PROMINENT PERIODS OF WARSHIPS SERVING IN THE ROYAL NAVY, From Early Times to Present Day.
 
1st PERIOD Roman Galley.Roman Galley. The story of the Royal Navy before the Norman Conquest
From the earliest beginnings to the sixteenth century.
 
2nd PERIOD

*English carrack warship. Mary Rose full broadside of cannons. *The English Galleon. The Golden Hinde.

* HMS Ark Royal ordered for Sir Walter Raleigh and later purchased by the crown for service in the Royal Navy.

*English great ship. Henri Grâce à Dieu (The Great Harry), first ship with gun-ports, first English two-decker.

*Sovereign of the Seas

*Revenge actively engaged Spanish Armada; subject of a poem by Lord Tennyson detailing her heroic fight against a large Spanish force in 1591.

From the beginning of the sixteenth century to the commencement of the Civil War in 1642. Great Ships Pre - Elizabethan | Ships of the Elizabethan Period 1558 until 1603
 
3rd PERIOD
Battle of Dover Roads, 1652.
Battle in the Channel, 1652. Ayscue.
The Cromwellian Era, from 1642 to 1660. Dutch and Spanish Wars.
 
4th PERIOD
Line-of-battle-ship.
Battle off the Goodwin, 1666. Monck, Rupert.
Battle of St. Christopher, 1667. Harmen.
Battle of Solebay, 1672. Duke of York, Sandwich, &c.
Battles of Rupert, Spragge, &c.
The Restoration Era, from 1660 to 1688. French, Danish, Dutch, Spanish and Algerine Wars.
 
5th PERIOD
The standard of Ship-of-the-line.
The Era of William III. and Anne, from 1688 to 1744. French Wars. Types of Ships-of-the-Line.
 
6th PERIOD
Thomas Slade (Surveyor of the Navy from 1755, along with co-Surveyor William Bately) broke away from the past and designed better warships.
Battle off Toulon, 1744. Mathews, Lestock, &c.
Battles of Finisterre, 1747, off Havana, 1748, &c.
The Era 1714 to 1756. Spanish and French Wars.
 
7th PERIOD
Last original ship-of-the-line remaining today, HMS Victory.
Battle off Lagos, 1759. Boscawen.
Battles in East Indies, 1759, Pocock.
Battle of Quiberon Bay, 1759. Hawke.
The Era 1756 to 1774. French and Spanish Wars.
 
8th PERIOD
HMS Resolution a sloop and the ship in which Captain James Cook made his second and third voyages of exploration in the Pacific.
The Era of American Revolution, from 1774 to 1793. American, French, Spanish and Dutch Wars.
 
9th PERIOD
HMAV Bounty(His Majesty's Armed Vessel.)
The Era of French Revolution, from 1793 to 1802. French and Spanish Wars.
 
10th PERIOD
Most successful razeed ship in the Royal Navy, HMS Indefatigable, commanded by Sir Edward Pellew.
Introduction of the Bermuda Sloop into the Royal Navy.
The Napoleonic Era, from 1802, to 1815. French and Spanish Wars. An Abstract of the British Efficient Naval force (Corrected to the 20th July, 1805)
 
11th PERIOD
Bombardment of Algiers, 1816.
1811, Seppings's method of construction.
HMS Beagle a Cherokee class 10-gun brig-sloop of the Royal Navy, Darwin's voyages..
The Long Peace, from 1815 to 1854. Ships-of-the-line in the Eleventh Period
 
12th PERIOD
Russian War,1854-56.
HMS Warrior, Britain's first iron hulled, armoured battleship.
Indian Mutiny, 1857-58, &c.
The Russian War and Indian Mutiny, from 1854 to 1860. Ironclad Warships from 1860
 
13th PERIOD
New Zealand War, 1860-64.
The Motor Torpedo Boat Destroyer, HMS Havock.
The Era of the New Industrial Navy, from 1860 to 1890.
 
14th PERIOD
Abyssinia, 1868.
Pre-dreadnaught Era, from 1890 to 1905.
 
15th PERIOD

HMS Dreadnought the ship that revolutionized naval power.
HMS Warspite, fought at Jutland and the Second World War.
The Era of the Dreadnaught battle-ships, from 1906 to the end of World War 1, 1918.
 
16th PERIOD
HMS Hood, battlecruiser sunk by the Bismarck.

Battleships of the Royal Navy and Commonwealth during World War Two
Warship Types - Inter-war Years - World War II -1918 - 1946
 
17th PERIOD
HMS Vanguard, last battleship built for the Royal Navy.
HMS Dreadnought, first British nuclear-powered submarine.
HMS Resolution, first British strategic ballistic missile submarine.
Post World War II, from 1946 to 1970's. Cold War Period, the advancement of anti-submarine warships with advanced frigate deployments. Nuclear Fleet and Ballistic submarines are developed.
 
18th PERIOD
HMS Invincible, light aircraft carrier.
HMS Intrepid, end of the Falklands War signed aboard.
HMS Conqueror, The only nuclear powered submarine to sink an enemy ship.
1970's - End of the Century - This period saw the end of steam propulsion and the development of the marine gas turbines. Less crew complement and advanced development in electronics.
 
19th PERIOD Type 45 Daring class destroyer
21st Century and the immediate future - New generation of Daring class destroyers. Fleet carriers and assult ships in build progress. Ships of the future.