Illuminating
Some 150 years ago this week: “The Grand Illumination of The British Flying and Indian Squadrons at Bombay, 8 November 1875,” on the occasion of carrying Prince Edward Albert, later King Edward VII, to India.
The Detached (or Flying) Squadron of unarmored screw ships visited the East Indies Station while on a world-wide training and flag-waving cruise, arriving in October 1875 in Bombay from Cape Town. It was the first time the squadron had visited India in three years and would remain there over winter before heading into the Pacific. The ships included the flagship HMS Narcissus, HMS Immortalité, HMS Topaze, HMS Newcastle, HMS Raleigh, and HMS Doris.
At the time, the Royal Navy was the undisputed largest fleet in the world, a title it had held since the Seven Years War in the 1760s and would retain until 1943 when surpassed by the U.S., an impressive 180-year run.
According to the Brassey’s Naval Annual for the closest year I can find (1886 with data for 1885), the Royal Navy included 55 armored ships (13 1st class, 14 2nd, 14 3rd, and 14 coastal defense) totaling some 361,000 tons compared to the next largest, that of France, which had 40 armored ships for 213,000 tons. The Royal Navy also had 130 assorted torpedo boats of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd classes. Then came a myriad of 170 unarmored sloops, gun vessels, dispatch vessels, paddle wheel gunboats, frigates, corvettes, torpedo cruisers, transports, auxiliaries, and training hulks, some dating back to Nelson. Another 23 were laid up in “fourth class reserve.”
Today’s Royal Navy is, well, much smaller.