Could Britain have saved the Confederacy?

[simonnomis]

Thats the thing. The first 'true' iron-hulled Ironclad (HMS Warrior) came out of Britain. These European Ironclads (iron-hulled or not) were ocean going, as were slightly different yet equally powerful British armoured frigates. Many of the hastily built or converted Union 'tinclad' or Ironclad low displacement and monitor class vessels from the civil war were not truly ocean capable. The new European vessels were generally also faster, heavier and more technologically advanced. In any case, several ACW ironclad vessels still made it across the Atlantic during that conflict, either for the purposes of the blockade, or during hunts for confederate ships, this in spite of their design.

 

[Louis XXIV]

Although the USN Ironclads were unable to cross the Atlantic the same is not true of the RN ones.

This is the 1860 Ironclad Frigate HMS Warrior.

While I know about Warrior, how many other British ships were ironclads?

 

[privatehudson]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_battleships_of_the_Royal_Navy

Depending on the date it's clear that despite being at peace the Royal navy strength was quite considerable - 25 battleships launched by the end of 1865 and over 40 launched before the decade was out. Throw in the need to up production during wartime and it could have been much higher depending on the date. Throw in the additional god knows how many wooden ships who could for example harass Union/American merchant fleet and...

It's worth remembering that just a handful of confederate crusiers wreaked so much havoc on Union shipping that many merchants were unwilling to use Union ships towards the end of the war and it was becoming almost impossible to insure them.

Coincidentally on a totally unrelated note at least 1 of the wooden ships of the line were still sitting in the Mersey moored about 1/2 a mile from my house until the mid 1950s. This was HMS Nile, renamed during it's time here HMS Conway. They used them mostly for training purposes, usually for young boys without homes who were looking for a career in the Navy. Considering Conway/Nile was over a century old at the time it's a damn shame she was eventually lost.

 

[Ace]

The Royal Navy could have controlled the seas if Great Britain had entered the War in 1862 or 63, but would she have been willing to muster the million man army needed to invade the US mainland? While the RN probably could have controlled the shoreline to a depth of a cannon shot, further inland, Grant and Sherman would have put paid to any attempted invasion.

I suspect that British intervention in the war would have created great hostility in the North that would have greatly aided its war effort. Much like the Japenese bombing of Pearl Harbor did in 1941.

 

[privatehudson]

Britain didn't need to invade to put enough pressure on the North. Co-incidentally at the time of the Trent Affair it's estimated that only 50,000 Union troops were available to operate against Canada.

 

[Hotpoint]

While I know about Warrior, how many other British ships were ironclads?

As of 1862 the following Ironclads were in RN service

Floating Batteries

HMS Meteor
HMS Thunder
HMS Glatton
HMS Trusty
HMS Aetna
HMS Erebus
HMS Thunderbolt
HMS Terror

Broadside Ironclads

HMS Warrior
HMS Black Prince
HMS Defence
HMS Resistance

The "floating batteries" were essentially ships much like the CSS Virginia (which fought the USS Monitor at Hampton Rhodes) although they were typically much more seaworthy. HMS Terror (iron hulled as well as ironclad) had in fact actually sailed to Bermuda and was apparently the only Ironclad on the Western side of the Atlantic at the time of the Trent Affair in late 1861.