MHallex's Guide to Naval Warfare CW-Style



As any good world leader with imperial ambitions knows, command of the seas is necessary to acquire and maintain power.  As we can see from history, the nation that maintains control of the seas will be the victors in any conflict.  The Romans wrested control of the seas from Carthage and won the Punic Wars, the British defeated the Spanish Armada beginning the decline of the Spanish Empire, and so on and so forth.  Sea power is vital to any RPer who wants to join, or maintain his place, among the ranks of the "Great Powers."

This guide is meant to be a short introduction, a basic primer, to naval warfare as seen in Colonial Warfare. It is not a history, or anywhere near useful in any other application.  So don’t try to quote me for history papers.  
Now lets us begin.

The Ships of Your Fleet
Shipbuilding
Manning the Fleet
Navies by Nation
Piracy, Privateering and Commerce Raiding
Combat



Chapter 1: The Ships of your Fleet
    The fleets of the various European powers vary in size, and in quality.  However there are basic definitions that are useful to know, as they tend to come up in RPing and in OOC arguments.

Warhips are categorized by the number of guns they carry.  These ships will make up the fleet you send into battle.


Ship Rating
Number of Guns*
First 
100-112
Second 
90-98
Third 
64-84
Fourth
50-54
Frigate 
30-50
Sloop  
24-30

Note: The number of guns is based upon the number of guns that form the broadsides of any given ship.  Bow and Stern chasers are not counted towards this total.

What do the ratings mean?

Ships of the Line is a broad term that refers to the warships that make up the main battle fleets of each nation.  These include the First through Fourth Rate warhips.



Besides these ships all fleets are made up of smaller vessels that perform a wide variety of duties, such as picket and dispatch vessels, smaller commerce raiders, revenue cutters, supply ships etc.

There are other ships in service yet also.  The Spanish Navy still maintains a few galleys.  These ships are considered to be obsolete but still prove useful in certain situations.  Even a First-Rate Man O' War carrying 120 guns can be destroyed by a single galley if it is becalmed.  Galleys require crews of several hundred rowers, and carry only a handful of guns, mounted for and aft.  



Chapter 2: Shipbuilding
Before you can sail your fleet around the ocean causing trouble, you'll need to build it.  Or if you have a fleet already, you may wish to expand it to face outside threats.  Most coastal nations have shipbuilding facilites of some sort, although the quality and size varies.  Thus Prussian shipyards in Pomerenia will be unable to produce First rate Battleships without first ebign expanded and improved.  The same applies to many of the states of Italy.  However traditional naval powers(Britian, France, Denmark, Holland, Sweden, Spain) have the nessecary infastructure in place to produce these warships.

There is also the matter of naval stores and lumber.  Most areas of Europe have been deforested to the point where lumber suitable for the construction of warships is no longer available.  Lumber is imported from several still-forested regions (hint: these might be useful places to control.)  Naval stores is a broader category that includes materials such as tar and ropes.  Naval stores can be produced domestically however most of it is imported from these regions that also provide lumber.

The British, Dutch, Danish and the other northern European naval powers obtain their lumber from areas around the Baltic, chiefly Sweden and Finland.

France, Spain and the Mediterranean powers obtain the bulk of their lumber from the Balkans althought France is also dependent on certain lumbers from the Baltic.

There are also sources of lumber outside of Europe some of which fall within the spheres of influence of various colonial powers.  Canada produces naval stores and lumber, as does Brazil.  However the infastructure nessecary to produce enough of these products of supply a large fleet is not in place.  Even were it to be built there is also the expense of transporting to be reckoned with.  The United States is another source of supplies and it is self sufficent when it comes to shipbuilding.

Chapter 3: Manning the Fleet
Now that you've built your fleet of massive warships that will make your enemies quake with terror, you need to find crews.  That may prove difficult for some of you, and nearly impossible for others.

First we want to find seamen with sailing experience.  This necessitates a suitably large merchant marine.  Nations such as Great Britain, Holland, and the US have a large pool of merchant sailors to draw upon.    Others, like Denmark, have an equally large pool of fishermen. However most of us lack that vital resource and are forced to train civilians.  You also need officers to command these fleets.  The French Fleet suffered many defeats during this era because the nobility, which had provided the bulk of the officer corps, fled the nation.

Recruitment is also an issue.  Many fleets are known for their harsh regimens, especially Great Britain.  The British have traditionally resorted to the press gang, taking criminals, beggars and the poor and forcing them into service.  Other fleets, such as the US Navy, are a bit more pleasant to serve in and consist of volunteers. Once you have sailors, its important to be nice to them.  Keep them well fed and paid on time or you will end up like the British did in the 1790s, with entire fleets mutinying.

Chapter 4: Navies by Nation
This section attempts to provide a short description of the fleets of each nation.  If you disagree with my description of your particular nation, present your case and I might change what I’ve written.

Minor naval powers such as Poland, Prussia and Austria do not have fleets of sufficient size or quality to pose a major threat to any of the other powers.  

Several of the other non-European powers maintain fleets.  Persia maintains a small fleet in the Persian Gulf, which could pose a threat to smaller European squadrons in the area.  The Marathas Confederation in India maintains a medium-sized fleet of gunboats, which have proven to be a threat to numerically inferior European forces.  

Chapter 5:Piracy, Privateering and Commerce Raiding
Commerce is the lifeblood of many European nations.  Merchant ships ply the trade routes between distant ports carrying cargoes ranging from wheat to exotic spices.  Whalers and fishing vessels traverse the seas hunting their quarry.  And, with a few notable exceptions, they are all unarmed and helpless.

The cheapest way to go after enemy shipping is to commission privateers.  A privateer is a private individual with a letter of marquee from a nation's government.  This letter makes them technically part of the naval forces of that nation, and exempts them from being treated like pirates.  Privateers will hunt after enemy commerce, and then capture and sell the ships and cargoes for their own profits.

Another option is to use ships from your fleet as dedicated commerce raiders.  These ships have the advantage of being, for the most part, faster and better armed than any privateer.  The cargoes from captured ships will then be turned over to your government for your own use (minus of course the bonus paid to the crew.)  This is a favorite tactic of the French.  As they could not hope to meet the English navy head on they would dispatch commerce raiders to attack English merchants while maintaining most of their larger vessels in a fleet that could threaten Britain itself.

Piracy for the most part, has been wiped out in the areas most heavily traveled by European shipping.  Piracy in the Baltic, Atlantic and Mediterranean is virtually unheard of.  There is still some piracy off of the coast of India, but the heaviestly-infested waters are those of the South China Sea and Indonesia.  

Chapter 6: Combat
Here is the part you've all been waiting for, combat. I could get all Sun-Tzu on you and say the best victory is the one that doesn’t require fighting, but that’s no fun to RP, now is it?

First off we must remember that large-scale fleet actions were relatively uncommon.  During the Napoleonic Wars only 3 major naval battles come to mind: Aboukir Bay, Copenhagen and Trafalgar.  While there will probably be more large scale battles in the RP, since people enjoy doing that sort of thing, the fact that it is terribly ahistorical in most settings should be remembered.
Most battles were small, only a handful of vessels involved.  Often the battles were just duels between two relatively equal ships.  A frigate would never face a first-rate as the frigate would have fled long before then.  All vessels, even warships, will flee from larger vessels.  This has been exploited to some extent by the captains of Indiamen, vessels who are easily the same size as a second-rate warship, but mount less than 20 guns.  A more heavily armed frigate would avoid engaging what appears (at least form a distance) to be a superior vessel.

In ship-to-ship combat the aim of each vessel is to destroy or capture the other.  Certain nations, like Spain for instance, favor closing within a short range of the enemy and boarding them.     Other nations who carry fewer marines aboard ship prefer to remain further away.  One common tactic is to maneuver your ship so that you are perpendicular to your opponent.  This allows you to disable their rudder, or sweep their decks with grapeshot to kill their crews (raking fire).  Many vessels carry a few guns fore and aft (these are called bow and stern chasers, respectively) so that they continue to fire, albeit at a much-reduced rate, upon a vessel attempting this.

This tactic was also used in fleet actions.  During battles fleets would be arranged in lines parallel to the opponents line.  Admirals would attempt to maneuver vessels between the stern and bow of two enemy vessels and then fire upon them.  This tactic is known as "crossing the T."  The best example of this would be the battle between the French and English at Aboukir Bay.