if limited success, it was largely because of the panic in the French fleet that left a number of their ships aground. The attacking force was mainly small vessels and fireships because the British commanding officer wouldn't risk committing his ships of the line into the shallow waters of the bay. The chances of a more successful raid on a better prepared and fortified port (such as Brest or Toulon) were far, far lower.
Reference:
The French Fleet, 1807-1814: Britain's problem and Madisson's opportunity, Richard Glover, The Journal of Modern History
Vol. 39, No. 3 (Sep., 1967), pp. 233-252 (20 pages)
More post
- 📝 Was Cossack cavalry ineffective relative to other troops?
- 📝 Were travelling judges paid in medieval England?
- 📝 Was early marriage of queens not considered pedophilia?
- 📝 When did the last (non-tourist) commercial stagecoach line run in the USA?
- 📝 What was the first recorded reference to the fact that the sun rises and sets at different times across the Earth?
- 📝 Does the idea of white Europeans being the "true Aryans" come from the British India?
- 📝 Which George V stamp would be used for a letter sent from London to Sweden in 1919/1920?
- 📝 Which historic figure does William Bolitho refer to with "The greatest adventurer that ever lived ended as a nervous, banal millionaire"?
- 📝 Why didn't all non-Russian states become independent during the collapse of the Soviet Union?
- 📝 How did people react to Cavendish bananas when they first replaced the Gros Michel strain?
- 📝 What computer was used in 1958 for handwriting recognition by Dimond?
- 📝 Were ancient people interested in archaeology?
- 📝 Pigs in ancient Israel
- 📝 When did the Portuguese decide to extend their West African exploration to finding a sea passage to India?
- 📝 Was Willem the Silent Dutch?
- 📝 Battle of Xiaoting: was Shu's invasion doomed from the start?
- 📝 When did the English and Americans realize that vegetables were healthy?
- 📝 During WW2, Did Great Britain have any forced workers in the English coal mines
- 📝 Why did the United States decide to cross over the 38th parallel to North Korea after they attacked South Korea?
- 📝 Are there any records of Turks settling in Anatolia before the 11th century?
- 📝 What was more expensive to lose in a gladiatorial fight: a gladiator or a rare animal?
- 📝 Did Charlemagne save Latin literature?
- 📝 Was it normal for New York schools in the late 1960s to be desegregated?
- 📝 Were Roman males ever named after their mothers?
- 📝 Did the Jews move from Palestine to Germany?
- 📝 Had any 20th century navies used damage-control specialized vessels in battle fleets?
- 📝 Did the Ottoman government rationalize the Armenian Genocide and other instances of ethnic cleansing as a response to Russian expansion?
- 📝 Was there any war won by the victim without sending forces to lands/seas/air of the attacker?
- 📝 Military Strategy of Carnot
- 📝 What happened to all the Germans living east of the Oder?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Where did France build up its fleet in 1805-1814?
- 📝 How did the British Navy pass orders to its fleet before radio?
- 📝 How did France worsen its relationship with Turkey?
- 📝 Why did France put so many resources into fighting Algeria in comparison to its other former colonial holdings?
- 📝 Where did the money come from to build the Colosseum?
- 📝 Did c.1900 France have a law against foreign government resisting its conquest?
- 📝 How did 2nd century Romans decide where to build Hadrian's wall?
- 📝 How many ships did the fleet of the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) possess at its peak (around 1670)?
- 📝 Why did France renounce its claim on St Paul and Amsterdam Islands?
- 📝 Where did the railroad companies find workers to build the rails?
- 📝 Where other than Kronstadt did the Russian American Company train its employees?
- 📝 Did Empress Cixi divert funds for the Beiyang Fleet to build the Summer Palace?
- 📝 Where did the masquerade ball come from and what was its original concept?
- 📝 Why did Britain and France not declare war against the Soviet Union when it invaded Poland in WW2?
- 📝 Where did the Romans store their cash?
- 📝 Are there confirmed cases where a country changed its language without being conquered?
- 📝 Where did Hitler get the funds to invest in economic development programs such as the autobahn when the German economy was in a depression?
- 📝 Where did Asian Americans go to school during the 'separate but equal' era?
- 📝 Where did the Gaels originate?
- 📝 Where did Medieval Europe's gold come from?
- 📝 Transatlantic Zeppelin trips usually took > 100 hours. How did they stock enough food, and where did they sleep?
- 📝 Why did Poland keep Warsaw as its capital instead of returning it to Krakow in the 20th century?
- 📝 Why did the Republic of China retract its simplified Chinese characters?
- 📝 Where did the “vikings wear helmets with horn” stereotype come from and why?
- 📝 Why did Italy abandon its alliance with Germany in WW1 and join the Allied side?
- 📝 When and where did socks become common?
- 📝 Where did Hannibal cross the Pyrenees?
- 📝 Did Germany's role in WW2 affect the historical perception of its role in WW1?
- 📝 Why did the Soviet Union close its borders and restrict travel abroad?
- 📝 Where did the archived discussions in Google Groups come from?