Gymnote in 1889.
During the late nineteenth century France established itself as the world leader in submarine technology, further developing the electric battery-powered submarine after the groundbreaking Gymnôte of 1888. The Narval, commissioned in June 1900, served as a model for most of the seventy-six submarines built for the French navy by the outbreak of the First World War.
While France could not match Britain in battleship construction, until 1904 Britain remained concerned about the French or Franco-Russian naval threat to its global interests through a revival of the Jeune École strategy, in a new and more lethal form. Such fears were hardly irrational, for France’s best larger ships were its armored cruisers, and at least for the moment France was the world leader in the development of the submarine, which could join the torpedo boat as a means of delivering torpedoes which now had an extended range and accuracy. While the effective range of battleship guns, estimated roughly at 2,000 yards since early in the ironclad age, during the 1890s doubled to 4,000 yards, after the 1896 invention of the torpedo gyroscope (by the Austro-Hungarian naval officer Ludwig Obry) the effective range of self-propelled torpedoes more than doubled. Thereafter, the gap in range between the heaviest guns and the latest torpedoes continued to narrow. By 1904 the range of Whitehead torpedoes had reached 3,000 yards, and Britain’s Admiral Fisher predicted that torpedo ranges would soon reach 7,000 yards.
Better known for his promotion of the dreadnought and battle cruiser designs after becoming First Sea Lord in 1904, at the turn of the century Fisher was most concerned about the emergence of the submarine. As British commander in the Mediterranean (1899–1902) he kept a close watch on Toulon, main base for the growing French submarine force. His next posting, as commander in Portsmouth (1903–4), gave him the opportunity to observe the growth of his own navy’s undersea force. The British were slow to embrace the submarine, and launched their first in 1901, built by Vickers after the American Holland design. Britain had not pioneered any aspect of submarine technology up to that point, but Captain Reginald Bacon is credited with introducing the periscope, fitted to the first British submarine. By the outbreak of the First World War the British had commissioned more submarines – eighty-nine – than any other navy. Fisher was impressed by the power of the submarine, not so much as an offensive weapon but as a defender of harbors that would make it impossible for navies of the future to impose close blockades. Yet the advances in submarine and torpedo technologies were matched after 1900 by further breakthroughs favoring big battleships. Improved gun sights and range finders enhanced fire control, widening the gap between the effective range of heavy artillery and torpedoes, while new boilers by Yarrow and Babcock (fitted in British warships laid down after 1901) proved to be superior to the Belleville boilers of the 1890s, further enhancing speed. Experiments leading to the adoption of oil as a cleaner-burning alternative fuel for capital ships began in 1898, in smaller warships.
