Marines Afloat

Through The Ages (350 years approx)

Reason for Marines Aboard Ship

This Naval History continues on from: "Edward Peyton"

The Royal Navy was the first navy to use the cannon for defence- attacking and destruction, and, did so for approximately one-hundred years before other great navies realised its potentiality and importance.

When they had a ship yeilding, the half hearted board and entry technique of the Royal Navy's seamen; took a lot to be desired.

With over three-quarters ot their sailors being pressed-men, forced to do their duties, most, did not have the heart to fight. Being untrained they certainly did not match the discipline expected of a trained-soldier.

For years, the boarder-repelling function had been assigned to the sailors. The navy discovered, that, the sailor-turned-infantryman however satisfactory, was hardly satisfactory enought; and that a multitude of duties could be found on board ships for properly-trained sea-soldiers. From this, discovery grew up that unique force. The Royal Marines.

Edward Peyton

Marines Enter Navy 1755

Looking back through history we can see that Marines and when there was an insufficient number available then, occasionally other regimental units were used aboard ship for hostlilties only.

Over time the Marines became the preferred regiment at sea and were used more often than any other units; until 1755, when they alone became the Navy's Regiment of the Sea.

In 1744, Captain George Anson took his seat on the Board of Admiralty as the Naval Advisor to the Duke of Bedford; and in 1751, he became First Lord, holding the post for ten years.

He sorted out the naval problem of retirement, and initiated vast improvements in the design and build of ships. Among the many other good things he did; in 1755, he was instrumental in setting of the Marines upon their modern footing in the Navy, forming three divisions, stationed respectively at Chatham, Portsmouth and Plymouth.

Robert Hope's letter 4th November 1805

Written after the "Battle of Trafalgar"

This remarkable document sheds new light on of some of the fighting at the "Battle of Trafalgar".

The whole document is now in the National Maritime Museum.

This short draught is taken from a part of the document.

But the other two, was determined to board us, so with that intent. One dropt on our starboard side called the "La Fue" and the other dropped to our larboard (port) side called the "Le Doubtable" (Redoubtable).

They kept a very hot fire for some time but we soon cooled them for in the height of the smoke and the stench of burnt cordite; our men (Royal Marines boarding parties) from the upper decks boarded them both at the same time and we soon carried the day.

Marines Sharp-Shooters

There was one group on board a Royal Navy Ship, though only one, that was not for "hostilities only": a permanent force under strict military discipline-the Marines. They were drafted in as a body to a ship of the line, and, when time came, would leave it all together in a body.

They would not melt away as an entity, as would the rest of the Ship's Company. Nor were they mixed with the later on board; and though their names were entered in the ship's book, they were kept separately at the end of it.

The strength of these famous Sea-soldiers in the late eighteenth century ship was something between one-quarter and one-fifth of all her other people. The principle among their many duties were, in war, to act as sharp-shooters on the upper decks during action, to form landing-parties, and, if necessary, to board the enemy or repel the enemy's boarders.

In peace their role was to stand sentry over the more important or dangerous parts of the ship, to form guards of honour, to act as personal servants to the officers, and-perhaps most important of all, in fact, though not exactly in name-to act as police, or at any rate be a constant reinforcement to the powers of law and order.

Wooden "Line" Ships

The seamen and marines stowed their chests, bags and other gear on the Orlap Deck-the lowest of the proper decks aboard the wooden sailing ships of the "Line".

The main Magazine, where the principle supply of barrelled powder was kept, was in the bows of the ship. In a place so highly inflammmable as a wooden "Line" ship, fire and explosion were rightly regarded as the greatest dangers.

Special copper doors, watched constantly by armed Marines, guarded the approach to them from the deck above; they were lined with felt, and no lantern of any kind was allowed near them, light being provided through the glass from specially sealed-off rooms alongside.

The Remarkable Corps

In the very late eighteenth century the reinforcement to the powers of law and order; this function assumed an even greater significance than before, and anyone who doesn't understand why the Marines were kept between the Officers and Seamen might not grasp the purpose.

Many an officer must have slept sounder at night for the presence of these trusty, disciplined and well-armed men between himself and some of the quota-entry on the Lower Deck!

Their training was military and their self esteem and standards of discipline was, even then, quite extrodinarily high. Yet they were essentially sea-soldiers and, since 1755, entirely under the direction of the Admiralty.

The proud history of this remarkable Corps dates from 1664, when Charles II created, by Order in Council, "the Duke of York and Albany's Maritime Regiment of Foot," usually known as the "Duke of York's Regiment" or "The lord High Admiral's Regiment": or more familiarly-from the colour of the uniform coat which adorned it-"The Yellow Regiment."

Their Purpose Was Controversial

There has been some controversy as to the King's real intention in creating it, some holding the view that it was not intended to be a permanently "maritime force" at all; while some assumed that it was intended to infuse a little military discipline into the ship's companies.

It is even possible that it was intended, ultimately, to displace them-that it was an effort to obtain, and train on military lines, a more or less permanent body of seamen.

But this is very doubtful, for unless the Regiment was merely the "thin end of the wedge," its numbers-only-1,200-were quite insufficient for such a purpose; and, on financial grounds alone, it is difficult to believe that the hard-pressed Charles could ever have hoped to increase them sufficiently to accomplish such an end.

It is possible, perhaps, that they were meant to form a core or nucleus, around which efficient seamen might be trained: but a more likely reason is already hinted at-that the danger of dispensing with all "small-arms men" was dimly realised, and that these special soldiers, already acclimatized to life afloat, would perform such duties much more adequately than ordinary land-troops.

In Commonwealth and later in Stuart times, attempts were quite often made, when seamen were hard to come by, to make up the numbers by drafting regular land-soldiers into the fleet: but the experiments seemed to have failed largely because, when called upon to board the enemy, the poor wretches were so often to be found not leaping, but leaning over the side!

They Were Raised To Fight Wars

On the other hand, the Marines never had the monopoly of small-arms. Some of the seamen had always been trained in them too, and from Charles II's time onwards such training was the principle duty of the junior naval lieutenant.

The Corps' history is not contiuous from 1664. For some ninety years, Marine maritime regiments were raised for use in specific wars, but were reduced or were totally disbanded until the next war.

Those raised in 1702 for the Spanish Succession War showed their real usefulness in amphibious warfare, and covered themselves with glory by capturing Gibraltar.

In the economizing peace-period which followed, however, they vanished again only to be raised for the War of Austrian Succession. But in 1755 they reappeared, and this time they came to stay.

1802 They Received The Style Of

Royal Marines

The Marines from this year, not only did they pass into the Admiralty control, but also they were then organized into three divisions, stationed respectively at Chatham, Portsmouth and Plymouth. Their officers also at that time relinquished the very military but quite non-naval practice of purchasing commissions.

The Marines were now securely established, and long before the end of the century their reputation for complete trustworthiness and exceptional loyalty was established too.

On many occasions during those disturbed and sometimes mutinous years of the '90s they had proved themselves the very foundations of naval discipline: and it was in direct recognition of such services that, in 1802, they received the style of "Royal Marines."

Royal Marines Battle Honours

Are Unparalelled By Any One

It was in 1804 that they began to become artillerists as well, an artillery company being added to each division. From this new activity emerged their new artillery home at Eastney, Portsmouth, and ultimately-in 1862-the separation into the two distinctive corps of Royal Marine Artillery and Royal Marine Light Infantry, the latter name being conferred in 1855. They amalgamated again in 1923.

It would be a mere impertinence to attempt in a few words a summary of the world-wide services of the Corps. The Duke of Clarence (afterwards William IV) found a happy way out of a simimlar difficulty when in 1827, he presented to it the new colours bearing the famous "globe," just conferred upon it by George IV.

"From the difficulty of selecting any number of places to inscribe on these standards," he said, "your Sovereign has been pleased to give them 'the great globe itself' as their properest and most distinctive badge."

It is justly proud, too, of the verdict passed on it by one of the greatest yet most exacting of all naval officers, Earl St. Vincent. From a man world-famed for being particularly difficult to please, such a tribute is indeed unique.

Modern-day Pages Fast Boats Pages Joe Wezley Pages

Their Long, rough and glorious history

The long, rough and glorious history of the Royal Marines; has shown that they have achieved much; they have made successful landings at Gibraltar and Belle Isle, at Gallipoli and more recently the Falkland Islands; to name just a few among the hundreds of other beaches all over the world.

As the Royal Navy's Regiment of the sea; they have, and do serve with the Fleet with whom their past, their present and their future is intimately bound.

In the last two World Wars; they were always ready to make concerted and violent assaults on their enemy at many points of the compass. They also fought in all of the greatest battles at sea; where many a battle and battle honours have been won by the men and the big guns that they fired.

With their naval comrades-in-arms their pilots fly with the Fleet; and they have manned the big guns of their ships in every sea. The laurels for these actions the Royal Marines; shared with the seamen gunners of the vessels in which they served; and in the great ships that have been lost.

They also shared the same perils and paid the same price as the naval ratings; whom they fought alongside with their guns blazing until the end.

But the Royal Marines are a formidable and versatile company of warriors, as highly trained, each in his own mode of warfare, as any the world has ever seen, eager to assail the enemy whenever they may find him, by sea, by land and by air.

The continuation of this Naval History will be: "Marine Gunners"

Marines Afloat Marine Gunners

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