Rowley's independent victory off Guadeloupe
In his first independent flag command, Rowley captures three French frigates and then takes a convoy.
From Vice-Admiral Joshua Rowley: The Trials of Being the Solid Deputy for the Greats! ·
Complete directory
Browse all time notes.
Explore every watch point in reverse video-date order, then in timestamp order within each video.
How prize money treated captured warships
Captors received value whether a prize entered naval service, became a merchant ship, or was sold for breaking up.
From Vice-Admiral Joshua Rowley: The Trials of Being the Solid Deputy for the Greats! ·
Rodney trusts Rowley to hold the rear
At Martinique, Rowley's rear division provides the dependable support needed for Rodney's attempt to break the French line.
From Vice-Admiral Joshua Rowley: The Trials of Being the Solid Deputy for the Greats! ·
Why dependable officers disappear from naval history
Even a major survey can mention Rowley's ships without indexing him, illustrating how day-to-day fleet builders vanish behind celebrated admirals.
From Vice-Admiral Joshua Rowley: The Trials of Being the Solid Deputy for the Greats! ·
Jamaica command and the value of quiet competence
Rowley's final command and later honors close a career built on preserving forces and completing difficult work without theatrical heroics.
From Vice-Admiral Joshua Rowley: The Trials of Being the Solid Deputy for the Greats! ·
The Rowleys carried flag rank into naval administration
A closing review follows the family's senior ranks from the colour-squadron system into later Admiralty administration.
From Vice-Admiral Joshua Rowley: The Trials of Being the Solid Deputy for the Greats! ·
Which Royal Navy family formed the longest admiral dynasty?
The tentative answer points to the interlinked Somerville-Hood family while cautioning that marriage and branching complicate the count.
From Vice-Admiral Joshua Rowley: The Trials of Being the Solid Deputy for the Greats! ·
Why piracy survived Roman control of the Mediterranean
Small vessels, secluded beaches, and opportunistic merchant crews allowed piracy to persist even under Roman naval dominance.
From Vice-Admiral Joshua Rowley: The Trials of Being the Solid Deputy for the Greats! ·
Why great seamanship can look uneventful
The best seamanship often appears unspectacular because preparation keeps a sailor out of situations demanding a heroic recovery.
From Vice-Admiral Joshua Rowley: The Trials of Being the Solid Deputy for the Greats! ·
Where to find Rowley-like commanders in the world wars
The closest analogues are the steady admirals commanding battle and cruiser squadrons, especially around Jutland.
From Vice-Admiral Joshua Rowley: The Trials of Being the Solid Deputy for the Greats! ·
Why Royal Navy ships seldom carry captains' names
The Navy generally chooses famous admirals because their names carry historical prestige and psychological weight.
From Vice-Admiral Joshua Rowley: The Trials of Being the Solid Deputy for the Greats! ·
If American independence had not come in 1776
A delayed independence might produce an early dominion, but the outcome depends on whether imperial defence made taxation acceptable.
From Vice-Admiral Joshua Rowley: The Trials of Being the Solid Deputy for the Greats! ·
Were privateers state-sponsored pirates?
The short answer equates privateering with state-authorized piracy.
From Vice-Admiral Joshua Rowley: The Trials of Being the Solid Deputy for the Greats! ·
The Captain-class frigate named Rowley
The Captain class may be the best answer for captain-derived names, and its practical escort HMS Rowley suited its namesake.
From Vice-Admiral Joshua Rowley: The Trials of Being the Solid Deputy for the Greats! ·
Why carrier design protects aircraft from the sea
A Super Hornet lost overboard shows why carrier designers try to protect parked aircraft from heavy seas.
From Vice-Admiral Joshua Rowley: The Trials of Being the Solid Deputy for the Greats! ·
How the Royal Navy settled on AC electrical power
The postwar Daring-class trials show how the Royal Navy compared AC and DC arrangements before standardizing.
From Bruships 191: Naval History Questions Answered Live... ·
British F-35Bs on allied light carriers
Carrier qualification is manageable, but aircraft numbers and each ship's support facilities limit useful cross-deck operations.
From Bruships 191: Naval History Questions Answered Live... ·
Could Edinburgh-class cruisers carry 9.2-inch guns?
A twin 9.2-inch mounting appears physically possible and would restore a useful range and hitting-power advantage over 6-inch cruisers.
From Bruships 191: Naval History Questions Answered Live... ·
How battleships and cruisers counter-flooded
Counter-flooding used dedicated tanks first and, when necessary, an ordered set of sacrificial compartments.
From Bruships 191: Naval History Questions Answered Live... ·
What "planet killer" means for an extreme SSBN loadout
The panel distinguishes catastrophic damage to life and civilization from literally breaking apart the planet.
From Bruships 191: Naval History Questions Answered Live... ·
Details visitors miss at Portsmouth and Chatham
Look closely at Cavalier's hand-loaded ammunition and the armor sample beside HMS Warrior to appreciate their physical scale.
From Bruships 191: Naval History Questions Answered Live... ·
What the Falklands War shows about aging warships
Argentina's losses reflected a generational mismatch and the limits of keeping old hulls in frontline service, not a simple verdict on American versus British shipbuilding.
From Bruships 191: Naval History Questions Answered Live... ·
Why the United States built forty-one early ballistic-missile submarines
A large force of less mature SSBNs created enough rotating hulls to sustain a credible deterrent while more capable Ohio-class boats were still in the future.
From Bruships 191: Naval History Questions Answered Live... ·
How naval treaties arrived at 8-inch and 16-inch gun limits
The treaty calibers largely codified the biggest weapons already in service rather than expressing any navy's ideal cruiser or battleship armament.
From Bruships 191: Naval History Questions Answered Live... ·
Why Britain appeared ahead in current frigate procurement
Britain started construction sooner largely to preserve its yards, while American program changes damaged the industrial momentum needed to restart quickly.
From Bruships 191: Naval History Questions Answered Live... ·
Why major warship refits are normal lifecycle planning
Refits are expected over a 30- or 40-year service life, so modern ships carry space and margin for systems that do not yet exist.
From Bruships 191: Naval History Questions Answered Live... ·
Could the Royal Navy name a ship HMS Anzac?
Australian restrictions on the Anzac name would not bind another state, though an Australian ship is the more likely bearer.
From Bruships 191: Naval History Questions Answered Live... ·
Warship refits that made the panel ask why
The panel's examples range from awkward missile conversions and ironclad rebuilds to the final Indian reconstruction of HMS Hermes.
From Bruships 191: Naval History Questions Answered Live... ·
The panel's favorite naval officers from 1900 to 1945
The choices reward steady operational competence, difficult commands, lawful commerce raiding, and officers whose reputations deserve more attention.
From Bruships 191: Naval History Questions Answered Live... ·
Two different wires associated with the Fairey Swordfish
Improvised underwire could repair structural bracing, while the often-mentioned operational wire controlled the torpedo's attitude on entering the water.
From Bruships 191: Naval History Questions Answered Live... ·
If naval officers had led the 1930 London treaty talks
Naval delegates might have protected shipbuilding capacity, retained 16-inch guns, and preferred per-ship limits over restrictive cumulative tonnage ceilings.
From Bruships 191: Naval History Questions Answered Live... ·
AC distribution and DC loads aboard capital ships
AC is generally better for distributing power through a large hull, while electronics and some specialist loads require locally converted or dedicated DC supplies.
From Bruships 191: Naval History Questions Answered Live... ·
Sea Slug against General Belgrano
Sea Slug could likely mission-kill Belgrano by wrecking her upperworks, but another weapon would probably be needed to sink her.
From Bruships 191: Naval History Questions Answered Live... ·
Which navies might want the Short Hellcat missile?
Interest would come chiefly from navies expecting to fight fast attack craft in confined littoral waters.
From Bruships 191: Naval History Questions Answered Live... ·
Will drone swarms soon make fighters obsolete?
The panel accepts that uncrewed aircraft may reshape air warfare but rejects a near-term forecast that they will eliminate fighters.
From Bruships 191: Naval History Questions Answered Live... ·
Why the Joffre class was not a design dead end
The unfinished Joffre class represented a credible next generation of French carrier design rather than an evolutionary cul-de-sac.
From Bruships 191: Naval History Questions Answered Live... ·
How Royal Navy war plans evolved before 1939
Plans against Italy were continuously revised under changing titles and distributed between Admiralty and fleet-level responsibilities.
From Bruships 191: Naval History Questions Answered Live... ·
When beaching capital ships for repairs stopped working
Increasing hull size and iron construction made controlled dry docks preferable to pulling major warships onto a beach.
From Bruships 191: Naval History Questions Answered Live... ·
A 1935 modernization strategy to save HMS Hood
The panel weighs avoidance, altered tactics, and an early comprehensive refit as ways to keep Hood alive through 1946.
From Bruships 191: Naval History Questions Answered Live... ·
Keeping HMS Warspite alive from 1914 to 1946
Warspite already survived the required period, so the counterfactual chiefly offers an opportunity to improve her guns before treaty limits arrive.
From Bruships 191: Naval History Questions Answered Live... ·
British 15-inch/50 versus American 16-inch guns
The proposed British gun might outperform early American weapons because of shell quality, but American super-heavy shells reverse the comparison.
From Bruships 191: Naval History Questions Answered Live... ·
Using Warspite to reshape interwar Royal Navy policy
Foreknowledge would be used not only to improve Warspite, but to advance high-pressure machinery, fast battleships, dual-purpose guns, and naval control of carrier aviation.
From Bruships 191: Naval History Questions Answered Live... ·
What a Short Hellcat missile would add to Royal Navy escorts
The proposed light missile would add a cheaper guided option against fast attack craft, not fill a capability the 4.5-inch gun lacked.
From Bruships 191: Naval History Questions Answered Live... ·
Why Tirpitz was most useful in the Norwegian fjords
Tirpitz gained strategic value by threatening Arctic and North Atlantic convoys from a defensible position without accepting the risks of a sortie.
From Bruships 191: Naval History Questions Answered Live... ·
Beatty, Jellicoe, and the limits of a simple rivalry
Beatty and Jellicoe could cooperate professionally, even though Beatty's strengths as a captain and political operator did not make him an ideal fleet commander.
From Bruships 191: Naval History Questions Answered Live... ·
Why infrastructure alone would not solve Corsair production limits
More factories would help only if prewar demand had already created the machine tools, skilled production base, and aluminum supply needed to use them.
From Bruships 191: Naval History Questions Answered Live... ·
Why a Westland Wasp would need sensors for Short Hellcat
A Wasp could carry the hypothetical missile only with suitable tracking data, while its overlap with Sea Skua would need justification.
From Bruships 191: Naval History Questions Answered Live... ·
A Commonwealth cruiser for the GIUK gap
A joint Commonwealth cruiser would likely evolve from Type 82 with stronger helicopter facilities and a stern flight deck.
From Bruships 191: Naval History Questions Answered Live... ·