Fleet review (Commonwealth realms)

A fleet review is a traditional gathering of ships from a particular navy to be observed by the reigning monarch or his or her viceroy, a practice allegedly dating back to the 15th century. Such an event is not held at regular intervals and originally only occurred when the fleet was mobilised for war or for a show of strength to discourage potential enemies. However, since the 19th century they have often been held for the coronation or for special royal jubilees (indeed, since Edward VIII it has been regularly held at each coronation, though the one scheduled in the United Kingdom for Queen Elizabeth II's Golden Jubilee was cancelled due to costs. Also, since the 19th century, fleet reviews increasingly often include delegates from other national navies.

Contents

Canada

In Canada, fleet reviews may take place on either the Atlantic or Pacific coasts, typically in Halifax Harbour for the former and Victoria Harbour for the latter.

United Kingdom

Needing a natural large, sheltered and deep anchorage, it usually occurs in the Solent off Spithead (although, Southend, Torbay, the Firth of Clyde as well as some overseas ports have also hosted reviews - in the examples below, the venue is Spithead unless otherwise noted).

A list follows of fleet reviews in England, Great Britain, and later the UK since the 14th century.

Medieval

Stuart

1700-1837

Queen Victoria

17 occurred during her reign, the most for any monarch.

Edward VII

George V

160 warships including HMS Revenge. D L Davenport, at the time a young cadet serving on board HMS Iron Duke (he later went onto a successful naval career, eventually reaching the rank of Rear Admiral), noted his impressions of this event in his diary:

"Turned out at 0545 and scrubbed focsle…after breakfast we gave all the brightwork a final polish and generally cleaned up… after lunch we fell in on deck ... All the ships with saluting guns fired a royal salute of 21 guns the noise was not as bad as we were led to expect. But the smoke screened most of the ships for some minutes… After tea ‘Clean Lower Deck’ was sounded and we had to fall in for manning ship my position on Y Turret grid on the Quarter Deck was an excellent one as we could see the yacht approaching… as the V&A approached the band played ‘God Save the King’ and the guard presented arms in the Royal Salute. When the King was halfway past we gave 3 cheers. You could just see the King on the Bridge, Saluting …About ½ hour later we fell in again as he passed the other side.
After supper we watched the illuminations… after half hour all the lights were turned off and red flares were lit on deck, each held by a sailor at the guardrail. These did not look very good except for the first few seconds… the ships remained illuminated for the rest of the time until midnight... We turned in about 2345 very tired.

George VI

Described by one naval officer in a letter to a friend -

"The day was quite as bad as I feared but my sisters are insistent that they enjoyed it all"

It was also the occasion of the infamous "Woodrooffe Incident" [2] [3] in the BBC Radio coverage (known by the phrase 'The Fleet's Lit Up!')

HMY Victoria and Albert III took part in this review, her second and last before being scrapped in 1939.

The sole U.S. Navy representative was USS New York, which had brought Admiral Hugh Rodman, the President's personal representative for the coronation, across the Atlantic.

Germany was represented by the new pocket battleship Graf Spee.

Elizabeth II

15 June 1953, Coronation Fleet Review, coronation of Elizabeth II ([4]). The first post-war review, here could be seen the ongoing technical innovations the war had produced (Plan of the ships at anchor).

Australia

Australia has a proud history of Fleet Reviews, the next Fleet Review to take place in Australia is in 2013.

External links

References

  1. ^ a b c Canadian Press (29 June 2010), "Queen reviews rare warship flotilla to mark navy's centenary", Toronto Star, http://www.thestar.com/news/world/queenelizabethii/article/829984--queen-reviews-rare-warship-flotilla-to-mark-navy-s-centenary?bn=1, retrieved 29 June 2010 
  2. ^ DeRosa, Katie (12 June 2010), "Governor General conducts fleet review to mark navy centennial", National Post, http://www.nationalpost.com/news/Governor+General+conducts+fleet+review+mark+navy+centennial/3147422/story.html, retrieved 13 June 2010 
  3. ^ Government of Canada. "2010 Royal Tour > Itinerary for 2010 Royal Tour of Canada". Queen's Printer for Canada. http://www.royaltour.gc.ca/faq-eng.cfm. Retrieved 15 June 2010.