RapidFireWeb The Battle of Trafalgar by William Clarkson Stanfield. HMS Victory is a 104-gun first-rate wooden sailing ship of the line. With 247 years of service as of 2025, she is the world’s oldest naval vessel still in commission. She was ordered for the Royal Navy in 1758, during the Seven Years’ War and laid down … Read more
Merchant Aircraft Carriers (MAC-Ships) Oil or grain bulk cargo carriers with superstructures removed and flight decks added. Manned by Merchant Navy crews,with Fleet Air Arm (FAA) personnel to maintain and fly the aircraft – mainly A/S Fairey Swordfish and Hawker Sea Hurricanes. The ships flew the Red Ensign, and some aircraft carried ‘Merchant Navy’ instead … Read more
Merchant Aircraft Carriers (MAC-Ships) HMS Atheling (D51), HMS Begum (D38), HMS Emperor (D98), HMS Empress (D42), HMS Khedive (D62), HMS Nabob (D77), HMS Premier (D23), HMS Queen (D19), HMS Rajah (D10), HMS Ranee (D03), HMS Ruler (D72), HMS Shah (D21), HMS Thane (D48) Oil or grain bulk cargo carriers with superstructures removed and flight decks … Read more
Royal Navy Ruler-class Escort Carriers in the Second World War Ruler class, The Ruler class of escort aircraft carriers served with the Royal Navy during the Second World War. All twenty-three ships were built by the Seattle-Tacoma Shipbuilding Corporation in the United States as Bogue-class escort carriers, supplied under Lend-Lease to the United Kingdom. They … Read more
Royal Navy Minelaying Cruisers HMS Adventure (M23), HMS Abdiel (M39), HMS Latona (M76), HMS Manxman (M70), HMS Welshman (M84), HMS Ariadne (M65), HMS Apollo (M01) Adventure class 6,740 tons, 4 × 4.7 in. HMS Adventure (M23) (IWM Photo, FL 200) HMS Adventure (M23), 1943. HMS Adventure, pennant number M23, was an Adventure-class minelaying cruiser of the … Read more
Royal Navy (RN), His Majesty’s Ships (HMS) in Canadian ports at the turn of the century The Imperial navy base in Halifax was known as the “Warden of the North”. (Nova Scotia Archives Photo) HMS Canada, North America and West Indies Squadron in drydock, Halifax Graving Yards, Halifax, Nova Scotia, 20 Sep 1889. HMS Canada … Read more
The War of 1812, Battles on the Water. (Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 2836438) HMS Shannon carrying by boarding the American Frigate Chesapeake, after a cannonade of five minutes on 1 June 1813. In the War of 1812, the United States fought Great Britain, in a conflict that would have an immense impact on … Read more
The Royal Newfoundland Regiment In the battles of the Somme in the summer of 1916, the 1st Newfoundland Regiment was annihilated at Beaumont Hamel on the disastrous first day of 1 July. When Canadians entered the battle on 30 August, the Newfoundlanders hard earned experience helped toward additional limited gains, though at a high cost. … Read more
RCN Armed Trawlers (Isles class): HMCS Anticosti (T274), HMCS Baffin (T275), HMCS Cailiff (T276), HMCS Ironbound (T284), HMCS Liscomb (T285), HMCS Magdalen (T279), HMCS Manitoulin (T280), HMCS Miscou (T277) HMCS Anticosti (T274) (DND Photo) HMCS Anticosti (T274) (Isles class). Built at Collingwood, Ontario for the RN, she was commissioned on 10 Aug 1942 as HMS … Read more
Russian Women Parachutists In late October 1977, two Soviet women, Nina Pronushkina and Elvira Fomicheva, set absolute stratospheric records that remain unsurpassed decades later. Pronushkina, applying a layer of goose fat to her face to protect against the brutal cold of near-space altitudes, executed a night solo jump on 28 October from a staggering 14,974 … Read more
