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Ringbolt

@ringbolt.net

Physicist by education, naval aviator cum mission system engineer by profession, maritime historian and game designer by avocation, science fiction reader for mind expansion. FLY NAVY.

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Ringbolt BlogSep 20, 2026

What drove Invincible's design, part 2

Some thoughts on how an online naval game can illuminate the deliberations of the 1905 Committee on Designs.

Naval Estimates

Ringbolt BlogSep 13, 2026

What drove Invincible's design? Part 1

Some thoughts on how an online naval game can illuminate the deliberations of the 1905 Committee on Designs.

Naval Estimates

Naval SketchesAug 15, 2026

Ordinary Seaman John Hodgkinson of the Highflyer

John Hodgkinson was one of those very rare Victorian sailors who wrote an extensive account of life on the lower deck of the Royal Navy. His five years in HMS Highflyer included experiencing the 'smell of powder' in the Second Anglo-Chinese War of 1856 to 1860. When he returned from war, and seeing no prospects in the service, he bought himself out of his engagement and anonymously wrote a book about his experiences.

royal navylower deck

Naval SketchesJul 26, 2026

Admiral Charles 'Rough' Penrose-Fitzgerald

Victorian admiral who served as a boy in the Crimean War and as a Rear Admiral on the China Station at the turn of the nineteenth century. A fine seaman and a progressive officer, his career was blighted by his own lack of tact when advocating change within the Royal Navy.

royal navybiographical

Naval SketchesJul 11, 2026

Minotaur and Agincourt

These broadside ironclads of the Royal Navy were the flagships of the Channel Squadron all their active lives, from 1867 to 1887. They were every inch what the mid-Victorian public expected of a battleship; the largest ships in commission, the longest single screw ships ever built and spreading an impressive suite of sails on no less than five masts. And yet they were obsolescent within five years, and obsolete within ten.

royal navy

Naval SketchesJul 3, 2026

Collision off Tripoli

On the afternoon of 22 June 1893, the flagship of the Royal Navy's premier fleet was sunk in collision with a companion battleship, with the death of 358 men. The collision was caused by a minor, but fatal, error in the orders of the fleet commander, Vice Admiral Tryon. Although the error was immediately obvious to his captains, none of them took action to avoid the inevitable collision. Why?

royal navycollision

Naval SketchesJun 26, 2026

The Spithead Naval Review 1897

Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebrations included a naval review in the waters of Spithead on 26 June 1897 of 165 warships of the Royal Navy. The occasion was a not so subtle demonstration of the absolute supremacy of the Royal Navy at the height of its power. But the seeds of decline of British naval mastery can be traced in the careers of three ships of foreign nations invited to witness this show of dominance.

Naval SketchesJun 7, 2026

SMS Kurfurst Friedrich Wilhelm / Barbaros Hayreddin

The first battleship of the Imperial German Navy to fire its guns in anger, but in the service of the Ottoman Empire, not the Kaiser. Spent 6 years as flagship of the Imperial Navy, and then deployed to suppress the Chinese Boxer rebellion. Sold to the Ottomans and provided naval gunfire support to the Turkish defenders at Gallipoli, only to become the first and only battleship to be sunk by a British submarine.

Kaiserliche Marineship

Naval SketchesMay 31, 2026

August von Heeringen

In 1897, Korvettenkapitän August von Heeringen was chosen by Konteradmiral Tirpitz to play a key role in creating the German battle fleet which kicked off a naval race with Britain. In 1912, when Germany had lost that race, the then Vizeadmiral von Heeringen was faced with the insuperable problem of how to win a war with the fleet that Tirpitz built.

Kaiserliche Marinebiographical

Naval SketchesMay 19, 2026

A Ramming Off Folkestone

In the summer of 1878, two German ironclads collided off the Kent coast, sending over 250 sailors to their deaths as SMS Grosser Kurfürst went to the bottom. The disaster led to four courts martial, a loss of confidence in the Kaiserliche Marine and a withering away of the German battle fleet.

Kaiserliche Marineevent

Naval SketchesMay 12, 2026

SMS Baden (1880)

A German ironclad coast defence ship of the 1870s which served as a fleet flagship for twenty years, well into the pre-Dreadnought era.

shipKaiserliche Marine