The Royal Navy is called the Senior Service because it is the oldest of the British armed forces, and for roughly two centuries it was the most powerful navy in the world by a considerable margin.
The two-power standard
At its height in the nineteenth century, Britain maintained a formal policy that the Royal Navy should be at least as strong as the next two largest navies combined. It was adopted as law in the Naval Defence Act 1889, and it was met.
That dominance is the mechanism by which the British Empire functioned. Control of the sea meant control of trade, of communication and of the ability to move troops anywhere, and it is why an island of modest size governed a quarter of the globe.
The moments
- The Armada, 1588 — the Spanish invasion fleet broken up by fireships and scattered by storms.
- Trafalgar, 1805 — Nelson‘s victory over the combined French and Spanish fleets, which ended any prospect of Napoleonic invasion. Nelson was killed, and his signal — England expects that every man will do his duty — is among the most quoted lines in British history. His flagship HMS Victory is preserved at Portsmouth and can be visited.
- The suppression of the slave trade — after abolition in 1807, the West Africa Squadron spent sixty years intercepting slave ships, freeing around 150,000 people. This came after Britain had itself been among the largest slave-trading nations, and both facts belong in the same account.
- Jutland, 1916 — the only full fleet action of the First World War, tactically inconclusive and strategically decisive, since the German fleet did not sail again.
- The Battle of the Atlantic, 1939-45 — the longest campaign of the Second World War, protecting the convoys on which Britain depended for food and fuel. Churchill later wrote that it was the only thing that ever really frightened him.
- The Falklands, 1982 — a task force sent 8,000 miles at short notice, and the last time Britain fought a substantial independent naval campaign.
The navy now
Small by historical standards — around 30 major surface vessels and submarines, and roughly 30,000 personnel. It is built around:
- Two Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carriers, the largest ships the Royal Navy has ever operated, flying F-35s.
- Type 45 destroyers and Type 23 frigates, with Type 26 and 31 replacements building.
- Astute class attack submarines.
- Four Vanguard class ballistic missile submarines carrying the Trident deterrent.
Operation Relentless
The most remarkable thing the modern navy does. Since 1969, at least one British ballistic missile submarine has been at sea, armed and undetected, continuously — an unbroken deterrent patrol of over fifty years.
Crews go to sea for months with no communication out and almost none in. Each boat carries letters of last resort — handwritten instructions from the prime minister, held in a safe, to be opened only if Britain has been destroyed and the commander needs to know what to do. Each new prime minister writes fresh ones on taking office, and they are destroyed unread when they leave.
The traditions
The navy is dense with them: the rum ration, abolished in 1970 on Black Tot Day; the loyal toast drunk seated, a privilege granted because of low deckheads; and the ship’s bell, in which the children of crew members are traditionally baptised, with their names later engraved inside it.