I've been reading up a little on the war with Napoleon, and I keep reading that it was Britain's mastery of the seas that allowed them to prevent invasion, as well as fund their allies in mainland Europe. So now Im curious as to their naval strength, both from a merchant/commerce perspective, as well as a military perspective. How many various types of ships did they have, how many personnel served, how many officers, Etc.
Thanks in advance for the answers!
Here is a rough cut of the number of ships of different strengths in various European Navies throughout the Napoleonic Wars:
Ships of the line
Year GBR FRA NLD ESP DNK RUS
1790 145, 73, 48, 72, 32, 58
1795 123, 56, 28, 76, 30, 61
1800 127, 44, 16, 66, 28, 67
1805 136, 41, 15, 40, 20, 47
1810 152, 46, 13, 28, 2, 43
1815 126, 52, 19, 16, 2, 48
Cruisers
Year GBR FRA NLD ESP DNK RUS
1790 131, 64, 36, 46, 16, 52
1795 160, 65, 30, 51, 13. 40
1800 158, 43, 6, 41, 9, 34
1805 160, 35, 10, 26, 11, 16
1810 183, 31, 7, 17, 0, 14
1815 151, 31, 14, 15, 3, 21
Source: The Command of the Ocean, N.A.M Rodger (Allen Lane, 2004) derived from data by Prof. J.Glete
These numbers are rough, because they don't take account of the age of the ships, their use or station, their individual size or number of guns, still, they give a general impression of the overwhelming might of the Royal Navy in the period of the wars against France and Napoleon.
From Patrick O'Brian's Men-of-War: Life in Nelson's Navy
"In 1793, counting those that were being built or repaired, those that were laid up and those that were stationary harbour ships, the Royal Navy had 153 ships of the line, 43 50 and 44-gun two-deckers, 99 frigates, and 102 unrated vessels."
"...By the time Napoleon had been dealt with, Britain had no less than 776 vessels, counting all she had taken from the French, Spaniards, Danes, and Dutch; and altogether they came to 724,810 tons, At this time, at its greatest expansion, the Royal Navy needed 113,000 seamen and 31,400 Royal Marines."