After the defeat of the combined French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar, the Royal Navy approached the Victorian period with no major enemy fleet to fight. The British dominated the seas, acting as the policeman of the oceans until threatened by the German naval rearmament programme in the run up to World War One. It was on land that the naval officers and sailors fought the enemy – often in colonial conflicts - and many of the later renowned Admirals won fame in land battles – Beatty was a Lieutenant in command of a gun boat going up the Nile during the Fashoda incident with France and Jellicoe was shot in the chest during an attempt to relieve the Peking delegation during the Boxer rebellion. Meanwhile, Beresford and Arthus Wilson both fought in the Sudan, the former being speared in the hand, whilst the latter won the Victoria Cross after fighting first with his sword hilt and then with his fists. Other nations also landed navy landing parties to fight in their, sometimes colonial, conflicts abroad – France in Indochina and Mexico, the U.S.A. in Mexico and the Philippines, Germany in Africa and in the Pacific. |