How did the British Navy pass orders to its fleet before radio?
score:15
According to Brian Lavery's "Nelson's Navy"[1], communication between the Admiralty and the fleets (at least during the French Revolutionary/Napoleonic Wars) was performed by the navy's own vessels. As noted in a previous answer, these were refered to as despatch vessels or despatch boats[2], and the role was usually filled by a variety of schooners and cutters attached to the fleets for this purpose. However, as Lavery also notes, any warship that was heading in the right direction might be used. The term "despatch vessel" seems to have referred to a role rather than a type of ship in the same way that, at the time, a "cruiser" was any type of warship sailing on detached operations.
The Admiralty Regulations[3] required that all communication from the commander-in-chief of a fleet or squadron on a foreign station (i.e. outside of home waters) to the Admiralty, was to be sent in duplicate and triplicate "by different conveyances". The aim of which, presumably, was to increase the chances of the communication reaching the intended destination.
The most famous examples of these despatch vessels would be the schooner Pickle and the cutter Entreprenante, which were with the British fleet at Trafalgar. These vessels were both sent home carrying duplicates of Collingwood's despatches following the battle, with the Entreprenante following the Pickle a couple of days later.
In contrast, Nelson sent the first copy of his despatches following the battle of the Nile on board HMS Leander (a 50-gun, forth-rate), as his fleet had lost most of its smaller vessels earlier in the campaign. Another copy was sent on the brig Mutine to Naples[4]. The Leander was captured by a French 74-gun ship and her copy of the despatches was dropped overboard, which illustrates why there was the requirement for multiple copies.
The prior to 1823, packet boats were operated by the post office to move mail, goods and passengers. These operated on a regular schedule from a number of ports around the British coast to locations in Europe, the Americas (including the West Indies) and Africa. Mail to the East Indies would have been carried on HEIC ships. The cross-channel services worked on the most frequent schedule with 2-3 sailings a week, while sailings to more distant locations were once a week or greater[5]. While that sort of frequency would have been acceptable for delivery of personal mail, it would have been unsuitable for the timely delivery of wartime orders and despatches.
After 1823, much of the work of the packet boats was taken over by the Royal Navy (who were trying to find a use for many of the small ships remaining from the Napoleonic period). So the distinction between despatch vessel and packet boat becomes less well defined. Although it's noted that the Navy's existing ships were ill-suited to the essentially civilian role and new ships were built to fit the purpose.
[1] "Nelson's Navy, The Ships, Men and Organisation, 1793-1815", B. Lavery (Conway, 1989) Pg 263
[2] "British Warships in the age of sail, 1793-1817", R.Winfield (Seaforth, 2005) Pg 359
[3] "Regulations and Instructions relating to HM's Service at Sea" (1808) Ch.2, Article XI
[4] "Nelson's Battles, the Triumph of British Seapower" N.Tracy (Seaforth, 2008) Pg 142
[5] "History of the Post-Office Packet Service between the years 1793-1815" A.H.Norway (Macmillan, 1895) Pg 8
Upvote:6
Before the telegraph, communication was normally by post, which was an office or shack for handling the mail. Military communications were handled right alongside civilian messages and for this reason the post was almost always operated by the government. Each route went over land or by sea as was most convenient and sometimes both. In many cases private contractors would be employed to carry the mail between posts, in which case the packages of mail, called "packets" were sealed in some way to prevent the contractor from reading them. The business of carrying packets was called in England the "packet trade" and was a large business. Special, fast boats called "packet ships" were used to carry the packets and conduct other time-sensitive business.
Naval ships operated according to written orders and would periodically put in to a port to report and collect orders which would be found waiting for them. Military ships used the regular (Royal) post, except in very exceptional circumstances.
In places where maintaining a post was impossible due to cost or political considerations, then the Navy would try to use an embassy as the post. In very remote or dangerous places a standing ship would be used as the post.
Any British ship carrying official mail usually had a special pennant indicating that it was a mail ship.
Upvote:13
They sent ships to the various headquarters with messages. Ships would return to their local headquarters to receive orders periodically. Failing that, the HQ would send another ship to the place where a particular ship was operating.
I suppose the navy might have used commercial ships if convenient, but in most cases had to use their own sloops and frigates for the purpose. Commercial ships usually lacked the crews for operating efficiently at high speeds and in foul weather.
As transoceanic trips could take weeks to months, this method took that kind of time.
More post
- 📝 Did the Allies try to "bribe" Franco to join them in World War II?
- 📝 What does this spear & carpentry square symbol mean?
- 📝 How effective were German SS units compared to non-SS Heer units?
- 📝 Why did Xerxes choose Hellespont over Bosphorus?
- 📝 How were Warrant Officers appointed to Royal Navy ships during the Age of Sail?
- 📝 Did the Americans trade destroyers in the "destroyer deal" that they would later need themselves?
- 📝 What military power would ever pre-announce an attack to give the enemy time to work up a defense?
- 📝 How to cite sources in a way thats translateable
- 📝 In American Civil War era paper cartridges, what was taking up the space between powder and bullet?
- 📝 In the Soviet Union, why was the Cheka renamed so many times?
- 📝 What came before the Zamboni?
- 📝 Did the queen have any say in the king's council of Mauryan empire?
- 📝 How serious was the initiative to create "One World Airline"?
- 📝 Apart from the White Ship in 1120, have there been any other maritime disasters in which an heir to a throne and/or many notable people died?
- 📝 Why were Morocco and Tunisia made a French protectorate, but Algeria annexed as part of France?
- 📝 Did French ever have any special status in Austria?
- 📝 How many British prisoners of war were taken by the Wehrmacht and how many died?
- 📝 Why are there distinct Orthodox and Catholic Christian communities in Bosnia and Hercegovina?
- 📝 Where did Cimon spend his time while in exile?
- 📝 How do historians agree on what common evidence should be used in the writing of history?
- 📝 Since when is the Nile Delta known as "Delta"?
- 📝 Why did Hadrian put Jupiter's statue in Beith Hamikdash?
- 📝 Did books from classical times delay scientific progress in the middle ages?
- 📝 Where can I find primary sources on mortars/artillery in world war one?
- 📝 Was Hitler exclaiming "Heil Hitler!" himself when saluting?
- 📝 Was Christopher Columbus Polish?
- 📝 What day of the week was the Battle of the Eclipse 585 BC?
- 📝 Quantitative comparison of transportation cost per kilometer over the centuries?
- 📝 Why couldn't soldiers sight their own weapons without officers' orders?
- 📝 Did the Kirk-Holden War happen?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 How did the British Navy pass orders to its fleet before radio?
- 📝 How did Napoleon evade the British fleet and return to France?
- 📝 How much tax revenue did the British Empire receive from its colonies in a given year?
- 📝 How much firepower did the British navy represent in 1940?
- 📝 How many ships did the fleet of the Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie (VOC) possess at its peak (around 1670)?
- 📝 Did any British working class men have the vote before 1918?
- 📝 Why didn't the British Grand Fleet force an engagement with the German Imperial Navy in WW1?
- 📝 How did people have access to ice in warm areas before the industrial revolution?
- 📝 How did people say “I have to go to the bathroom” before the bathroom and pipes were common?
- 📝 When and how did the West lose its dependency on the USSR for Titanium?
- 📝 How many British navy officers were from lower classes at the end of 18th century?
- 📝 How did the British keep Enigma 'snatches' secret?
- 📝 How did lecturers magnify their voice in the days before amplification?
- 📝 How did the elite maintain the status quo throughout the British Colonies of North America?
- 📝 How did Egypt become a protectorate of the British empire?
- 📝 How strong a land force did Germany need for a conquest of the British Isles in the summer of 1940?
- 📝 How did the US "Greek" fraternity system at universities arise and what is its relationship with ancient Greece?
- 📝 How did the British Army unit size and structure in WWI change from 1915 to 1918?
- 📝 How did American colonial rights and conditions compare to those within the British Isles?
- 📝 How did Islam spread before the invention of the printing press?
- 📝 How long did Adolf Hitler serve on the front lines as an infantryman in WWI before becoming a courier?
- 📝 How did people receive news before the advent of the newspaper?
- 📝 Did the dramatic improvement in survival rates of scurvy in the Royal Navy significantly affect British port cities?
- 📝 How did Lincoln know to stick with Grant before the completion of the Vicksburg campaign?
- 📝 How did East Indies oil lose its "top billing" in the Pacific War as the war went on?
- 📝 How did Victorian British conservatives resolve the tension between valuing tradition and spreading empire?
- 📝 How come the British did not notify the Poles about the Molotov-Ribbentrop secret protocol?
- 📝 How did the Crimean war change British society?
- 📝 How did the US Navy raise sunken battleships in WWII?
- 📝 How did British people cope with damp/mould without central heating in the past?