War at Sea

War at Sea

1)The war at sea was of minimal importance at the start of the war,

but it became of great importance towards the end. The war at sea was

mainly a tactical battle when it finally had an effect. But up until

that point the sea was used for shipping goods such as cotton into

Britain. Britain relied on the goods which were shipped in, this was

mainly because of Britain's large population. The last battle which

took place on the sea before the start of the war was the battle of

Jutland. This battle was to prove to be nothing more than a chance to

test there new types of weaponry. The newest piece of technology to

take place in this battle was the Dreadnaught. This was the largest

battle ship of its time. But it proved to be useless in battle; this

was due to its large cost and the time that it took to construct. But

a new piece of water going technology was going to take its place,

this was the U-Boat. The U-boat was the first ship of its kind that

was able to travel under water and use very destructive weaponry.

The sea had always been of a great importance to the British Empire,

because of the fact that it needed it to protect it far out colonies,

which would have been overcome if Britain had a poor navy, and the

income of supplies such as cotton and wheat for its over populated

country. These were many reasons why the British Navy had been the

best throughout the 19th century, but the invention of steel

battleships had given way for other country's such as France and

Germany to close the gap between them and Britain. In 1898 a naval

race had begun between Germany and Britain. This naval race was going

to cost the British Empire 154 ageing battleships. The man confronted

with the list was Sir John Fisher, in response he replied scrap them

all. But the invention of the Dreadnaught in 1906 was going to start