Fleet review


A fleet review or naval review is an event where a gathering of ships from a particular navy is paraded and reviewed by an incumbent head of state and/or other official civilian and military dignitaries. A number of national navies continue to hold fleet reviews. Fleet reviews may also include participants and warships from multiple navies.

Commonwealth realms

Fleet reviews in the Commonwealth realms are typically observed by the reigning monarch or their representative, a practice allegedly dating back to the 15th century. Such an event is not held at regular intervals and originally only occurred when the fleet was mobilised for war or for a show of strength to discourage potential enemies, or during periods of commemorations. Since the 19th century, they have often been held for the coronation or for special royal jubilees and increasingly included delegates from other national navies.
Traditionally, a fleet review will have participating ships dressed in flags and pennants of their respective countries, and anchored in two or more lines with an open passage between them. The crew of participating anchored ships are positioned on the upper decks, while their officers and captains are at the bridge. As the reviewing vessel sails passes the anchored ships, their crew will give three cheers and wave their caps to the reviewing officials, while their officers and captain will render a salute.

Australia

Australia has a history of Fleet Reviews, the last Fleet Review took place in Australia in October 2024.
In Canada, fleet reviews may take place on either the Atlantic or Pacific coasts, typically in Halifax Harbour for the former and Victoria Harbour for the latter.
There have been several Fleet Reviews hosted by the Royal New Zealand Navy. These include the following:
  • International Fleet Review, 5 October 1991 – To mark the 50th anniversary of the RNZN.
  • International Naval Review, 18 November 2016 – To mark the Royal New Zealand Navy's 75th birthday. In a break with tradition the RNZN mistakenly described the Review as a "Naval Review" rather than as the customary "Fleet Review".

    United Kingdom

Because of the need for a natural large, sheltered and deep anchorage, UK fleet reviews have usually been held in the Solent off Spithead, although Southend, Torbay, the Firth of Clyde and some overseas ports have also hosted reviews. In the examples below, the venue is Spithead unless otherwise noted.
A list follows of fleet reviews in England, Great Britain, and later the UK since the 14th century.

Pre-1700

  • June 1346 – Edward III, before sailing to war with France
  • 1415 – Generally acknowledged as the first fleet review on record, by Henry V, at Southampton, before sailing for his first French campaign that ended in the Battle of Agincourt
  • May 1662 – Charles II on the occasion of his wife Catherine of Braganza's arrival in Portsmouth
  • February 1693 – William III and Mary II, after the Battles of Barfleur and La Hougue

    1700–1837

  • March 1700 – On Peter the Great's visit to England, a show of strength
  • 23–27 June 1773 – King George III set out from Kew, in a Royal coach with scarlet outriders, for what some call the first formal Royal Review. On his arrival he was saluted by a "triple discharge of cannon", and proceeded to the dockyard where admirals and captains were assembled, each with his barge, to escort the King to Spithead. They had dressed their crews in fancy colours, each to his own taste, whilst they themselves were resplendent in the full dress designed for them by George II in 1748. The ships on show were those that had fought the French in the Seven Years' War and were soon to join the War of American Independence, and were led by, of 90 guns, built only 5 years before.
  • May 1778 – George III, before France joined American War of Independence
  • 1781
  • June 1794 – After the Glorious First of June
  • 25 June 1814 – The last to consist solely of sailing ships. It was to celebrate the Treaty of Paris, and to show the Allied Sovereigns, including the Czar of Russia and the King of Prussia, "the tremendous naval armaments which has swept from the ocean the fleets of France and Spain and secured to Britain the domain of the sea." 15 ships of the line and 31 frigates were present, all of them veterans of the Napoleonic Wars. It was reviewed not by George III, but by the Prince Regent
  • September 1820 – George IV, first Coronation Review. One ship in attendance was, later made famous by Charles Darwin.

    Queen Victoria

17 occurred during her reign, the most for any monarch.
  • March 1842 – Her first, held by herself and Prince Albert as a "Grand Naval Review."
  • May 1844 – Visit of the King of Saxony; and October, on the visit of Emperor Nicholas I, King Louis-Philippe of France and Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, both were a show of strength
  • 19 June 1845 – Inspecting the experimental squadron, from the new. The Board of Admiralty attended in their steam yacht, Black Eagle. Some place this not 1814 as the last time that a Royal Review consisted only of sailing ships, and nearly the last time that the Queen could watch 's men run aloft and set the sails "with feline agility and astonishing celerity."
  • 11 August 1853 – Two reviews that year, firstly on 15 July 1853, the fleet mobilisation for the Crimean War, and a full Review on 11 August including for the first time steam screw ships of the line.
  • 10 March 1854 – Wary of a Russian break out into the North Sea, due to the numbers of their ships in the Baltic Sea, the British Admiralty brought together a force to contain them. This first division of the Baltic fleet was commanded by Vice-Admiral Sir Charles Napier. Napier's task was to find naval recruits and train them as quickly as possible. From the screw yacht-tender,, and two months before her 35th birthday, Queen Victoria reviewed Napier's fleet at Spithead, shortly before it set sail, including a review of the first part of the fleet to set sail only eighteen days before Britain declared war on Russia. According to reports in the London Illustrated News, Fairy reviewed the fleet as it steamed up a path created by the ships anchored on each side, then a day later led the fleet out of Spithead as it began its journey to the Baltic.
  • 23 April 1856 – Of the Baltic fleet on its return. First recorded example of the evening illumination of the fleet. Showed lessons learnt from the Crimean War, with the first of the ironclad ships present in the form of 4 1,500-ton floating batteries. Over 100 gunboats were present, "puffing about like locomotive engines with wisps of white steam trailing from their funnels."
  • August 1865 – On a visit of the French fleet
  • 17 July 1867 – Held for Abdulaziz, and his Khedive of Egypt, Ismail of Egypt. For the first time every ship flew the White Ensign, after the dissolution of the old Red, White and Blue Squadrons. New designs were the five-masted with her powerful broadside, and the graceful 14-knot ironclad sister-ships and.
  • 23 June 1873 – For the visit of Nasser-al-Din Shah, the Shah of Persia
  • August 1878 – Of the reserve squadron
  • 25 July 1887 – Golden Jubilee. Notable for the appearance of a Nordenfelt submarine
  • 4 August 1889 – On the visit of Kaiser Wilhelm II and his Admiral von Tirpitz, a show of strength
  • August 1891 – On visit of the French fleet
  • August 1896 – On visit of MPs and Li Hung Chang
  • 26 June 1897 – Diamond Jubilee, notable for being presided over by the Prince of Wales since she was too frail to attend in person. The ships formed two lines seven miles long; the 170 British ships included 50 battleships. Parsons made an unscheduled and dramatic appearance with his Turbinia showing power of steam turbine.
  • August 1899 – Her last, notable for being presided over by the Prince of Wales since she was too frail to attend in person, and for the visit of a squadron from the German Navy.