W. A. Krell.] [In the Royal Collection.
REVIEW OF THE CHANNEL SQUADRON BY HER MAJESTY, August 11, 1853.
GUN SHOP AT THE ELSWICK WORKS.
A few guns of 4′7 in. and 6 in. calibre awaiting inspection.
Before the actual declaration of war, large numbers of British troops had embarked for the East, and a powerful fleet had been assembled at Spithead for service in the Baltic under Admiral Sir Charles Napier. To Prince Albert’s watchful influence must be attributed the degree to which the nation now found itself prepared for the coming struggle. For the warlike habits of our people had been lulled by the peace which, uninterrupted for nearly forty years, had prevailed between England and other European powers. It would be difficult to realise at this day how far the nation had lapsed into unreadiness. Prince Albert incessantly strove to arouse it from this perilous lethargy. One result of his efforts had been the establishment during the summer of 1853 of a temporary camp of exercise at Chobham, a complete novelty to the generation of that time. Aldershot, as a place of arms, had no existence then, but the system initiated at Chobham has become part of our regular military organisation. Another result had been the establishment of a permanent Channel Fleet, which was reviewed by the Queen at Spithead on August 11, 1853, and described by Prince Albert as “the finest fleet, perhaps, which England ever fitted out; forty ships of war of all kinds, all moved by steam-power but three.... The gigantic ships of war, among them the Duke of Wellington with 131 guns (a greater number than was ever assembled before in one vessel), went, without sails and propelled only by the screw, eleven miles an hour, and this against wind and tide! |State of British Armaments.| This is the greatest revolution effected in the conduct of naval warfare which has yet been known ... and will render many fleets, like the present Russian one, useless.” Speaking of men-of-war fitted with the auxiliary screw, he went on: “We have already sixteen at sea and ten in an advanced state. France has no more than two, and the other Powers none.... I write all this, because last autumn we were bewailing our defenceless state, and because you know that, without wishing to be mouche de coche, I must rejoice to see that achieved which I had struggled so long and so hard to effect.”
Great Britain, then, at the outbreak of the Russian War, possessed a fleet stronger than the combined flotillas of any other three Great Powers. Her land forces were far less satisfactory, for though they were perfectly disciplined and well-equipped according to the existing state of military science, they were few in numbers and almost totally without reserves, for the new Militia could not count for much as yet.
