Photos Navies Of All Nations

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Imperial Russia:
Askold was a protected cruiser built for the Imperial Russian Navy. She was named after the legendary Varangian Askold. Her thin, narrow hull and maximum speed of 23.8 knots (44.1 km/h) were considered impressive for the time.

Askold had five thin funnels which gave it a unique silhouette for any vessel in the Imperial Russian Navy. This led British sailors to nickname her Packet of Woodbines after the thin cigarettes popular at the time. However, the five funnels also had a symbolic importance, as it was popularly considered that the number of funnels was indicative of performance, and some navies were known to add extra fake funnels to impress dignitaries in less advanced countries

In 1915 Askold was involved in operations against the Ottoman Navy and the Austrian Navy in Greece and Bulgaria, including support for troop landings in the Gallipoli Campaign.

 

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RN:
July 2020. HMS Queen Elizabeth launching an F-35B in the Med

HMS Argyll arriving in Gibraltar this morning

 

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Italy & France:
Italian heavy cruiser Zara, in the foreground, and six French destroyer of the Aigle- and Vauquelin-classes, in the background, possibly Naples, 1935.
From left to right, the French destroyers are Tartu, Albatros, Chevalier Paul, Gerfaut, Aigle and Vautour.

 

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USN & Imperial Japan:Japanese harbour pilot with Tokyo and Sagami bay charts transferred aboard USS Missouri (not seen in the pic) to discuss Allied ships access to sign Japan's surrender. Aug 27th, 1945.

 

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RN:
18" shells - APC on the left and HE on the right. The six cases are the propellant

"The gun crew loading the single 4 inch Mark IX gun of HMS VERVAIN whilst she is on active service." July 1942

On 20 February 1945 at 11.45 hours Vervain was escorting a homeward-bound convoy when she was sunk by a torpedo from a U-boat, U-1276 under Oberleutnant zur See Karl-Heinz Wendt, about 25 miles south-east of Dungarvan, Ireland, south of Waterford. Vervain sank after 20 minutes. The commander, three officers and 56 ratings were lost. Three officers and 30 ratings were rescued. In turn the U-boat, U-1276 was sunk with depth charges by HMS Amethyst. The action resulted in the loss of all 49 of the U-boat's crew.

Handling cordite charges inside a Mk XXIII turret aboard HMS Jamaica, 1943.

Calibrating the guns of HMS Newcastle near Trincomalee, Ceylon, April 3, 1944. An Ordinance Officer lowers the weight down the barrel of one of the 6" guns preparatory to sponging out before the shoot.

 

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Russia:
July 2017, "Dmitry Donskoy" with "Peter The Great" at Kronstadt.

 

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USN:
USS Enterprise (CV-6) making 20 knots during post-overhaul trials in Puget Sound, Washington (USA), on 13 September 1945.

USS Honolulu (CL-48) in a pre-war photo.

 

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RN:
Ships of the Mediterranean Fleet in the Grand Harbour, Valletta, Malta. 1863

One of the 11-inch guns of HMS Temeraire, 1877

HMS Royal Arthur as flagship of the Australia Station in Farm Cove, Sydney. C. 1897 - 1904

This image from a glass plate negative produced between 1897 and 1904 shows the protected cruiser HMS 'Royal Arthur' moored in Farm Cove, Sydney Harbour. HMS 'Royal Arthur' was commissioned in Great Britain in 1892 and deployed to the Australia Station in 1897. She arrived to take over as Flagship of the Australia Squadron on 4 November, 1897, relieving HMS 'Orlando', and was replaced, in turn, in 1904.

One of 'Royal Arthur's' claims to fame was to ceremoniously bring Australia's first Governor-General, Lord Hopetoun, into Sydney on 15 December 1900. Lord Hopetoun had travelled by ship from England to Jervis Bay, south of Sydney, and 'Royal Arthur' brought him the rest of the way.

The photograph shows 'Royal Arthur' surrounded by small craft. On either side of the cruiser's stern is a ship's boat, secured to a boom. In each there is a sailor at work. From a boom along the port (left) side can be seen the ship's steam pinnace and a smaller boat. Drifting within call of either of the ships gangways are several small boats. A small gaff cutter is passing. One of the ship's boats (white) is pulling away from the officers' gangway at the rear and there are several small pulling boats, each with a waterman resting to oars and awaiting paying passengers for the trip to Man O War Steps on Bennelong Point, now the site of the Sydney Opera House.

The photograph also shows Fort Denison and further to the right can be seen a three-masted barque awaiting her turn at a cargo wharf. This barque is painted with fake gunports which was an early stratagem to discourage pirates but eventually became a maritime 'fashion'. The day is almost calm with just enough wind to stiffen the Admiral's flag on 'Royal Arthur's' foremast.

This photographic negative was taken by an un-attributed photographer between the late nineteenth century and 1935 and is part of a larger collection of 7,900 negatives once owned by Sydney bookseller, James Tyrrell.

 

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Finland:
Minelayer 'Pohjanmaa', decommissioned 2013

 

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Italy:
The abandoned wreck of the Italian heavy cruiser Gorizia, La Spezia, 15 June 1946

The Gorizia was a Zara-class cruiser, and, by virtue of not being present, was the only member of its class to survive the Battle of Cape Matapan, in which her sisters were sunk and her division (I Divisione) destroyed. Attached to the lone other heavy cruiser division of the Regia Marina (the III Divisione, with the two Trento-class cruiser plus the Bolzano), she continued her service well into the war, until, in late December 1942, her and the Trieste (the only two heavy cruisers still active, as the Trento had been sunk, and the Bolzano, torpedoed, could not be repaired and was left inactive) were redeployed from Messina to La Maddalena, in Sardinia, to get them away from bombing range.

They survived an attempted attack from British frogmen (Operation Principle), but the Allies were determined to neutralize these ships, in fear that they could operate raids against the Algerian coast. On 10 April 1943, a massive air raid undertaken by B-17 Flying Fortresses was unleashed against the Sardinian base; no less than 36 had the Gorizia as target, while other 24 aimed for the Trieste (and others still targeted the submarine piers). The latter, repeatedly struck, capsized and sank; the former, with better protection, survived three hits and numerous near misses, but was badly damaged.

Brought to La Spezia, the Gorizia was put in drydock, but the overworked shipyard could not cope with the lack of resources and the entity of her damage, so, when on September 1943 Italy signed the Armistice, the heavy cruiser was still under repair. Abandoned by her crew, she was stripped by the occupying German forces of what could be of use. Her wreck was found, after th

 

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Imperial Italy:
"An Italian corvette in the Bay of Naples", 1863 by Tommaso De Simone

This painting shows an Italian paddle corvette at anchor in the bay of Napoli. The ship-of-the-line on the right background looks like she is flying the Italian ensign as well, so that would make her the Re Galantuomo (formerly Monarca of the navy of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies), only ship of her kind to serve in the Regia Marina.

Despite surpassed by the development of the screw propeller, paddle warships featured quite prominently in the most important navies around the 1840s.

When the Kingdom of Italy was proclaimed (17 March 1861), no less than forty of the ships that became part of the Regia Marina were paddle steamers (out of seventy-one steamers in total). Of these, eleven were frigates (classified as 'second-rate frigates') and seven were corvettes (likewise 'second-rate corvettes'). Just to add to the context, there still were twenty-four sail ships around, of which three frigates, six corvettes and six brigs.

 

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Portugal:
Ironclad Vasco da Gama in 1904

Vasco da Gama was an ironclad which entered service with the Portuguese Navy in 1878, serving until 1935. She was built by the Thames Iron Works in London, launched in 1876, and completed in 1878. She served as the flagship of the Portuguese fleet for the majority of her long and peaceful career. She was rebuilt and heavily modernized between 1901 and 1903. Long-since obsolete by the 1930s, Vasco da Gama was finally sold for scrapping in 1935.

 

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Spain:
Light cruiser Miguel de Cervantes at Cartagena, circa 1930

 

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France:
Helicopter cruiser Jeanne d'Arc (R97) in the Canary Islands, 1961

 

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RN:
8-inch guns of the HMS Pelorus, photographed in 1859. She was armed with 20 × 8-inch (42cwt) muzzle-loading smoothbore cannons on broadside trucks and 1 × 10-inch/68pdr (95cwt) muzzle-loading smoothbore cannon pivot-mounted at bow

HMS Pelorus was a 2,330 ton displacement, 21 gun corvette launched on 5 February 1857 from the Devonport dockyard. It was captained at first by Frederick Beauchamp Paget Seymour, then by Henry Boys, and later William Henry Haswell.

She participated as part of a squadron after the Indian Rebellion of 1857. Then she was sent to the China Station during the Second Opium War until May 1859 when she sailed for Australian Station.

In June 1860, as flagship of the Australian Squadron under Captain Frederick Seymour, she participated in the attack on Puketakauere pā during the First Taranaki War. Later that year, the crew landed at Kairau to support British troops under attack from Maori and in January 1861 a gun crew from the ship helped defend the British redoubt at Huirangi against the Maori. She left the Australia Station in July 1862 for Plymouth.

The future admiral, Cyprian Bridge served on Pelorus in the East Indies as a midshipman.

She was decommissioned in 1868 and was broken up for scrap in 1869.

A Pearl class corvette:

 

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RN:
HMS Neptune between 1911 and 1915

Launched: 1909 Standard Displacement: 19,680 tons Speed: 21 knots Main Armament: 10 x 12in guns Secondary Armament: 16 x 4in guns Crew: 759
With Neptune, British designers made the first serious changes to the Dreadnought's weapon layout. The secondary guns were removed from the turret tops and placed in the superstructure. In an attempt to maximise broadside firepower, Neptune's wing turrets were placed 'en echelon' or staggered. This theoretically would allow them to fire across the deck onto the opposite beam. A pair of flying bridges connected the fore and aft superstructures, as well as housing the ship's boats. To save space, the 'X' turret was raised into a superfiring position able to fire directly over 'Y' turret.

The design was a disappointment. When the wing turrets fired across the ship, it strained the ship's hull. When fired directly forward or astern, the blast effect caused serious damage to the superstructure. The superfiring 'X' turret severly concussed the gun crews in 'Y' turret when fired directly astern, limiting 'X' turret to broadside fire. It was also realised that during battle, hits on the flying bridges would cause debris to fall on the 'P' and 'Q' turrets, hampering or even completely jamming them. The bridges and tripod mainmast were later removed.

 

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Imperial Russia & Ottoman Empire:
"Fight of the steamer Vesta with the Ottoman ironclad Fetkh-i Bulend at the Black Sea July 11, 1877" by Rufin Sudkovsky

This engagement took place in the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-8, between the Ottoman ironclad Feth-i Bülend ("Great Victory") and the Russian gunboat/converted steamer Vesta. On the latter served a young Zinovy Rozhestvensky, future commander of the ill-fated Second Pacific Squadron that ended up destroyed at Tsushima in 1905.

Both vessels were lightly damaged before Vesta escaped.

 

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Italy:
Battleship Conte di Cavour sailing through the Canale Navigabile

Battleships at anchor in Taranto's Mar Grande; from left to right, two Conte di Cavour-class battleships; the Andrea Doria and the Duilio. This picture was taken between the summer of 1916 and the fall of 1918.

Heavy cruiser Trieste arriving in Taranto. Trieste was the 2nd unit of the of the Trento class entering service in the late 1920s. Served in WW2 until damaged by B-17 Flying Fortresses of the 99th Bomb Group, 5th Bombardment Wing, 12th USAAF in April 1943 and capsized

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Orsa class torpedo boat Orsa,in Piraeus 10 September 1942.

 

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RN:
HMS Implacable in 1952 as part of the training squadron

HMS Agincourt (D86) in the early 60s after being converted in a radar picket

HMS Agincourt (D86) was a later or 1943 Battle-class fleet destroyer of the Royal Navy. She was named in honour of the Battle of Agincourt, fought in 1415 during the Hundred Years' War. Agincourt was built by R. & W. Hawthorn, Leslie & Company Limited on the River Tyne. She was launched on 29 January 1945 and commissioned on 25 June 1947.

In 1959, Agincourt and three of her sister-ships underwent conversion to become radar pickets. The conversion included the addition of the Sea Cat missile and new radar, as well as newer Anti-Aircraft weaponry. In 1962, Agincourt returned to active duty and saw service in the Home and Mediterranean Fleets with a variety of squadrons.

 

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Ottoman Empire:
Ships of the Ottoman Navy, c. 1856