Visit the historic ships and dockyards that enabled Britannia to rule the waves, says Jonathan Wilkes <\/p>
Supremacy over the seas allowed Britain to forge the largest empire in history, covering around a quarter of the world\u2019s land surface and population. <\/strong><\/p> Britain found its sea legs in Tudor<\/a> times \u2013 thanks to HenryVIII\u2019s shipbuilding and Elizabeth I\u2019s victory over the Spanish Armada\u2013 and by the 18th and 19th centuries, became the foremost sea power.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p> Exploration and colony settlement had created lucrative trading opportunities across the globe, from the Americas to Asia, turning British coastlines into a thriving industry of ports and administration. <\/p> A vast number of ships was needed, for transport and to protect trade routes. At its height, the British navy could dwarf the combined fleets of its European rivals, primarily the French and Dutch. <\/p> The seas became a near-constant battleground until Britain triumphed in the Napoleonic Wars. Britannia was now unchallenged, and would remain so until the 20th century.<\/p> The Portsmouth Historic Dockyard<\/a> houses the most famous ship of the Napoleonic Wars, the 104-gun HMS Victory, which Horatio Nelson was on at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, as well as the first armour-plated iron-hulled warship, HMS Warrior. Both can be boarded. The Mary Rose, Henry VIII\u2019s flagship that sank in 1545 in the Solent, was salvaged in a complex operation in 1982 and is now kept in carefully regulated conditions. <\/p> This Age of Sail dockyard stayed in operation for more than four centuries. Visitors to Historic Dockyard Chatham <\/a> can explore the long history of Chatham, ships spanning the Victorian era to the Cold War and the largest collection of RNLI historic lifeboats.<\/p>Why does Britain have such a rich maritime history?<\/h2>
Britain’s best maritime museums and historic shipyards to visit<\/h2>
Portsmouth Historic Dockyard, Hampshire<\/h3>
Historic Dockyard Chatham, Kent<\/h3>
Grimsby Fishing Heritage Centre, Lincolnshire<\/h3>