Steam power propelled first Britain and then the world into the industrial revolution and into the increasing mechanization of all aspects of human endeavour, warfare of course included. Steam affected warfare in three respects. Two were in the field of motive power both on land with the railways and also at sea where it replaced sail. In addition to this it revolutionized industry and made possible the growth in arms manufacture necessary for the equipping of modern mass armies.
The adaptation of railways to military use dramatically increased the strategic mobility of armies. Before railways the strategic tempo of operations was limited by the speed at which armies could march; utilization of railways extended the range and sustainability of armies in the field. Prince Wilhelm of Prussia (later King and Emperor Wilhelm I) issued a memorandum in July 1851 establishing a ‘train cadre’ for each of the nine corps of the Royal Prussian army. When mobilization came each cadre would provide five provisions columns, field bakeries, a horse depot, and field hospitals. By 1860 the railway provided rapid and inexpensive communication between all the major cities in western Europe and became the heart of all mobilization plans.
At sea the introduction of steam gave a freedom of manoeuvre to navies that they had not enjoyed since the days of galley warfare. Independence from the prevailing winds dramatically changed naval warfare. Although tactical movement was enhanced, at the strategic level the requirement to coal limited ships endurance and tied them to key bases. The Royal Navy was able to exploit its possession of global bases as coaling stations. In contrast when the tsar sent a fleet from the Baltic to the Pacific during the Russo-Japanese war, denied coaling facilities by Britain it had to overburden itself with coal wherever it could find it, reducing its already inferior sailing and battleworthiness.
The first steam-powered warship was developed by the Americans in response to their worsening situation in the War of 1812. The Demologos was an unseaworthy twin-hulled floating battery with her paddle wheels carried internally, designed to protect New York harbour. The much-touted duel between the steam-powered USS Monitor and the CSS Virginia (ex Merrimac) during the American civil war was between ironclads of similarly limited use. A few years before the French had launched La Gloire, an iron-sheathed wooden, steam-driven warship. They intended the fourth of her class to be entirely iron but were beaten to the punch by the British. In 1860 the Royal Navy launched HMS Warrior, a steam-powered, shell-firing, all-iron warship. Masts and yards continued to be installed for decades, becoming increasingly vestigial, but the die was cast.
The main drawback of steam power was its poor power to weight ratio, which limited its applications. Landships and aircraft had to await the arrival of the internal combustion engine, and although there were some interesting hybrids that used steam on the surface and electrical power underwater, it was not until the diesel-electric combination power source was developed that the submarine began its progress to becoming the new capital ship of the seas. Railways and ships were still mainly steam powered into the 1950s, but the era of ‘steam warfare’ was over by then.
— Jon Robb-Webb
