Royal Navy

maritime service branch of the British Armed Forces

171 dated entries naming Royal Navy, drawn from 109 separate years between 1558 CE and 2023 CE. Nothing here is written by us: each line is the sentence a Wikipedia year article used, and the link beside it opens the exact revision.

Also written as British Royal Navy, English Navy in the source articles; Wikipedia redirects those to the same subject, so their entries are on this page.

JSON Wikipedia article Wikidata Q172771

16th century

1558July 13 – Battle of Gravelines: Near the border between the Kingdom of France and the Spanish Netherlands, Spanish forces led by Lamoral, Count of Egmont, and assisted by the English Navy, inflict a major defeat on the French forces of Marshal Paul de Thermes.source
1586English ship Vanguard, the first Royal Navy vessel to bear this name, is launched at Woolwich.source

17th century

163420 October – King Charles I issues writs to raise ship money from coastal ports to finance the Royal Navysource
1637October 13 – English Royal Navy first-rate ship of the line English ship Sovereign of the Seas is launched at Woolwich Dockyard at a cost of £65,586, adorned from stern to bow with gilded carvings, after a design by Anthony van Dyck.source
1649March 4 – The first ever set of rules and regulations for England's Parliamentary Navy, Robert Blake's The Laws of War and Ordinances of the Sea, is adopted by the House of Commons, and Blake is promoted to the position of General at Sea of the English fleet.source
166019 November – James, Duke of York, as Lord High Admiral of England, proclaims that use of the newly restored Union Jack is reserved to ships of the Royal Navy and merchant ships should fly the Red Ensign.source
1662October 19 – An English Buccaneer force led by Royal Navy commodore Christopher Myngs launches an attack on Santiago de Cuba.source
1671March 31 – England's Royal Navy launches its first warship to have a frame reinforced by iron bars rather than an all wooden ship, an innovation by naval architect Anthony Deane. The state of the art, 102-gun ship is commissioned on January 18, 1672, as the flagship for Admiral Edward Montagu but is sunk less than five months later in the Battle of Solebay. Iron-framed ships are not attempted again for almost 50 years.source
167131 March – The Royal Navy launches 102-gun HMS Royal James at Portsmouth Royal Dockyard, its first warship to have a frame reinforced by iron bars rather than an all wooden ship, an innovation by naval architect Anthony Deane.source
1674March 14 – Third Anglo-Dutch War: Battle of Ronas Voe – The English Royal Navy captures the Dutch East India Company ship Wapen van Rotterdam in Shetland.source
167414 March – Third Anglo-Dutch War: Battle of Ronas Voe – the English Royal Navy captures the Dutch East India Company ship Wapen van Rotterdam in Shetland.source
16891 May (11 May N.S.) – Battle of Bantry Bay between the English Royal Navy under the Earl of Torrington and the French fleet under the Marquis de Châteaurenault. The French are able to protect their transports unloading supplies for James II and withdraw unpursued.source
1689May 11 – The Battle of Bantry Bay begins during the Williamite War in Ireland as the French fleet under the Marquis de Châteaurenault is able to protect its transports, unloading supplies for James II, from the English Royal Navy under the Earl of Torrington, and withdraws unpursued.source
1695September 24 – All but eight of the remaining 305 crew of the Royal Navy ship HMS Winchester are killed when the ship founders in the Florida Keys. According to the ship's logbook, an epidemic of yellow fever began on August 1 and had killed 45 people before the hurricane struck, and left all but seven crew members too ill to walk.source

18th century

1701HMS Royal Sovereign, a 100-gun first-rate ship of the line built by Fisher Harding at Woolwich Dockyard in 1701 for the Royal Navy, is launched.source
1703Royal Navy ships wrecked on the Goodwin Sands includesource
1706November 6 – A British attempt to conquer the Canary Islands fails when a fleet of 12 Royal Navy warships, commanded by Admiral John Jennings is forced to retreat after being met by a heavy artillery attack while sailing into Santa Cruz Baysource
1707October 22 – Scilly naval disaster: Four British Royal Navy ships run aground in the Isles of Scilly, because of faulty navigation. Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell and at least 1,450 sailors all drown.source
170722 October – Scilly naval disaster: Four Royal Navy ships, including HMS Association, run aground in the Isles of Scilly because of faulty navigation – Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell and at least 1450 sailors are drowned.source
1708February 26 – HMS Falmouth, a 50-gun fourth-rate ship of the line built at Woolwich Dockyard for the British Royal Navy, is launched.source
170826 February – HMS Falmouth, a 50-gun fourth-rate ship of the line built at Woolwich Dockyard for the Royal Navy, is launched.source
170823 March - James Stuart, the "Old Pretender", having sailed from Dunkirk with 5000 French troops, with the intention of invading Britain, attempts to land in the Firth of Forth; the attempt is thwarted by the Royal Navy, under Admiral Byng.source
1712March 15 – HMS Dragon, a 38-gun fourth rate frigate of the British Royal Navy, is wrecked on Les Casquets rocks to the west of Alderney.source
171215 March – HMS Dragon, a 38-gun fourth rate frigate of the Royal Navy, is wrecked on Les Casquets rocks to the west of Alderney.source
1712July 8 – The British Royal Navy 50-gun ship HMS Advice is launched at Deptford Dockyard.source
1712August 23 – The British Royal Navy 60-gun ship HMS Rippon is launched at Deptford Dockyard.source
1718August 11 – Battle of Cape Passaro: a Spanish fleet is defeated by the British Royal Navy under Admiral George Byng, off Capo Passero, Sicily, a prelude to the War of the Quadruple Alliance.source
1718November 22 – Citing violations of the amnesty agreement with Blackbeard, Virginia Governor Alexander Spotswood sends a Royal Navy contingent to North Carolina, where they battle Blackbeard and his crew in Ocracoke Inlet. Blackbeard is killed in action, after receiving five musketball wounds and twenty sword lacerations.source
1719December – 1719 Establishment lays down the technical specifications for construction of warships for the Royal Navy.source
1722February 10 – The Battle of Cape Lopez begins off of the coast of West Africa (and present-day Gabon), as the Royal Navy brings an end to the piracy of Bartholomew Roberts, nicknamed "Black Bart". Captained by Chaloner Ogle of the Royal Navy, HMS Swallow fires its cannons as Roberts sails his ship Royal Fortune toward the oncoming Swallow in order to gain time by forcing Swallow to turn around. Standing on the deck, Roberts and two of his crew are killed by the second wave of cannon fire. The remaining 272 pirate crew are captured.source
1727February 22 (February 11, 1726 O.S.) – Spain besieges the British-held territory of Gibraltar, in order to recapture it. Britain's Royal Navy begins a blockade of Spanish ports and the unsuccessful siege ends with the signing of a truce on June 24.source
1740April 8 – War of the Austrian Succession: The Royal Navy captures the Spanish ship of the line Princesa off Cape Finisterre and takes her into British service.source
17408 April – War of the Austrian Succession: Three Royal Navy ships capture the Spanish ship of the line Princesa off Cape Finisterre and takes her into British service as HMS Princess.source
174021 August – First issue of grog in the Royal Navy.source
1741March 13 – The British Royal Navy takes 180 warships, frigates and transport vessels, led by Admiral Edward Vernon, to threaten Cartagena, Colombia, with more than 27,000 crew against the 3,600 defenders.source
1744October 4 – In one of the greatest disasters for the Royal Navy, HMS Victory sinks in a storm in the English Channel, killing 1,100 sailors and officers it had been bringing back from Gibraltar to England, including Admiral John Balchen. The wreck will be located 264 years later, in January, 2009.source
1745April 4 (March 24, old style) – Under the command of British Army General William Pepperrell, the first 4,300 American colonists in the New England Army depart Boston to liberate the French North American colony of Nova Scotia. The flotilla of 80 military transports and 18 armed escorts is scattered by a storm, but the first troops disembark at Canso, Nova Scotia, on April 15 and begin training while waiting for the arrival of the Royal Navy squadron commanded by Admiral Peter Warren.source
1747November 17–19 – The Knowles Riot breaks out in Boston, Massachusetts, protesting impressment into the British Royal Navy.source
1748July 29 – Royal Navy Admiral Edward Boscawen arrives at the coast of southeastern India with 28 ships, to defend Fort St. David from attacks by armies of French India. Historian Francis Grose later writes that Boscawen had brought the largest fleet "ever seen together in the East Indies", with nine ships of the line, two frigates, a sloop, and two tenders" and 14 ships of the British East India Company. Altogether, Boscawen has 3,580 sailors under his command. He then launches an offensive to destroy the French fort at Pondicherry and drive France from the subcontinent.source
1748August – Admiral Edward Boscawen commands a Royal Navy siege of Pondicherry.source
1749February – Admiralty revises the command structure of the Royal Navy and issues new Fighting Instructions and (from 25 December) Articles of War.source
1755June 5 – At the entrance of the Saint Lawrence River, a squadron of Royal Navy ships, under the command of British Admiral Edward Boscawen, intercepts the nine French ships dispatched to save Canada; seven of the nine ships are concealed by fog and are able to reach their destination; another of the transports escapes.source
1756February 14 – Battle of Vijaydurg: The Maratha Navy, that has controlled the western coast of India for the Maratha Empire for more than a century, is destroyed by British attackers fighting for the East India Company. On orders of Royal Navy Admiral Charles Watson, the British capture a Maratha ship (the former British warship HMS Restoration), set it on fire, and then float the burning vessel into the Vijaydurg Port where most of Maratha Admiral Tulaji Angre's ships are anchored. The fire soon spreads to the other ships, destroying one large warship armed with 74 cannons, eight gurabs of 200 tonnes apiece, and sixty galbat ships.source
1757September 23 – The "Raid on Rochefort" is carried out as a pre-emptive strike by Great Britain to neutralize France's Arsenal de Rochefort before the French Navy can carry out plans to invade England. Led by Royal Navy Admiral Edward Hawke, HMS Neptune and six other vessels sail in and capture the Île-d'Aix and its battery of cannons, effectively blocking the departure of any ships from the mouth of the Charante river.source
1760February 15 – The British Royal Navy ship HMS Royal Katherine runs aground off Bolt Head in England, with the loss of 699 lives.source
1762March 5 – A Royal Navy fleet with 16,000 men departs Britain from Spithead and sets sail toward Cuba in order to seize strategic Spanish Empire possessions in the Americas.source
1767March 24 – Spain acquires control of what are now called the Falkland Islands from France, compensating French Admiral Louis Antoine de Bougainville for the money spent on the construction of the settlement at Fort Saint Louis. The islands, named les Îles Malouines by the French, are renamed las Islas Malvinas by the Spanish, and Fort Saint Louis is renamed as Puerto Soledad. In 1816, Argentina declares independence from Spain and takes the Malvinas; and in 1833, Britain's Royal Navy captures the islands from the Argentines and renames them the Falklands, and renames Puerto Soledad as Port Louis.source
1767June 17 – British Royal Navy Captain Samuel Wallis becomes the first European to visit the island of Tahiti in the Pacific Ocean, during HMS Dolphins second circumnavigation; he also sights Mehetia.source
1776January 1 – American Revolutionary War: Burning of Norfolk – The town of Norfolk, Virginia is destroyed, by the combined actions of the British Royal Navy and occupying Patriot forces.source
1776June 29 – American Revolutionary War: Battle of Turtle Gut Inlet – The American Continental Navy successfully challenges the British Royal Navy blockade off New Jersey.source
177914–18 August; 31 August–3 September – Armada of 1779 in the English Channel, but no fleet action with the Royal Navy takes place.source
17808 March – American Revolutionary War: the League of Armed Neutrality is formed by Russia with Denmark and Sweden to try to prevent the Royal Navy from searching neutral vessels for contraband.source
1780March 11 – The First League of Armed Neutrality is formed by Russia with Denmark and Sweden to try to prevent the British Royal Navy from searching neutral vessels for contraband (February 28 O.S.).source
1781December 12 – American Revolutionary War – Second Battle of Ushant: The British Royal Navy, commanded by Rear Admiral Richard Kempenfelt in HMS Victory, decisively defeats the French fleet in the Bay of Biscay.source
178217 September – 1782 Central Atlantic hurricane devastates a Royal Navy fleet off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland with the loss of 3,500 lives.source
1789April 28 – Mutiny on the Bounty: Fletcher Christian leads the mutiny on the British Royal Navy ship HMS Bounty against Captain William Bligh, in the Pacific Ocean.source
1791Governor of New South Wales – Captain Arthur Phillip, RNsource
1791August 27 – Third Anglo-Mysore War: Battle of Tellicherry – Off the south-west coast of India, a British Royal Navy patrol forces a French convoy bound for Mysore to surrender.source
179127 August – Battle of Tellicherry (Third Anglo-Mysore War) off the south-west coast of India: a Royal Navy patrol forces a French convoy bound for Mysore to surrender.source
179318 September-18 December – French Revolutionary Wars: Siege of Toulon – Admiral Hood's squadron of Royal Navy ships supporting French Royalists is forced to withdraw from Toulon after a successful siege by Napoleon, taking a number of French ships – including the Lutine – with them.source
1793October 5 – War of the First Coalition: Raid on Genoa – The British Royal Navy boards and captures French warships, sheltering in the neutral port of Genoa.source
1794June 17 – Battle of Mykonos: The British Royal Navy captures French frigate Sibylle.source
1795The British Royal Navy makes the use of lemon juice mandatory, to prevent scurvy.source
1795June 16–17 – War of the First Coalition: Cornwallis's Retreat – A British Royal Navy battle squadron commanded by William Cornwallis fends off a numerically superior French Navy fleet, off the coast of Brittany.source
1797January 13 – Action of 13 January 1797, part of the War of the First Coalition: Two British Royal Navy frigates, HMS Indefatigable and HMS Amazon, drive the French 74-gun ship of the line Droits de l'Homme aground on the coast of Brittany, resulting in over 900 deaths.source
1797February 14 – French Revolutionary Wars – Battle of Cape St. Vincent: The British Royal Navy under Admiral Sir John Jervis defeats a larger Spanish fleet off Cape St. Vincent, Portugal.source
179714 February – Battle of Cape St Vincent: The Royal Navy under Admiral Sir John Jervis defeats a larger Spanish fleet off Cape St. Vincent, Portugal. On 23 May, Jervis is made Earl of St Vincent, and Horatio Nelson made a Knight of the Bath, for their part in the victory.source
1797Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife (1797), an amphibious assault by the Royal Navy on the Spanish port city of Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Canary Islands launched by Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson. The result was a Spanish victory by truce after Nelson's party had lost several hundred men.source
1797November 16 – (or November 23?) – British Royal Navy frigate HMS Tribune is wrecked on the approaches to Halifax, Nova Scotia; of the 240 on board, all but 12 are lost.source
179716 November (or 23 November?) – Royal Navy frigate HMS Tribune is wrecked on the approaches to Halifax, Nova Scotia; of the 240 on board, all but 12 are lost.source
179812 October – Battle of Tory Island: a British Royal Navy squadron under Sir John Borlase Warren prevents French Republican ships landing reinforcements for the United Irishmen on the Donegal coast; Wolfe Tone is captured.source
1798October 12 – Battle of Tory Island: A British Royal Navy squadron, under Sir John Borlase Warren, prevents French Republican ships, commanded by Jean-Baptiste-François Bompart, from landing reinforcements for the Society of United Irishmen on the County Donegal coast; Irish leader Wolfe Tone is captured and later dies of his wounds. This ends the Irish Rebellion of 1798.source
1799January 27 – French Revolutionary Wars: Macau Incident – French and Spanish warships encounter a British Royal Navy escort squadron in the Wanshan Archipelago of China inconclusively.source
1799October 16 – War of the Second Coalition: Action of 16 October 1799 – A Spanish treasure convoy worth more than £54,000,000 is captured by the British Royal Navy off Vigo.source
1800March 17 – The British Royal Navy ship of the line, HMS Queen Charlotte, catches fire off the coast of Capraia, with the loss of 673 lives.source
1800March 26 – British Royal Navy officer Henry Waterhouse first charts the Antipodes Islands.source

19th century

1801April 2 – War of the Second Coalition: First Battle of Copenhagen – The British Royal Navy, under Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, forces the Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy to accept an armistice. Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson leads the main attack, deliberately disregarding his commander's signal to withdraw. He is created a Viscount on May 19; Denmark-Norway is forced to withdraw from the Second League of Armed Neutrality.source
18012 April – War of the Second Coalition – First Battle of Copenhagen: The British Royal Navy, under Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, forces the Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy to accept an armistice. Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson leads the main attack, deliberately disregarding his commander's signal to withdraw. He is created a Viscount on 19 May; Denmark-Norway is forced to withdraw from the Second League of Armed Neutrality.source
18012 April – Battle of Copenhagen in the War of the Second Coalition: The Royal Navy under Admiral Sir Hyde Parker forces the Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy to accept an armistice. Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson leads the main attack, deliberately disregarding his commander's signal to withdraw.source
1805September 29 – Admiral Nelson of the British Royal Navy takes command of the fleet off the coast of Cádiz, in order to counteract the navies of France and Spain.source
180521 October - Battle of Trafalgar: A British Royal Navy fleet led by Admiral Horatio Nelson defeats a combined French and Spanish fleet off the coast of Spain. About 465 of the 18,000 men on the British ships were born in Wales.source
1806February 6 – Battle of San Domingo: The British Royal Navy gains a victory over the French off Santo Domingo.source
180621 October - Battle of Trafalgar: A British Royal Navy fleet led by Admiral Horatio Nelson defeats a combined French and Spanish fleet off the coast of Spain. About 465 of the 18,000 men on the British ships were born in Wales.source
1807June 22 – Chesapeake–Leopard affair: British Royal Navy fourth rate HMS Leopard attacks and boards United States Navy frigate USS Chesapeake off Norfolk, Virginia, seeking deserters. This act of British aggression plays a role in the run-up to the War of 1812.source
1807September 2–7 – Battle of Copenhagen: The British Royal Navy bombards Copenhagen with fire bombs and phosphorus rockets, to prevent the Dano-Norwegian navy from surrendering to Napoleon; 30% of the city is destroyed, and 2,000 citizens are killed.source
1808March 1 – The slave trade is abolished by the United Kingdom in all of its colonies as the Slave Trade Act 1807 takes effect. This year, the British Royal Navy establishes the West Africa Squadron on the coast of West Africa to enforce the abolitionist Blockade of Africa.source
1809April 11–15 – Napoleonic Wars – Battle of the Basque Roads: The British Royal Navy defeats the French fleet in the mouth of the Charente, although officers on both sides face subsequent courts-martial.source
1810August 20–27 – Battle of Grand Port: The French defeat a Royal Navy frigate squadron attempting to blockade a harbour on Isle de France (Mauritius).source
181110 June – A volcanic eruption, observed from Royal Navy sloop HMS Sabrina, creates Sabrina Island (Azores) which on 4 July is claimed for Britain; a few months later it sinks beneath the sea.source
18114 December – Royal Navy frigate HMS Saldanha is driven in a gale onto rocks in Lough Swilly with no survivors from the estimated 253 aboard.source
1813June 1 – War of 1812: Capture of USS Chesapeake in Boston Harbor by British Royal Navy frigate HMS Shannon.source
1814June 6 – Beginning of the Allied sovereigns' visit to England: Tsar Alexander I of Russia and King Frederick William III of Prussia sail from Boulogne-Sur-Mer to Dover on board the Royal Navy ship HMS Impregnable as guests of George, Prince of Wales, the regent during the incapacity of King George III.source
18146 June – Beginning of the Allied sovereigns' visit to England: Tsar Alexander I of Russia and King Frederick William III of Prussia sail from Boulogne-Sur-Mer to Dover on board the Royal Navy ship HMS Impregnable as guests of George, Prince of Wales, the regent during the incapacity of King George III.source
181431 August – Admiral Arthur Phillip RN, British naval officer and former Governor of New South Wales, dies at Bath, England aged 75.source
1815July 15 – Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon boards HMS Bellerophon off Rochefort, and surrenders to Captain Frederick Lewis Maitland of the Royal Navy.source
181610 February - Pembroke Dock's first Royal Navy ships are launched: HMS Ariadne and HMS Valorous.source
1817October 17 – The frigate HMS Trincomalee is launched in Bombay for the British Royal Navy. She will still be afloat two centuries later.source
1820January 30 – British Royal Navy captain Edward Bransfield, an Irishman, becomes the first person to positively identify Antarctica as a land mass.source
182030 January – Royal Navy captain Edward Bransfield in the Williams is the first person to positively identify Antarctica as a land mass.source
182223 May – HMS Comet launched at Deptford Dockyard, the first steamboat commissioned by the Royal Navy.source
183423 June - HMS Tartarus is launched at Pembroke Dock. It is the Royal Navy's first steam-powered man-of-war (a paddle gunvessel).source
184428 October – the first paddlewheel Jackal-class gunvessel, HMS Jackal (or Jackall) is launched by Robert Napier at Govan on the River Clyde as the Royal Navy's first iron ship. It is followed a month later by its sister HMS Lizard.source
1845August 9 – The Aberdeen Act is passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, empowering the British Royal Navy to search Brazilian ships, as part of the abolition of the slave trade from Africa.source
1847December 20 – British Royal Navy steam frigate HMS Avenger is wrecked on the Sorelle Rocks in the Mediterranean Sea with the loss of 246 lives and only eight survivors.source
184720 December – Royal Navy steam frigate HMS Avenger is wrecked on the Sorelle Rocks in the Mediterranean Sea with the loss of 246 lives and only eight survivors.source
1848April 25 – Captain Francis Crozier and Commander James Fitzjames of the Royal Navy deposit the final formal record ever recovered from the Franklin Expedition in a cairn on King William Island, after deserting their ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, with their surviving 105 crew members on April 22 to attempt to march to the mainland of North America.source
185018 January – Don Pacifico affair: Lord Palmerston, the Foreign Secretary, sends a Royal Navy squadron to blockade the port of Piraeus in the Aegean Sea in defence of the interests of a British citizen, causing a diplomatic incident with Russia and France.source
1851December 26–27 – A British Royal Navy warship bombards Lagos Island; Oba Kosoko is wounded, and flees to Epe.source
1854March 11 – A Royal Navy fleet sails from Britain, under Vice Admiral Sir Charles Napier.source
185411 March – Royal Navy fleet sails from Britain under Vice Admiral Sir Charles Napier.source
1854June 21 – Battle of Bomarsund in Åland off the coast of Finland: British Royal Navy seaman's mate Charles Davis Lucas throws a live Russian artillery shell overboard by hand before it explodes, for which he is awarded the first Victoria Cross in 1857.source
18607 March — HMS Howe, the Royal Navy’s last, largest and fastest wooden first-rate three-decker ship of the line, is launched at Pembroke Dockyard but never completed for sea service.source
1861October 24 – HMS Warrior, the world's first ocean-going (all) iron-hulled armored battleship, is completed and commissioned into the British Royal Navy.source
18637 February – The Sydney-based Royal Navy corvette HMS Orpheus sinks off the coast of New Zealand claiming 189 lives.source
1863August 15–17 – Bombardment of Kagoshima: The British Royal Navy bombards the town of Kagoshima in Japan in retribution, after the Namamugi Incident of 1862.source
186418 October – abolition of squadron colours in the Royal Navy, reserving the White Ensign to the Navy, the Red Ensign to the Merchant Navy and the Blue Ensign to military vessels.source
186825 April – HMS Repulse, the last wooden battleship constructed for the Royal Navy, is launched as an ironclad (with auxiliary steam propulsion) at Woolwich Dockyard.source
187824 March – the Royal Navy frigate HMS Eurydice capsizes off the Isle of Wight, killing all but two of the 319 crew.source
1882November 16 – The British Royal Navy's HMS Flirt destroys Abari village in Niger.source
1889May 31 – The Naval Defence Act dictates that the fleet strength of the British Royal Navy must be equal to that of at least any two other countries.source
1891January 19 – A British Royal Navy squadron is ordered to Chile.source
1897October 13 – HMS Canopus, a pre-dreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy, is launched at Portsmouth, England; she will be deployed widely in World War I.source
189713 October – HMS Canopus, a pre-dreadnought battleship of the Royal Navy, is launched at Portsmouth; she will be deployed widely in World War I.source

20th century

1901October 2 – The British Royal Navy's first submarine, Holland 1, is launched at Barrow-in-Furness.source
19047 December – Royal Navy torpedo boat destroyer HMS Spiteful begins sea trials as the first capital warship to be powered solely using fuel oil.source
190516 February – Explosions caused by petrol fumes after refuelling on board the newly commissioned submarine HMS A5 killed six of the eleven crew at the Royal Navy's base in Haulbowline.source
190630 May – Royal Navy battleship HMS Montagu runs aground on the island of Lundy and becomes a loss.source
191120 September – the new liner RMS Olympic, sister ship to the Titanic, collides with Royal Navy cruiser HMS Hawke off Southampton; there is no loss of life or serious injury.source
1913October 16 – The British Royal Navy's HMS Queen Elizabeth is launched at Portsmouth Dockyard as the first oil-fired battleship.source
1914September 5 – British Royal Navy scout cruiser HMS Pathfinder is sunk by German submarine U-21 in the Firth of Forth (Scotland), the first ship ever to be sunk by a locomotive torpedo fired from a submarine.source
191414 September - The British Royal Navy auxiliary cruiser HMS Carmania fought the German SMS Cap Trafalgar off Trindade in the Battle of Trindade. Carmania sank Cap Trafalgar, but sustained severe damage herself.source
1914September 22 – Action of 22 September 1914: German submarine U-9 torpedoes three British Royal Navy armoured cruisers, HMS Aboukir, HMS Cressy and HMS Hogue, with the death of more than 1,400 men, in the North Sea.source
1914November 1 – World War I: Battle of Coronel – A British Royal Navy squadron commanded by Rear-Admiral Sir Christopher Cradock is met in the eastern Pacific and defeated by superior German forces led by Vice-Admiral Maximilian von Spee in the first British naval defeat of the war, resulting in the loss of HMS Good Hope and HMS Monmouth.source
1914December 8 – World War I: Battle of the Falkland Islands: A superior British Royal Navy squadron under Doveton Sturdee defeats ships of the Imperial German Navy under Maximilian von Spee (who goes down with his ship).source
1915January 1 – WWI: British Royal Navy battleship HMS Formidable is sunk off Lyme Regis, England, by an Imperial German Navy U-boat, with the loss of 547 crew.source
1915March 14 – Battle of Más a Tierra: Off the coast of Chile, the British Royal Navy forces the Imperial German Navy light cruiser SMS Dresden (last survivor of the German East Asia Squadron) to scuttle.source
1916May 31–June 1 – WWI: Battle of Jutland, between the British Royal Navy's Grand Fleet and the Imperial German Navy's High Seas Fleet in the North Sea, the war's only large-scale clash of battleships. The result is tactically inconclusive, but British dominance of the North Sea is maintainedsource
191729 January – Royal Navy steam-powered submarine HMS K13 sinks on trial in the Gare Loch with the loss of 32 men; 48 are rescued.source
1918November 20 – U-boats start to rendezvous off Harwich, to begin the surrender of the High Seas Fleet to the British Royal Navy; in the following week the German warships are escorted to internment in Scapa Flow.source
1919May 15 – Greek landing at Smyrna: The Hellenic Army lands at Smyrna assisted by ships of the British Royal Navy.source
1923The Royal Navy battlecruiser HMS New Zealand, funded by the New Zealand government as a gift to Britain before World War I, is broken up for scrapsource
1927March 24 – Nanking Incident: After six foreigners have been killed in Nanking, and it appears that Kuomintang and Chinese Communist Party forces will overrun the foreign consulates, warships of the U.S. Navy and the British Royal Navy fire shells and shoot to disperse the crowds.source
1938September 25 – British Royal Navy is ordered to sea.source
1938September 29 – Colonel Graham Christie, former British military attaché in Berlin, is told by Carl Friedrich Goerdeler that the mobilization of the Royal Navy has badly damaged the popularity of the Nazi regime, as the German public realizes that Fall Grün is likely to cause a world war.source
1939January 27 – Adolf Hitler orders Plan Z, a 5-year naval expansion programme intended to provide for a huge German fleet capable of crushing the British Royal Navy by 1944. The Kriegsmarine is given the first priority on the allotment of German economic resources.source
193927 January – Adolf Hitler orders Plan Z, a 5-year naval expansion programme intended to provide for a huge German fleet capable of crushing the Royal Navy by 1944. The Kriegsmarine is given the first priority on the allotment of German economic resources.source
1939August 24 – As details of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact become public, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain recalls the Parliament of the United Kingdom several weeks early. In a burst of legislation, the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939 gives full authority to defence regulations, the British Royal Navy is to be put on a war footing, all military leave is to be cancelled, military reserve forces are to be called up, especially coast defence, radar and anti-aircraft units, and Civil Defence workers are placed on alert. In addition, the last British and French private citizens in Germany are advised to return home by their respective Governments.source
194016 February – Altmark incident: Royal Navy destroyer HMS Cossack pursues German tanker Altmark into the neutral waters of the Jøssingfjorden in southwestern Norway and frees the 290 British seamen held aboard.source
1940April 9 – WWII: Germany invades the neutral countries of Denmark and Norway in Operation Weserübung, opening the Norwegian campaign. The British Royal Navy attempts to attack elements of the German fleet off Norway. Vidkun Quisling proclaims a new collaborationist regime in Norway. The German invasion of Denmark lasts for about six hours, before that country capitulates.source
1940April 10 – WWII: First naval Battle of Narvik – The British Royal Navy attacks the German fleet in the Ofotfjord. At Bergen, German cruiser Königsberg is sunk by British Fleet Air Arm Blackburn Skua dive bombers, flying from RNAS Hatston in Orkney.source
1940April 13 – WWII: Second naval Battle of Narvik – The British Royal Navy sinks all 8 defending German destroyers in the Ofotfjord.source
1940November 27 – WWII: Battle of Cape Spartivento: The British Royal Navy and Italian Regia Marina battle to a draw.source
1941January 11 – WWII: The British Royal Navy light cruiser HMS Southampton is bombed, catches fire and has to be sunk off Malta, with the loss of 81 crew.source
1941May 9 – WWII: German submarine U-110 is captured by the British Royal Navy in the North Atlantic. On board is the latest Enigma cryptography machine, which Allied cryptographers later use to break coded German messages.source
19419 May — The GS U-110 is captured by the British Royal Navy. On board is the latest Enigma cryptography machine, which Allied cryptographers later use to break coded German messages.source
1941May 24 – In the North Atlantic, German battleship Bismarck sinks British battlecruiser HMS Hood, killing all but 3 crewmen, from a total of 1,418 aboard the pride of the Royal Navy.source
194124 May — In the North Atlantic, the German battleship Bismarck sinks battlecruiser HMS Hood, killing all but 3 crewmen aboard the pride of the Royal Navy.source
1941December 19 – Raid on Alexandria: Italian Regia Marina divers on human torpedoes place limpet mines on ships of the British Royal Navy Mediterranean Fleet in port at Alexandria, Egypt, disabling battleships Queen Elizabeth and Valiant.source
1942April 5 – WWII: Easter Sunday Raid – Aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy attack Colombo, Ceylon (Sri Lanka). Royal Navy cruisers HMS Cornwall and HMS Dorsetshire are sunk southwest of the island.source
1943March 27 – WWII: British Royal Navy escort carrier HMS Dasher is destroyed by an accidental explosion in the Firth of Clyde, killing 379 of the crew of 528.source
1943October 24 – WWII: British Royal Navy destroyer HMS Eclipse is sunk by a mine in the Aegean Sea, with the loss of 119 of the ship's company and 134 troops.source
1947April 18 – The British Royal Navy detonates 6,800 tons of explosives, in an attempt to demolish the fortified island of Heligoland, Germany, in another of the largest man-made non-nuclear explosions in history.source
1949April 20 – Royal Navy frigate HMS Amethyst goes up the Yangtze River, to evacuate British Commonwealth refugees escaping the advance of Mao's Communist forces. Under heavy fire, she grounds off Rose Island. After an abortive rescue attempt on April 26, she anchors 10 mi upstream. Negotiations with the Communists to let the ship leave drag on for weeks, during which time the ship's cat Simon raises the crew's morale.source
1955June 30 – The Simonstown Agreement provides for control of the naval base at Simon's Town in the Union of South Africa to transfer from the British Royal Navy to the South African Navy.source
195512 August – The aircraft carrier HMAS Vengeance is returned to the British Royal Navy.source
1970July 31 – Black Tot Day, the last daily distribution of one-eighth of an imperial pint of rum to sailors of the British Royal Navy, an amount that had been dispensed since 1866.source
1973May 18 – Second Cod War: Joseph Godber, British Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, announces that Royal Navy frigates will protect British trawlers fishing in the disputed 80 km limit around Iceland.source
1973May 18 - Joseph Godber, British Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, announces that Royal Navy frigates will protect British trawlers fishing in the disputed 50-mile limit round Iceland.source
1979March 31 – The last British soldier (belonging to the Royal Navy) leaves the Maltese Islands, after 179 years of presence. Malta declares its Freedom Day (Jum il-Helsien).source
1982May 2 – Falklands War: The British nuclear submarine HMS Conqueror sinks the Argentine cruiser General Belgrano, killing 323 sailors. Operation Algeciras, an attempt to destroy a Royal Navy warship in Gibraltar, fails.source

21st century

202316 December – The Royal Navy's HMS Diamond shoots down a drone launched from Houthi-controlled territory in Yemen over the Red Sea using a Sea Viper missile.source