Admin

Review

Lesson 6:

The United States Navy

1815-1860:Technological revolution

                                            

Learning Objectives

• Know the state of naval technology and its evolution during this period.

• Comprehend the M. C. Perry expeditions and assess their importance to U.S maritime interests.

• Comprehend the lessons of the Crimean War.

Remember our Themes!

• The Navy as an Instrument of Foreign Policy• Interaction between Congress and the Navy• Interservice Relations• Technology• Leadership• Strategy and Tactics• Evolution of Naval Doctrine

Naval Warfighting Doctrine

• Primary mission of the Navy = “Gunboat Diplomacy”.– Protect U. S. commercial interests overseas -

“Showing the flag.”

• Overall Doctrine– Focus on Commerce Raiding - “Guerre de Course”.– Command of the sea -- de-emphasized.– Coastal defense - Army forts constructed at entrances

to ports.

Board of Commissioners

• Secretary of Navy William Jones overwhelmed with paperwork during War of 1812

• Asked Congress to establish three officer “advisory board”

• Congress does so in 1815– John Rodgers– Isaac Hull– David Porter

The “Bureau System”

• Secretary of the Navy Upshur -- 1841-42– Proponent of expansion, modernization, and reform.

• Five “bureaus” established to replace the Board of Commissioners in 1842.

– Bureau of Navy Yards and Docks

– Bureau of Ordnance and Hydrography

– Bureau of Construction, Equipment, and Repair

– Bureau of Medicine and Surgery

– Bureau of Provisions and Clothing

“Tippecanoe and…”

• Abel P. Upshur SECNAV under President Tyler

• Tyler Doctrine: No one colonizes Hawaii• Bureau System• Continued Naval Increase• Guerre de Course

Secretary of Navy James C. Dobbin

• Hagan: “godfather of modern American Sea Power”

• Modernized fleet in order to maintain “our proper and elevated rank among the great powers of the world.”

Industrial Revolution

• Affects naval technology.

Propulsion: Sail to Steam

Armor: Wood to Iron

Weapons: Solid Shot to Shell

Steam Power

• James Watt -- Steam Engine advances made in 1770’s.• Robert Fulton - Steam-driven “paddle wheelers”.

– Clermont - 1807 First practical steamship.– Demologos (Fulton) - 1814 First steam warship.– Engines and paddles take gun space and are vulnerable to attack.

• M. F. Maury, Robert Stockton and M.C. Perry:– Leading naval advocates for steam power.– Fulton II - 1837 -- Commanded by M.C. Perry.

• Mississippi and Missouri - 1842.• Princeton - 1842-43 “Screw” propeller warship.

– Stockton brings John Ericcson from Europe to design.– All machinery below decks.

• Merrimack - class “fast screw” frigates - 1850’s.• European navies also develop steam power and screws.

USS Mississippi

USS Princeton

Armor• Korean “Turtle” Ships

– Japanese-Korean War 1592-1598– Iron deck on galleys provided protection from boarding and

projectiles.• French ironclad frigate Gloire - 1859.

– 36 guns in broadside.– 5,600-tons displacement.– Wooden hull with iron armor plating.

• British ironclad battleship Warrior - 1860.– 40 guns in broadside.– 9,000-tons displacement.– Iron hull with iron armor plating.– First “modern” warship -- sometimes referred to as first

battleship.

Ordnance

• USS Princeton ordnance demonstration - 1844.– “Peacemaker” improperly reinforced.

• Explosion kills six, including the Secretary of War and the Secretary of the Navy.

– U.S. naval ordnance development suspended.• John Dahlgren -- “Father of Modern Naval

Ordnance”– “Dahlgren Gun” - 1850’s.

• Nine inch shell gun.• Mounted on Merrimac - class frigates.

– Bore is smooth - still inaccurate at longer ranges.– Experiments with “rifled” cannon begin.

John Dahlgren

Father

of

Modern Naval

Ordnance

MatthewFontaine

Maury

Pathfinder of the Seas

“Father of Naval Oceanography”

• Studies of weather and currents allow preparation of detailed navigation charts.

U.S. Navy Expedition to Japan - 1854

• Acquisition of California and Oregon - 1848.– U.S. is now a power in the Pacific Ocean.

• Japan– Island nation closed to foreign influence.

• Commodore M.C. Perry– U.S. Navy squadron to Japan - 1853.– Returns to Tokyo Bay - 1854.

• Treaty of Kanagawa - 1854– Protection of American seamen.– Two ports opened to American shipping.

USS SusquehannaCommodore Perry’s Flagship during mission to Japan.

Conclusion 1815-1860

• Period of U.S. territorial and commercial expansion.

– Navy grows after War of 1812.

– Supports American trade overseas.

• Relative peace throughout period.

– U.S. - defensive and isolationist policy for Europe.

– Popular support of Navy slowly declines.

• Experiments with new naval technologies.

Next time: The Civil War, 1861-1865