Blockship
A blockship is a
An early use was in 1667, during the Dutch Raid on the Medway and their attempts to do likewise in the Thames during the Second Anglo-Dutch War, when a number of warships and merchant ships commandeered by the Royal Navy were sunk in those rivers to attempt to stop the attacking forces.
An even earlier use are the six 11th century Skuldelev ships in Roskilde Fjord, sunk to protect Roskilde from northern Vikings. They are now on display in the Viking Ship Museum.[1][2][3]
The above is the principal and enduring meaning of 'block ship', but in the mid-19th century the term blockships was applied to two groups of mobile sea batteries developed by the Royal Commission on Coast Defence. The first batch of four was obtained from around 1845 by converting old sailing 74-gun two-deckers, all of them
The most recent known use of blockships in warfare was during the
See also
- Stone fleet
- Mulberry harbour
- Hulk (ship type)
- Guard ship
Notes
- ^ "Roskilde 6". rgzm.de. Archived from the original on 2013-10-04.
- ^ Crumlin-Pedersen, Ole (2002). The Skuldelev Ships I. The Viking Ship Museum and the National Museum of Denmark. Archived from the original on 2012-04-06. Retrieved 2012-04-10.
- ^ "Ancient History: Viking dig reports". BBC. Archived from the original on 2003-06-18. Retrieved 27 October 2021.
- ^ 'a steam guard, or "block" ship' - The Times, 23 September 1846, describing Ajax.
- ^ "Russia sinks ship to block Ukrainian Navy ships". Naval News. 6 March 2014. Archived from the original on 2014-03-06. Retrieved 27 October 2021.
Further reading
- Brown, D.K. (1983). A Century of Naval Construction: The History of Royal Corps of Naval Constructors 1883-1983. London: Conway Maritime Press. ISBN 0-85177-282-X.
- Jumonville, P. C. (2012). "Question 6/47: Use of Blockships". Warship International. XLIX (1): 38–44. ISSN 0043-0374.
- Lyon, David and Winfield, Rif (2004). ISBN 1-86176-032-9.
- Savitz, S. (2021). "The Suez Grounding Was an Accident, but the Next Blocked Chokepoint Might Not Be," DefenseOne, https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2021/03/suez-grounding-was-accident-next-blocked-chokepoint-might-not-be/173011/.
- Savitz, S. (2021). "Blockship Tactics to Trap Enemy Fleets," Proceedings of the U.S. Naval Institute, Vol. 147/12/1426, https://www.usni.org/magazines/proceedings/2021/december/blockship-tactics-trap-enemy-fleets.
- Sondhaus, L. (2001). Naval warfare, 1815–1914. Warfare and history series. London: Routledge, ISBN 0-415-21477-7
- Winfield, Rif (2009). British Warships in the Age of Sail 1603–1714: Design, Construction, Careers and Fates. Seaforth Publishing. ISBN 978-1-84832-040-6.
External links
Media related to Block ships at Wikimedia Commons
