Agunboat is a navalwatercraft designed for the express purpose of carrying one or more guns tobombard coastal targets, as opposed to those military craft designed fornaval warfare, or forferrying troops orsupplies.
In theage of sail, a gunboat was usually a small undecked vessel carrying a singlesmoothborecannon in thebow, or just two or three such cannons. A gunboat could carry one or twomasts or be oar-powered only, but the single-masted version of about 15 m (49 ft) length was most typical. Some types of gunboats carried two cannon, or else mounted a number ofswivel guns on the railings.
The small gunboat had advantages: if it only carried a single cannon, the boat could manoeuvre in shallow or restricted areas – such as rivers or lakes – where larger ships could sail only with difficulty. The gun that such boats carried could be quite heavy; a 32-pounder for instance. As such boats were cheap and quick to build, naval forces favoured swarm tactics: while a single hit from afrigate'sbroadside would destroy a gunboat, a frigate facing a largesquadron of gunboats could suffer serious damage before it could manage to sink them all. For example: during the 1808Battle of Alvøen of theGunboat War, five Dano-Norwegian gunboats disabled the British frigateHMS Tartar. Gunboats used in theBattle of Valcour Island (1776) onLake Champlain during theAmerican Revolutionary War were mostly built on the spot, attesting to the speed of their construction.
Spanish admiralAntonio Barceló, experienced in the usage of small vessels in the conflicts againstBarbary pirates, unveiled in 1781 a kind of small armored gunboat equipped with a heavy, long-range artillery piece. This originated the SpanishRoyal Armada's doctrine offuerzas sutiles, which emphasized the usage of ships equipped with significant firepower but small enough to be difficult to hit back. His gunboats were first employed during theGreat Siege of Gibraltar, obtaining great success in the otherwise failed siege, after which they were adopted by the Royal Armada.[1]
All navies of the sailing era kept a number of gunboats on hand. Gunboats saw extensive use in theBaltic Sea during the late 18th century as they were well-suited for the extensive coastalskerries andarchipelagoes of Sweden, Finland and Russia. The rivalry between Sweden and Russia, in particular, led to an intense expansion of gunboat fleets and the development of new gunboat types. The two countries clashed during theRusso-Swedish war of 1788–1790, a conflict that culminated in the massiveBattle of Svensksund in 1790, in which over 30,000 men and hundreds of gunboats,galleys and other oared craft took part. The majority of these were vessels developed from the 1770s and onwards by the naval architectFredrik Henrik af Chapman for the Swedisharchipelago fleet. The designs, copied and refined by the rival Danish and Russian navies, spread to the Mediterranean and to the Black Sea.[2]
Two variants occurred most commonly:
Many of the Baltic navies kept gunboats in service well into the second half of the 19th century.[3] British ships engaged larger 22 m (72 ft) Russian gunboats offTurku in southeast Finland in 1854 during theCrimean War. The Russian vessels had the distinction of being the last oared vessels of war in history to fire their guns in anger.[4]
Gunboats played a key role inNapoleon Bonaparte's plan for theinvasion of England in 1804. Denmark-Norway used them heavily in the Gunboat War. Between 1803 and 1812 theUnited States Navy had a policy of basing its navy on coastal gunboats, experimenting with a variety of designs. PresidentThomas Jefferson (in office: 1801–1809) and hisDemocratic-Republican Party opposed a strong navy, regarding gunboats as adequate to defend the United States' major harbors. They performed well when properly supported with larger ships during battle, but were of little use on their own against the British blockade during theWar of 1812.[5]
With the introduction of steam power in the early 19th century, theRoyal Navy and other navies built considerable numbers of small vessels propelled by side paddles and later byscrews. Initially, these vessels retained full sailing rigs and used steam engines for auxiliary propulsion.
The British Royal Navy deployed two wooden paddle-gunboats in the LowerGreat Lakes andSt. Lawrence River during theRebellions of 1837 inUpper andLower Canada. The United States Navy deployed an iron-hulled paddle gunboat,USS Michigan, to the Great Lakes in 1844.
Von der Tann became the first propeller-driven gunboat in the world.Conradi shipyards inKiel built the steam-powered 120long tons (120 t) gunboat in 1849 for the small navy ofSchleswig-Holstein. Initially called"Gunboat No. 1",Von der Tann was the most modern ship in the navy. She participated successfully in theFirst Schleswig War of 1848–1851.
Britain built a large number of wooden screw-gunboats during the 1850s, some of which participated in the Crimean War (1853–1856),Second Opium War (1856–1860) andIndian Mutiny (1857–1859). The requirement for gunboats in the Crimean War was formulated in 1854 to allow the Royal Navy to bombard shore facilities in the Baltic.[6] The first ships the Royal Navy built that met this requirement were theArrow-class gunvessels.[6] Then in mid-1854 the Royal Navy ordered sixGleaner-class gunboats followed later in the year by an order for 20Dapper-class gunboats.[6] In May 1855 the Royal Navy deployed sixDapper-class gunboats in theSea of Azov, where they repeatedly raided and destroyed stores around its coast.[7] In June 1855 the Royal Navy reentered the Baltic with a total of 18 gunboats as part of a larger fleet.[8] The gunboats attacked various coastal facilities, operating alongside larger British warships from which they drew supplies such as coal.[8]
Gunboats experienced a revival during theAmerican Civil War (1861–1865).Union andConfederate forces quickly converted existing passenger-carrying boats into armedsidewheel steamers. Later, some purpose-built boats, such asUSS Miami, joined the fray. They frequently mounted 12 or more guns, sometimes of rather large caliber, and usually carried some armor. At the same time, Britain's gunboats from the Crimean War period were starting to wear out,[citation needed] so a new series of classes was ordered. Construction shifted from a purely wooden hull to an iron–teak composite.[9]
In the later 19th century and early 20th century, "gunboat" was the common name for smaller armed vessels. These could be classified, from the smallest to the largest, intoriver gunboats,river monitors, coastal-defense gunboats (such asSMS Panther), and full-fledgedmonitors for coastal bombardments. In the 1870s and 1880s, Britain took to building so-called"flat-iron" (or Rendel) gunboats for coastal defence.[10] When there would be few opportunities to re-coal, vessels carrying a full sailing rig continued in use as gunboats;HMS Gannet, asloop preserved at Chatham Historic Dockyard in the United Kingdom, exemplifies this type of gunboat.
In the United States Navy, these boats had thehull classification symbol "PG", which led to their being referred to as "patrol gunboats". They usually displaced under 2,000 long tons (2,000 t), were about 200 ft (61 m) long, 10–15 ft (3.0–4.6 m)draught and sometimes much less, and mounted several guns of calibers up to 5–6 in (130–150 mm). An important characteristic of these was the ability to operate in rivers, enabling them to reach inland targets in a way not otherwise possible before the development ofaircraft. In this period the naval powers used gunboats forpolice actions in colonies or in weaker countries, for example inChina (see e.g.Yangtze Patrol). This category of gunboat inspired the term "gunboat diplomacy". With the addition of torpedoes, they became "torpedo gunboats", designated by the hull classification symbol "PTG" (Patrol Torpedo Gunboat).
In Britain,Admiral Fisher's reforms in the 1900s saw the disposal of much of the gunboat fleet.[11] A handful remained in service in various roles at the start of World War I in 1914.[12] The last in active service were two of the secondBramble class which survived until 1926, carrying out river patrols in west Africa.[13]
In the circumstances of World War I (1914–1918), however, the Royal Navy re-equipped with small 625-long-ton (635 t), shallow-draught gunboats (12 ships of theInsect class) with sufficient speed to operate in fast-flowing rivers and with relatively heavy armament. During the war and in the post-war period, these were deployed in Romania on theDanube, inMesopotamia on theEuphrates andTigris, in northernRussia on theNorthern Dvina, and in China on theYangtze. In China, during anarchic and war conditions, they continued to protect British interests until World War II; other western Powers acted similarly.
More and larger gunboats were built in the late 1930s for the Far East. Some sailed there; others were transported in sections and reassembled atShanghai.
Most British gunboats were based initially in East Asia. When war with Japan broke out, many of these vessels withdrew to the Indian Ocean. Others were given to theRepublic of China Navy (such asHMS Sandpiper, which was renamedYing Hao) and some were captured by the Japanese.
Some were later redeployed to theMediterranean theatre and supported land operations during theNorth African campaign, as well as in parts ofSouthern Europe.
In late 1941, the US Navy'sYangtze Patrol boats based in China were withdrawn to the Philippines or scuttled. Following theUS defeat in the Philippines, most of the remaining craft werescuttled. However,USS Asheville survived until being sunk in action during theBattle of Java in 1942.
During the 1930s, the Soviet Navy began developing small armoured riverboats or "riverine tanks": vessels displacing 26 to 48 tonnes, on which theturrets oftanks were mounted.[14]
Three classes, numbering 210 vessels, saw service between 1934 and 1945:
With crews of 10 to 20 personnel,riverine tanks displaced 26 to 48 tonnes (26 to 47 long tons; 29 to 53 short tons), had armour 4–14 mm (0.16–0.55 in) thick, and were 23 to 25 m (75 ft 6 in to 82 ft 0 in) long. They saw significant action in the Baltic andBlack Seas between 1941 and 1945.
US riverine gunboats in theVietnam War, includedPatrol Boats River (PBR), constructed offiberglass;Patrol Craft Fast (PCF), commonly known asSwift Boats, built of aluminum; andAssault Support Patrol Boats (ASPB) built of steel.U.S. Coast Guard 82-foot (25 m)Point-class cutters supplemented these US Navy vessels. The ASPBs were commonly referred to as "Alpha" boats and primarily carried out mine-sweeping duties along the waterways, due to their all-steel construction. The ASPBs were the only US Navy riverine craft specifically designed and built for the Vietnam War.[15] All of these boats were assigned to the US Navy's "Brownwater Navy".[16]
Media related toGunboats at Wikimedia Commons
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