I ran into an interesting book recently entitled Trafalgar Refought. It was written in 1905 to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar. The basic premise is an exploration of what the battle would have been like if fought by 1905-era pre-Dreadnaught battleships instead of sailing vessels. The basic order of battle is the same (update technology wise), Nelson is still in command, and it is still the Royal Navy versus a Franco-Spanish alliance. So my challenge is to make this a reality. How can we get a refight of Trafalgar with the same sized fleets and same belligerents.
I've put this in Before 1900 because I figure this is only possible with a POD prior to 1900.
My Idea: POD ~ Late July, 1898 (shortly before the 100th Anniversary of the Battle of the Nile)
The Fashoda Crisis goes badly. France and Britain come to blows in the Sudan. Second Battle of the Nile occurs after elements of the French Mediterranean Squadron stops and boards a British packet steamer. The British soundly defeat the French thanks to the effort of the little known Captain Horace Olsen. Few battles occur on land, but the British naval victory off Martinique and the shelling of Calais, Boulogne and Marseille force France to accept defeat. Britain takes Martinique, St. Pierre & Miquelon, Pondicherry, and French Somaliland.
Political chaos due to the Dreyfus Affair and the Fashoda War prompts a Bonapartist Coup. Victor, Prince Napoleon is made Emperor of France as Napoleon V, and his younger brother Prince Louis was named Minister of Defense. France very quickly embarks on a major military build up (especially naval) as well as an effort to obtain allies to counter the British threat.
In Spain the successful military coup led by Camilo de Polavieja, 1st Marquis of Polavieja brought down the monarchy and returned some stability, albeit through repression. It is believed that the de Polavieja had a direct hand in the deaths of Abd el-Aziz of Morocco and his regent Ba Ahmad bin Musa. This led directly to the First Moroccan Crisis of 1900 and the Franco-Spanish Intervention of 1901. By early 1902 Morocco had been divided by France and Spain despite vocal protests from Britain, Germany, the Ottoman Empire and, somewhat oddly, the United States.
1902 also saw the marriage of Prince Louis to Maria de las Mercedes Isabel Teresa Cristina Alfonsa, sister to the King of Spain. Prince Louis' post-wedding "Grand Tour" proved instrumental in bringing about the Dual Alliance between France and Spain. This along with the Almost War, a series of small naval battles between the US on one side and Germany and Italy on the other, (Germany and Italy were in no way allied, and while US vs. Italian duals numbered at least nine there were only two encounters between the Germany and the US), further heightened international tensions. Britain on the other hand went out of her way to support the American offer of mediation to resolve the Venezuela Crisis.
By 1903 the French and Spanish military expansions were showing great promise. Spain, making use of generous French and Russian loans, more than made good her losses of just five years previously. Fearful of this build up Britain too embarked on a major naval expansion as did Italy, Japan and several smaller nations. Most impressive of all was the massive enlargement of the United States Navy which soon had took the spot as the third largest in the world.
By the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 France was the center of large alliance system encompassing France, Spain, Russia, Italy, Greece and Bulgaria. Britain on the other hand was relatively isolated with only and Japan as a direct ally, though special agreements existed with the Ottoman Empire and Portugal.
War finally came to Europe following the attack on British and Swedish fishing ships in the Dogger Banks. The death of 13 Britons enraged the nation and the as Parliament debated war a British cruiser squadron shadowed the Russian Baltic Fleet as it made its way towards the Far East. It's warm welcome into the Spanish harbor of Vigo angered the British public. A further incident whereupon the separated Russian ships Zhemchug and Kamchatka sunk a Swedish merchantman, a German trawler and fired upon a British sloop, finally brought a British declaration of war against Russia. Sweden would follow suite six months later after a series of naval clashes in the Baltic led to the Russian shelling of Visby, Gotland. The Royal Navy would spend the next two weeks hunting down the Zhemchug and Kamchatka. These two ships would meet their demise off the coast of Liberia in a battle observed by American naval vessels.
The rest of the Russian fleet made their way to French-Spanish Tangiers and was allowed refuge despite British protests. In response Britain blockaded several Moroccan ports and cut the telegraph line leading out of the city. When rumors reached Paris that British ships had shelled Tangiers; France declared war on Britain (25th November, 1904). Spain followed suit four days later. On December 25th a Franco-Spanish squadron defeated a slightly larger British one at the Battle of Minorca. This Christmas Gift emboldened the Franco-Spanish Alliance and they moved against the British fleet blockading Tangiers. Italy's entry into the war made Britain's presence in the Mediterranean untenable and the blockade of Tangiers was lifted on February 10th.
Over the next eight months Britain fought a series of desperate actions in the Mediterranean but failed to prevent the Italian bombardment of Malta or the besiegement of Gibraltar. The Ottoman Navy had some of the only success in the region at the Battle of the Straits where they defeated the Greece fleet, but this did little to help the British cause. By August the Suez Canal had been extensively mined and blocked by sunken ships. In Asia Japan had beaten the Russian Pacific Squadron and the survivors were bottled up in Port Arthur and Vladivostok, but the fear of French intervention had forced them to take a more defensive stance.
By late September France and Spain were confident enough to make a major effort at sea. Offenses against Malta, Gibraltar, and the Channel Islands were are timed to coincide with a major naval effort by a large Franco-Spanish fleet as well as a Franco-Russian move against Japan (the Russian Baltic Fleet had been able to make it to Cam Ranh Bay after a long a harrowing ordeal traveling around the tip of South Africa. This embarrassment, coupled with the launching of the U.S.S. Congress (the first all big-gun battleship), brought down First Naval Lord, Lord Walter Kerr, and he was quickly replaced by the outspoken Jack Fisher. Fisher immediately placed Sir Horace Olsen in command of the fleet tasked with confronting the Franco-Spanish fleet.
The two fleets would meet on October 21st at Trafalgar. It appeared as though the Fates had a very twisted sense of irony.
Feel free to try your own take. A POD further in the past is almost certainly required, but I wanted to keep the rest of history pretty similar.
Benjamin
NOTES: I realize this is not very probable. Spain is broke and in shambles after the Spanish-American War.
I kept Kerr on a bit longer since there may be a reluctance to change leaders during an ongoing conflict.
America gets a "dreadnaught" battleship first due to experience during the Almost War (a direct rip off of the Quasi War with France). I named it the U.S.S. Congress because it was such a risk that no congressional delegation would support its' construction so TR finally authorized it be named Congress to rankle a few feathers. The ship is more similar to the Delaware-class than the South Carolina.
Never really decided what happens to the Russian Baltic Squadron. Tsushima or not Tsushima, that is the question.
This is basically a bit of history repeating itself (Battle of the Nile, Trafalgar, etc.) mixed with what if the opposite happened (US "dreadnaught", successful Ottoman navy, etc.).
I've put this in Before 1900 because I figure this is only possible with a POD prior to 1900.
My Idea: POD ~ Late July, 1898 (shortly before the 100th Anniversary of the Battle of the Nile)
The Fashoda Crisis goes badly. France and Britain come to blows in the Sudan. Second Battle of the Nile occurs after elements of the French Mediterranean Squadron stops and boards a British packet steamer. The British soundly defeat the French thanks to the effort of the little known Captain Horace Olsen. Few battles occur on land, but the British naval victory off Martinique and the shelling of Calais, Boulogne and Marseille force France to accept defeat. Britain takes Martinique, St. Pierre & Miquelon, Pondicherry, and French Somaliland.
Political chaos due to the Dreyfus Affair and the Fashoda War prompts a Bonapartist Coup. Victor, Prince Napoleon is made Emperor of France as Napoleon V, and his younger brother Prince Louis was named Minister of Defense. France very quickly embarks on a major military build up (especially naval) as well as an effort to obtain allies to counter the British threat.
In Spain the successful military coup led by Camilo de Polavieja, 1st Marquis of Polavieja brought down the monarchy and returned some stability, albeit through repression. It is believed that the de Polavieja had a direct hand in the deaths of Abd el-Aziz of Morocco and his regent Ba Ahmad bin Musa. This led directly to the First Moroccan Crisis of 1900 and the Franco-Spanish Intervention of 1901. By early 1902 Morocco had been divided by France and Spain despite vocal protests from Britain, Germany, the Ottoman Empire and, somewhat oddly, the United States.
1902 also saw the marriage of Prince Louis to Maria de las Mercedes Isabel Teresa Cristina Alfonsa, sister to the King of Spain. Prince Louis' post-wedding "Grand Tour" proved instrumental in bringing about the Dual Alliance between France and Spain. This along with the Almost War, a series of small naval battles between the US on one side and Germany and Italy on the other, (Germany and Italy were in no way allied, and while US vs. Italian duals numbered at least nine there were only two encounters between the Germany and the US), further heightened international tensions. Britain on the other hand went out of her way to support the American offer of mediation to resolve the Venezuela Crisis.
By 1903 the French and Spanish military expansions were showing great promise. Spain, making use of generous French and Russian loans, more than made good her losses of just five years previously. Fearful of this build up Britain too embarked on a major naval expansion as did Italy, Japan and several smaller nations. Most impressive of all was the massive enlargement of the United States Navy which soon had took the spot as the third largest in the world.
By the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 France was the center of large alliance system encompassing France, Spain, Russia, Italy, Greece and Bulgaria. Britain on the other hand was relatively isolated with only and Japan as a direct ally, though special agreements existed with the Ottoman Empire and Portugal.
War finally came to Europe following the attack on British and Swedish fishing ships in the Dogger Banks. The death of 13 Britons enraged the nation and the as Parliament debated war a British cruiser squadron shadowed the Russian Baltic Fleet as it made its way towards the Far East. It's warm welcome into the Spanish harbor of Vigo angered the British public. A further incident whereupon the separated Russian ships Zhemchug and Kamchatka sunk a Swedish merchantman, a German trawler and fired upon a British sloop, finally brought a British declaration of war against Russia. Sweden would follow suite six months later after a series of naval clashes in the Baltic led to the Russian shelling of Visby, Gotland. The Royal Navy would spend the next two weeks hunting down the Zhemchug and Kamchatka. These two ships would meet their demise off the coast of Liberia in a battle observed by American naval vessels.
The rest of the Russian fleet made their way to French-Spanish Tangiers and was allowed refuge despite British protests. In response Britain blockaded several Moroccan ports and cut the telegraph line leading out of the city. When rumors reached Paris that British ships had shelled Tangiers; France declared war on Britain (25th November, 1904). Spain followed suit four days later. On December 25th a Franco-Spanish squadron defeated a slightly larger British one at the Battle of Minorca. This Christmas Gift emboldened the Franco-Spanish Alliance and they moved against the British fleet blockading Tangiers. Italy's entry into the war made Britain's presence in the Mediterranean untenable and the blockade of Tangiers was lifted on February 10th.
Over the next eight months Britain fought a series of desperate actions in the Mediterranean but failed to prevent the Italian bombardment of Malta or the besiegement of Gibraltar. The Ottoman Navy had some of the only success in the region at the Battle of the Straits where they defeated the Greece fleet, but this did little to help the British cause. By August the Suez Canal had been extensively mined and blocked by sunken ships. In Asia Japan had beaten the Russian Pacific Squadron and the survivors were bottled up in Port Arthur and Vladivostok, but the fear of French intervention had forced them to take a more defensive stance.
By late September France and Spain were confident enough to make a major effort at sea. Offenses against Malta, Gibraltar, and the Channel Islands were are timed to coincide with a major naval effort by a large Franco-Spanish fleet as well as a Franco-Russian move against Japan (the Russian Baltic Fleet had been able to make it to Cam Ranh Bay after a long a harrowing ordeal traveling around the tip of South Africa. This embarrassment, coupled with the launching of the U.S.S. Congress (the first all big-gun battleship), brought down First Naval Lord, Lord Walter Kerr, and he was quickly replaced by the outspoken Jack Fisher. Fisher immediately placed Sir Horace Olsen in command of the fleet tasked with confronting the Franco-Spanish fleet.
The two fleets would meet on October 21st at Trafalgar. It appeared as though the Fates had a very twisted sense of irony.
Feel free to try your own take. A POD further in the past is almost certainly required, but I wanted to keep the rest of history pretty similar.
Benjamin
NOTES: I realize this is not very probable. Spain is broke and in shambles after the Spanish-American War.
I kept Kerr on a bit longer since there may be a reluctance to change leaders during an ongoing conflict.
America gets a "dreadnaught" battleship first due to experience during the Almost War (a direct rip off of the Quasi War with France). I named it the U.S.S. Congress because it was such a risk that no congressional delegation would support its' construction so TR finally authorized it be named Congress to rankle a few feathers. The ship is more similar to the Delaware-class than the South Carolina.
Never really decided what happens to the Russian Baltic Squadron. Tsushima or not Tsushima, that is the question.
This is basically a bit of history repeating itself (Battle of the Nile, Trafalgar, etc.) mixed with what if the opposite happened (US "dreadnaught", successful Ottoman navy, etc.).