Western Squadron

Last updated
Western Squadron
Naval Ensign of the United Kingdom.svg
Activeorigin,1650-1690
formally established 1746-1854
Country United Kingdom
Allegiance British Empire
Branch Royal Navy
TypeSquadron
Role Blockade
Patrol
Trade Protection
Garrison/HQ Plymouth Dockyard, England
Engagements First Battle of Cape Finisterre (1747)
Second Battle of Cape Finisterre (1747)
Battle of Quiberon Bay
Battle of Ushant (1778)
Commanders
Notable
commanders		 Admiral Edward Hawke

The Western Squadron [1] was a squadron or formation of the Royal Navy based at Plymouth Dockyard. [2] It operated in waters of the English Channel, the Western Approaches, and the North Atlantic. It defended British trade sea lanes from 1650 to 1814 and 1831 to 1854. [3] Following Admiralty orders to Lord Anson he was instructed to combine all existing commands in the English Channel - those at the Downs, Narrow Seas, Plymouth and the Spithead - under a centralized command under the Commander-in-Chief, Western Squadron in 1746. [4] The squadron was commanded by the Flag Officer with the dual title of Commander-in-Chief, English Channel [5] and Commander-in-Chief, Western Squadron [6]

Contents

History

In 1650 Captain William Penn, was charged with guarding the Channel from Beachy Head to Land's End with six ships. This system continued following the Restoration. It was the start of what was to become a Western Squadron. [7] In 1690 the Edward Russell, 1st Earl of Orford was given command of a fleet in the channel.[ citation needed ] From 1705 until the 1740s it was essentially Cruising Squadron before it changed to blockading duties. [8] In 1746 the Admiralty authorised Admiral Anson to combine all the Channel commands into the Western Squadron, based in Plymouth. [9] During the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) the Western Squadron was one of Britain’s most critical military assets frequently patrolling [10] the entrance to the English Channel and making regular sweeps into the Bay of Biscay and the waters off Ushant. [11] One of its responsibilities was trade protection ensuring the safe return of inbound trade from the East Indies and West Indies. [12] The squadron was involved at the Second Battle of Cape Finisterre (1747), the Battle of Quiberon Bay (1756), [13] [14] and the Battle of Ushant (1778). [15] By 1801 its main role was still to stop French ships from French naval bases at Brest, Le Havre and elsewhere in the Bay of Biscay from entering the English Channel. [16] [17] The Western Squadron was the forerunner of the Channel Squadron that was later known as the Channel Fleet. [18]

Influence on British naval policy, strategy and thinking

In the seventeen hundreds, British Naval policy had not changed very much in previous centuries. With British trade interests growing, however, so were the problems posed by French Naval expansion since the 1660s-1670s, along with the need to resolve them. [19] English War planners were constantly dealing with the threat of war with France but no strategy had been put in place to provide sufficient infrastructure to meet these challenges. The majority of the navy’s manufacturing capacity and dry-docking facilities were concentrated on the South East coast which had expanded to meet the demands faced by the Anglo-Dutch wars. [20] In 1689 when war with France eventually came the only dry dock facility in the channel was located at Portsmouth. In 1692 the main focus of naval activity shifted to west because the French moved their primary fleet to Brest. [21] In 1698 the Admiralty authorised a complete new dockyard be built at Plymouth housing a dry dock and wet dock. Having both of these facilities allowed Western Squadron to grow fast and by the early 1740s it had become the navy's main battle fleet. [22] The British were concerned with maintaining control of their own sea lanes – particularly the English Channel - while restricting the activities, both military and economic, of their rivals and foes. [23] In 1747 Admiral Hawke suggested the squadron should be used for containment purposes and developed the idea that it keep an almost continual watch on the French Navy and French coast. This was agreed by the Admiralty and the naval blockade developed as a consequence of this policy. [24] During the 1759 blockade of Brest, Admiral Hawke was the first to establish a system of replenishment at sea in order to maintain a blockade. [25]

Commanders

Incomplete list of post holders included: [26]
X mark 18x18 04.gif = died in post

Squadron disbanded, (1815-1830)
Squadron disbanded, (1833-1845)
Squadron is disbanded but is re-established under a new name the Channel Squadron in 1858. [30]

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Robson, Martin (2016). A History of the Royal Navy: The Seven Years War. London, England: I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd. p. 228. ISBN   9781780765457.
  2. ↑ "Royal Navy Dockyards: Plymouth". rmg.co.uk. Royal Museums Greenwich, 2017. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
  3. ↑ Duffy, Michael, ed. (1992). Parameters of British naval power : 1650-1850 (1st publ. ed.). Exeter: Univ. of Exeter Press. pp. 60–81. ISBN   9780859893855.
  4. ↑ Palmer, Michael A. (2005). Command at Sea: Naval Command and Control Since the Sixteenth Century. Harvard, Mass, USA: Harvard University Press. p. 100. ISBN   9780674016811.
  5. ↑ Harrison, Simon. "Commander-in-Chief at English Channel". threedecks.org. S. Harrison 2010-2018. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
  6. ↑ Harrison, Simon. "Commander-in-Chief at English Channel". threedecks.org. S Harrison, 2010-2018. Retrieved 13 June 2018.
  7. ↑ Saunders, Andrew (1997). Book of Channel defences. London: Batsford [u.a.] p. 32. ISBN   9780713475944.
  8. ↑ Charters, Erica (2014). "The Royal Navy's Western Squadron". Disease, War, and the Imperial State: The Welfare of the British Armed Forces During the Seven Years' War. Chicago, USA: University of Chicago Press. pp. 125–128. ISBN   9780226180007.
  9. ↑ Young, Andy. "Anson: The man who built a Navy". academia.edu. Academia 2017. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
  10. ↑ Braddick, Michael J. (2000). State Formation in Early Modern England, C.1550-1700. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. p. 225. ISBN   9780521789554.
  11. ↑ Robson, Martin (2016). A History of the Royal Navy: The Seven Years War. London, England: I.B. Tauris & Co Ltd. p. 228. ISBN   9781780765457.
  12. ↑ Saxby, C. Richard. "The Western Squadron and the Blockade of Brest | History Today". www.historytoday.com. History Today Magazine, Volume 23 Issue 1 January 1973. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
  13. ↑ Tucker, Spencer C. (2009). A Global Chronology of Conflict: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East [6 volumes]: From the Ancient World to the Modern Middle East. Santa Barbara, USA: ABC-CLIO. p. 830. ISBN   9781851096725.
  14. ↑ Harding, John (2014). "Toll for the Brave, Spithead, England 1782". Sailing's Strangest Moments: Extraordinary But True Stories From Over Nine Hundred Years of Sailing. Pavilion Books. ISBN   9781849941785.
  15. ↑ Grant, R. G. (24 October 2017). 1001 Battles That Changed the Course of History. Book Sales. p. 461. ISBN   9780785835530.
  16. ↑ "Desertion, identity, and the North American squadron 1784-1812". Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. Nova Scotia Museum, Canada, 2017. 29 May 2014. Retrieved 28 December 2017.
  17. ↑ Channel Fleet in 1801 at the Nelson Society Archived February 21, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  18. ↑ Mackesy, Piers (1964). The War for America: 1775-1783. Lincoln, Nebraska, USA: U of Nebraska Press. p. 192. ISBN   0803281927.
  19. ↑ Duffy, Michael (1992). "The Establishment of the Western Squadron as the linchpin of British Naval Strategy". Parameters of British Naval Power, 1650-1850. Exeter, England: University of Exeter Press. p. 60. ISBN   9780859893855.
  20. ↑ Duffy.p.614.
  21. ↑ Duffy.p.63.
  22. ↑ Duffy.p.62.
  23. ↑ Engerman, Lance Davis, Stanley L. (2012). Naval blockades in peace and war : an economic history since 1750 (1st paperback ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 620. ISBN   9781107406155.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  24. ↑ Davis & Engerman.p.614.
  25. ↑ Morriss, Roger, ed. (2001). The Channel Fleet and the Blockade of Brest 1793 - 1801: based in part on transcripts made by the late Richard C. Saxby. Aldershot [u.a.]: Ashgate. p. 281. ISBN   9780754602682.
  26. ↑ Richmond, H. W. (2012). The Navy in the War of 1739-48. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press. p. 249. ISBN   9781107690059.
  27. ↑ Tucker. p.830
  28. ↑ Tucker. p.830
  29. ↑ The Naval Gazetteer, Biographer and Chronologist: Containing a History of the Late Wars from ... 1793 to ... 1801; and from ... 1803 to 1815, and Continued, as to the Biographical Part to the Present Time. C. Wilson. 1842. p. 46.
  30. ↑ "The British "Western Squadron," as our ancestors of George II's time termed what we now call the Channel Squadron". Navy and Army Illustrated. 16: 94. 1903.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe</span> British naval officer

Admiral of the Fleet Richard Howe, 1st Earl Howe,, was a British naval officer. After serving throughout the War of the Austrian Succession, he gained a reputation for his role in amphibious operations against the French coast as part of Britain's policy of naval descents during the Seven Years' War. He also took part, as a naval captain, in the decisive British naval victory at the Battle of Quiberon Bay in November 1759.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Boscawen</span> Royal Navy admiral and politician (1711–1761)

Admiral of the Blue Edward Boscawen, PC was a British admiral in the Royal Navy and Member of Parliament for the borough of Truro, Cornwall, England. He is known principally for his various naval commands during the 18th century and the engagements that he won, including the siege of Louisburg in 1758 and Battle of Lagos in 1759. He is also remembered as the officer who signed the warrant authorising the execution of Admiral John Byng in 1757, for failing to engage the enemy at the Battle of Minorca (1756). In his political role, he served as a Member of Parliament for Truro from 1742 until his death although due to almost constant naval employment he seems not to have been particularly active. He also served as one of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty on the Board of Admiralty from 1751 and as a member of the Privy Council from 1758 until his death in 1761.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louis Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse</span> French admiral

Louis-Thomas Villaret de Joyeuse was a French admiral.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke</span> Royal Navy admiral (1705–1781)

Edward Hawke, 1st Baron Hawke,, of Scarthingwell Hall in the parish of Saxton with Scarthingwell, near Tadcaster, Yorkshire, was a Royal Navy officer. As captain of the third-rate HMS Berwick, he took part in the Battle of Toulon in February 1744 during the War of the Austrian Succession. He also captured six ships of a French squadron in the Bay of Biscay in the Second Battle of Cape Finisterre in October 1747.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Anson, 1st Baron Anson</span> Royal Navy officer and politician

Admiral of the Fleet George Anson, 1st Baron Anson, was a Royal Navy officer, politician and peer. Anson served as a junior officer during the War of the Spanish Succession and then saw active service against Spain at the Battle of Cape Passaro, off the south tip of Sicily, during the War of the Quadruple Alliance. He then undertook a circumnavigation of the globe during the War of Jenkins' Ear. Anson commanded the fleet that defeated the French Admiral de la Jonquière at the First Battle of Cape Finisterre in 1747, during the War of the Austrian Succession.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Warren (Royal Navy officer)</span> Irish naval officer and politician (1703–1752)

Vice-Admiral Sir Peter Warren, KB was an Anglo-Irish naval officer and politician who sat in the British House of Commons representing the constituency of Westminster from 1747 to 1752. Warren is best known for his career in the Royal Navy, which he served in for thirty-six years and participated in numerous naval engagements, including most notably the capture of the French fortress of Louisbourg in 1745.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Saunders (Royal Navy officer)</span> Royal Navy officer

Admiral Sir Charles Saunders was a British Royal Navy officer. He commanded the fourth-rate HMS Gloucester and led her in action at the Second Battle of Cape Finisterre in October 1747 during the War of the Austrian Succession. After serving as Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet, he was appointed Commander-in-Chief, English Channel in charge of the Western Squadron between October 1758 and May 1759). He took command of the fleet tasked with carrying James Wolfe to Quebec in January 1759 and consolidated the dead general's victory after the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in September 1759 by devoting great energy to keeping the British Army, now under the command of Colonel George Townshend, well supplied during the Seven Years' War. He later became Senior Naval Lord and then First Lord of the Admiralty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Cornwallis</span> Royal Navy admiral

Admiral Sir William Cornwallis, was a Royal Navy officer. He was the brother of Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis, British commander at the siege of Yorktown. Cornwallis took part in a number of decisive battles including the siege of Louisbourg in 1758, when he was 14, and the Battle of the Saintes but is best known as a friend of Lord Nelson and as the commander-in-chief of the Channel Fleet during the Napoleonic Wars. He is depicted in the Horatio Hornblower novel, Hornblower and the Hotspur.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sir William Parker, 1st Baronet, of Shenstone</span> British admiral

Admiral of the Fleet Sir William Parker, 1st Baronet, GCB, was a Royal Navy officer. As a captain's servant he took part in the Battle of The Glorious First of June in June 1794 during the French Revolutionary Wars and, as a captain, he participated in the capture of the French ships Marengo and Belle Poule at the action of 13 March 1806 during the Napoleonic Wars. He was detached on an independent command on the Tagus in September 1831 with a mission to protect British interests during the Portuguese Civil War. As Commander-in-chief of the East Indies and China Station, he provided naval support at various actions between 1841 and 1842 during the First Opium War. Appointed Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean Fleet in February 1845, he was briefly First Naval Lord in the First Russell ministry from 13 July 1846 to 24 July 1846 but gave up the role due to ill health before returning to his command with the Mediterranean Fleet.

HMS <i>Raisonnable</i> (1768) Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

HMS Raisonnable was a 64-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, named after the ship of the same name captured from the French in 1758. She was built at Chatham Dockyard, launched on 10 December 1768 and commissioned on 17 November 1770 under the command of Captain Maurice Suckling, Horatio Nelson's uncle. Raisonnable was built to the same lines as HMS Ardent, and was one of the seven ships forming the Ardent class of 1761. Raisonnable was the first ship in which Nelson served.

HMS <i>Edgar</i> (1779) 74-gun Royal Navy ship of the line

HMS Edgar was a 74-gun third-rate ship of the line of the Royal Navy, that saw service in the American Revolutionary, French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Launched in 1779, she fought in the battles of Cape St Vincent and Copenhagen, two of the major naval engagements of the wars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joshua Rowley</span> British admiral

Vice-Admiral Sir Joshua Rowley, 1st Baronet was a Royal Navy officer who was the fourth son of Admiral Sir William Rowley. Sir Joshua was from an ancient English family, originating in Staffordshire (England) and was born on 1 May 1734. Rowley served with distinction in a number of battles throughout his career and was highly praised by his contemporaries. Unfortunately whilst his career was often active he did not have the opportunity to command any significant engagements and always followed rather than led. His achievements have therefore been eclipsed by his contemporaries such as Keppel, Hawke, Howe and Rodney. Rowley however remains one of the stalwart commanders of the wooden walls that kept Britain safe for so long.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Edmund Nugent</span>

Admiral of the Fleet Sir Charles Edmund Nugent was a Royal Navy officer. He saw action as a junior officer in the 50-gun Bristol at the Battle of Sullivan's Island during the American Revolutionary War. He was held as a prisoner-of war for a day by Spaniards shortly before the Battle of San Fernando de Omoa later on in the War.

HMS <i>Actaeon</i> (1757) Coventry-class Royal Navy frigate

HMS Actaeon was a 28-gun Coventry-class sixth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy. Her crewing complement was 200 and, when fully equipped, she was armed with 24 nine-pounder cannons, supported by four three-pounders and twelve 1⁄2-pounder swivel guns.

HMS <i>Nymphe</i> (1780) Frigate of the Royal Navy

HMS Nymphe was a fifth-rate frigate of the British Royal Navy, formerly the French Nymphe, lead ship of her class. HMS Flora, under the command of Captain William Peere Williams, captured Nymphe off Ushant on 10 August 1780. Indiscriminately referred to as Nymph, Nymphe, La Nymph or La Nymphe in contemporary British sources, she served during the American, French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. On 19 May 1793, while under the command of Captain Edward Pellew, she captured the frigate Cléopâtre, the first French warship captured in a single-ship action of the war. After a long period of service in which she took part in several notable actions and made many captures, Nymphe was wrecked off the coast of Scotland on 18 December 1810.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Loring (Royal Navy officer, died 1808)</span>

John Loring was an officer in the Royal Navy who served during the American War of Independence and the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars.

Order of battle in the<i> Croisière de Bruix</i>

The Croisière de Bruix was a naval campaign of the French Revolutionary Wars. Planned and commanded by French Vice-Admiral Étienne Eustache Bruix, the operation was an attempt to restore French control of the Mediterranean Sea, lost at the Battle of the Nile in August 1798. Taking command of the French Atlantic Fleet based at Brest, Bruix mustered one of the largest and best trained French fleets to take to sea during the war. Brest was under close blockade by the British Channel Fleet, but Bruix arranged for misleading intelligence regarding an impending invasion of Ireland to fall into British hands, which drew the blockade fleet under Lord Bridport away to the north. On 25 April 1799 the French fleet of 25 ships of the line sailed into the Atlantic unopposed, sighted the following day by the frigate HMS Nymphe. Reports reached Bridport soon afterwards, but he remained on station off Ireland, anticipating a French attack.

HMS <i>Magnanime</i> (1748) Ship of the line of the Royal Navy

Le Magnanime was originally a 74-gun ship of the line of the French Navy launched in 1744 at Rochefort. Captured on 12 January 1748, she was taken into Royal Navy service as the third rate HMS Magnanime. She played a major part in the 1757 Rochefort expedition, helping to silence the batteries on the Isle of Aix, and served at the Battle of Quiberon Bay in 1759 under Lord Howe, where she forced the surrender of the French 74-gun Héros. Following a survey in 1770, she was deemed unseaworthy and was broken up in 1775.

Admiral John Child Purvis was a British Royal Navy officer of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century best known for his service with the British Mediterranean Fleet during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Coming from a naval family, Purvis first saw action in small ships during the American Revolutionary War, later commanding a ship of the line with the Mediterranean Fleet during 1793-1796. During this period he fought in several significant battles against the French. He then served with the Channel Fleet operating at the blockade of Brest and in the Napoleonic Wars was promoted and tasked with maintaining the blockade of Cadiz. After the outbreak of the Peninsular War, Purvis was active in preventing the French capture of Cadiz and at one stage destroyed the city's seaward defences. He retired post-war to his home in Hampshire.

HMS <i>Triton</i> (1796) Experimental frigate of the Royal Navy in service 1796–1814/20

HMS Triton was a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate of the Royal Navy designed by James Gambier and launched in 1796 at Deptford. Triton was an experimental ship and the only one built to that design; she was constructed out of fir due to wartime supply shortages of more traditional materials and had some unusual features such as no tumblehome. Her namesake was the Greek god Triton, a god of the sea. She was commissioned in June 1796 under Captain John Gore, with whom she would spend the majority of her active service, to serve in the Channel in the squadron of Sir John Warren.

References

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.