Royal Navy of Stormwind

The Royal Navy is the naval branch of the Kingdom of Stormwind since their independence from Arathor.

Early Years
In the chaos of the Dissolution Period, the nascent city-state of Stormwind made the building of a naval force a significant priority. With the loss of the centralized Arathorian state and the Imperial Navy to the infighting, warlordism, and economic crisis of the collapse, piracy threatened the tradelanes that linked the youngest Kingdom to its northern siblings by sea and mandated the construction of a fleet able to ensure the security of Stormwind’s traders.

The early Royal Navy was built on the back of war galleys taken from the dissolving Imperial state and retrofitted with sails inspired by the Elves. Such ships had originally been intended for the largely calm seas of the Bay of Barad and proved less than ideal for repeated trips north in heavier coastal waters, but were able to perform their duty of safeguarding trade admirably with rare exceptions.

Nonetheless, some fifty years after the founding, new designs began to take their place. These ships were clinker-built and retained sail plans derived from Elven influence, though with remarkably reduced complexity; rather than the elaborate battened sails of Elven destroyers, they favoured lateen sails of similar area. The look of these strange ships from the south gave rise to the name ‘crabship’, a moniker seen regularly in Kul Tiran and Stromic accounts of the era.

In the many minor wars and conflicts of the era, these crabships regularly found themselves unmatched in speed and maneuverability in deeper waters, while having difficulty facing the larger way galleys developed by the Baradin powers in the shallower, calmer waters of the Bay. Nonetheless, the speed advantages and the lack of a need for a large crew of rowers or slaves proved decisive in favour of the crabship’s overall philosophy and sails increasingly came to supplant oars for the long range ships of all the powers, particularly among the increasingly wide-spread Kul Tiran island confederacy.

Warring Kingdoms Period
The dawn of the Warring Kingdoms Period brought the most serious war since the foundation of the Empire, pitting a grand coalition of Stormwind (now formally the Kingdom of Azeroth), Lordaeron and Alterac against the united forces of Stromgarde, Gilneas, Tol Barad, Kul Tiras and Hearthglen. With Lordaeron’s navy relegated to largely defensive roles, Azeroth’s Royal Navy was the only major naval force available for the conflict.

During the course of the twelve-year war, further refinements to the already heavily refined crabships took place. Already substantially larger than before, these ships began to be built with large towers at stern and aforeships and gradually changed to a Kul Tiran influenced square sail plan. Built with higher freeboards to deter boarding tactics and with their towers granting them higher vantage points for archery fire and for ballistae, these ships – known as cogs – proved decisive at numerous sea engagements, particularly the climactic Battle of Menethil Harbour in which a combined Gilnean and Kul Tiran fleet was encircled and destroyed by the Royal Navy, ending the planned invasion of the Kingdom of Azeroth and decimating the Gilnean navy.

With their naval dominance assured by the near total destruction of the Gilnean and Kul Tiran fleets by the end of the War, the Kingdom of Azeroth allowed their fleet to stagnate. Technological developments made in the north were ignored in favour of ‘doughty and true’ Azerothian designs and tactics, leading to the rise of a new shipbuilding technique: carvel building, with sleek hulls, came to predominate the slowly rebuilt navies of Kul Tiras and Gilnean, and to increasingly displace the clinker-built cogs and longships of Stromgarde. Larger ships began to develop, with three masts, while the Azerothian fleet retained its clinker-built two-masted brigs as the ship of choice.

In part, this stagnation came because of a lack of funding. While the island nation of Kul Tiras had no choice but to look to bigger and better ships to continue their expansion into the Great Sea’s uncharted waters and countless islands, Azeroth’s interior proved more promising, and much effort was spent instead on the colonization and subjugation of the previously untamed lands of Redridge, spurred on in part by the depredations of the Gnoll tribes against the border territory held by the House of Blancmont. With this neglect of the navy, the largest ship of the day of the Royal Navy measured only two thirds the size of the great carracks of Kul Tiras.

This neglect proved a costly mistake in the War of Menethil, a conflict pitting Azeroth against Lordaeron for dominance over Menethil Harbour. With larger, faster ships able to board the cogs and to outmaneuver them by use of rudders as opposed to steering oars, each naval clash of the War saw solid Azerothian defeats. The conflict came to an end with the Treaty of Menethil -30KY, leaving Azeroth with a battered and broken navy, the loss of the trade center of Menethil, and substantial internal clamour at the perceived weakness of the monarchy.

Over the next decades, the navy was slowly rebuilt using the techniques and tactics demonstrated by Lordaeron and Kul tiras over the prior century. There was an unfortunate pause in this rebuilding during the Azerothian Succession Crisis, which saw the reigning Arathorian dynasty of the Kingdom overthrown by the House of Wrynn and butchered, with the support of the Kingdom of Gilneas and the Kingdom of Alterac in order to weaken the increasingly belligerent Kingdom of Stromgarde by the deprivation of a crucial ally in the pro-Stromic King Bernard.

Dwarven Imperialism
The ensuing two centuries were marked by continuing Kul Tiran naval dominance, with Azeroth rendered unable to take effective naval actions beyond the defence of outlying island provinces and of their tradelanes. This hegemony collapsed in 260KY with the refinement of gunpowder and subsequent rise of a militant faction in the Empire of Khaz’modan. Previously used largely for incendiaries and fireworks, the new formulations of gunpowder were truly explosive, permitting the Dwarven navy to wield the kind of terrifying firepower once reserved for naval magi.

With their new technology, Dwarven imperialism saw eyes set on the entirety of the Wetlands, the Highlands of Northeron, and the Red Steppes. Great armies marched from the capital of Ironforge and its outlying cities armed with cannons and hand-cannons, while the Wildhammers of Dun Morogh’s mountain slopes demonstrated a terrifying new possibility: aerial bombing. The capabilities of gunpowder for naval warfare became apparent in the brutal naval battles of the Baradin Sea, with ships mounted with a handful of large cannon shattering galleys and carracks while larger ‘aerie-ships’ launched sorties of Gryphon riders armed with hand-held grenades and bombs.

The age of Kul Tiran naval supremacy came to a swift and brutal end in the capture of Menethil Harbour. Unable to fire high enough to target the gryphon riders with anything but their ballistae, the bulk of the Kul Tiran fleet was shattered and the Wetlands defaulted to the control of the Dwarven imperial state. The extreme aggression of the empowered Dwarves was met with the Grand Coalition pact between Azeroth, Lordaeron, Stromgarde, Gilneas, the Steppe Confederacy and Dalaran. To support the offensive, Azeroth’s Royal Navy sailed north in an attempt to support Gilnean and Lordaeri landings in the Wetlands while Stromic forces sailed the narrow strait of Thandol and the Azerothian army rallied to the defence of the Steppe chieftains.

This maneuver met with some success, but at substantial cost. As the Kul Tirans before them, the Azerothian navy saw heavy losses but succeeded in protecting the landing fleet with the assistance of Dalaranian magi. The greater victory was the seizure of several Dwarven ‘dragon-ships’, armed with heavy cannon, and a stock of gunpowder. The ships were torn down and every scrap of wood examined, and by the time of the Treaty of Thelsamar in 270, the Royal Navy had begun to experiment with their own cannon foundries.

With Dwarven gold flooding the treasuries of the naval powers, the secrets of gunpowder forcibly extracted, and the Dwarves sworn to non-interference, the naval race began anew.

The Gunpowder Race and Azerothian Dominance
<p style="font-weight:normal;">The destruction of the bulk of the Kul Tiran navy and the capture of the Dwarven steel cannons gave a substantial advantage to the Royal Navy of Azeroth in the early years of the new race. While their own attempts at replicating the guns in steel and iron proved catastrophic, by 288KY the Royal Navy was finally armed with a substantial number of bronze and cast iron guns, with a strong preference for bronze in the larger guns, though the majority of ships fielded only a handful of guns.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">This early advantage in the development of reliable cannon proved decisive in the Kul Tiras-Azeroth War (299), in which a number of minor naval skirmishes culminated in the Battle of Balor in 301. For the first time, gunpowder weapons were in abundance for both sides. Stormwind’s numeric and armaments advantage proved decisive, with another crushing defeat of the Kul Tiran armada.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">This victory ushered in a new era of Azerothian naval dominance. The fleets of Azeroth, numerically superior, better armed, and with a greater focus than ever on projecting power into the seas of the North and of the unsettled South, became the greatest naval force of the Orient. Their ships grew increasingly larger, more sophisticated, and the number of cannon present on each swiftly came to overtake the previously crucial roles of archers, magi, and light siege weaponry. By the 355th year of the King’s Calendar, the carracks of Azeroth had increasingly reduced their forecastles to small rises and grown substantially longer. A new name arose for these ships in the North: Men-of-War. Their designs were aped by Lordaeron and Kul Tiras, and increasingly came to dominate the heaviest warships of all kingdoms by the close of the Fourth Century.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">The importance of this naval dominance was heightened by the devastating events of 363KY: the Lesser Cataclysm that marked the end of the War of Three Hammers, the shattering of the peace accord with the no longer extant Empire of Khaz’modan, and the complete destruction of the land routes to the continents of Khaz’modan and Lordaeron along with the Steppe Confederacy. With the sea now the only way to travel between the Seventh Kingdom and its siblings, control over the oceans became vital to Stormwind’s defence, trade, and political prestige. Beginning in 375KY, the Sea Lord ordered a great building project. By the year 400, the Royal Navy numbered nearly a hundred men-of-war and dozens of lighter carracks, galleys, and pinnaces.

The Rise of the Galleon and the Fall from Power
<p style="font-weight:normal;">The envy of Kul Tiras saw the ship designs of Azeroth wholesale stolen throughout the last years of Stormwind’s dominance – in some cases, literally stolen from construction yards by spies, in others by careful observation. These same plans were improved by knowledge gleaned by the Kul Tiran navy in its experiences in deep water sailing and its expeditions to the far side of the Great Sea during the later years of the Fourth Century. In the first years of the Fifth Century, the politics of the sea shifted fundamentally in two ways.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">First, the rise of an ambitious Gilnean monarch – King Theodore Greymane – saw a rapid build-up in modernized cannon-bearing galleys for the Gilnean Navy from the year 399 onwards. These ships were fitted with a new invention, the leeboard, to provide greater stability and had the capability to move under junk-rigged sails in advantageous weather, while mounting between four and eight heavy guns at their prow. By the year 405, the Gilnean Navy was so large that it had deforested a large swathe of Central Gilneas to support its needs and was considered unassailable by all but the Royal Navy of Azeroth, winning decisive victories against the Lordaeri, the Stromic, and the Baradi fleets.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Second, the refinement of the caraval designs of Azeroth by Kul Tiras culminated in the launch in 405 of the Crestfall, a two-decked man-of-war with a square stern, four masts, and a queerly termed ‘snout’ providing greater length and thus, greater speed. The first of its kind, the Crestfall was an instant success in the eyes of the Kul Tiran admiralty for its speed, stability, and fighting ability, leading to the birth of a new class of ships, termed by the Azerothian navy the ‘Galleon’. The key distinguishing feature of these new men-of-war lay in the use of multiple gun decks below the waist of the ship, in contrast to the topside and fore/sterncastle focused armaments of the Azerothian man-of-war.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">The moment of collapse for Azeroth’s naval dominance came with the War of the Third Coalition, pitting Azeroth, Stromgarde and Lordaeron against Gilneas, Alterac, and Kul Tiras. The new Galleys of Gilneas proved decisively able to shatter Azerothian ships in the shallow waters of the Bay of Barad while retaining their ability to fight reasonably well in deeper waters, while the Galleons of Kul Tiras proved superior to the caravels and carracks of Azeroth. While no decisive naval battle the equal of Balor or the Menethil battles took place, Azeroth’s navy was left battered and severely damaged at the close of the war in 409KY. <p style="font-weight:normal;">

Unsteady Footing
<p style="font-weight:normal;">The close of the War saw the Royal Navy forced to adapt to the newly changed order. Galleons had overtaken their caravels while galleons had returned to new relevance in the shallows of the Bay. Reeling from their defeats, the Admiralty and the Sea Lord undertook a program to build new ships to match the strength of the Kul Tiran fleets and re-examined the prospects of the galley, commissioning three galley-frigates in an attempt to find compromise.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">In the north, the dominance of the Gilnean Navy increasingly eroded in the face of political crises at home and a growing lack of manpower for their extensive navy. With their large galleys requiring extremely large crews, King Theodore was forced to dismantle a number of his ships and reduce numbers. In turn, Kul Tiras came to dominance (see Kul Tiran Navy) with increasingly large warships, culminating in the 417KY launch of the fabled Invincible, a three-decked Galleon armed with 132 mixed guns and with four masts.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">The Admiralty of Azeroth eyed these new ships with envy and accordingly copied their designs wherever possible, leading to an experimental period in Azeroth’s navy of numerous ship designs, many of which proved unfeasible. The bulk of the naval actions fought by these new vessels were against pirates until the War of 439 pitted Azeroth against Kul Tiras once again, and reaffirmed the superiority of the Kul Tiran navy’s designs – and equally importantly, their extensively trained ‘sea-magi’, specialist arcanists devoted to the enhancement of the Kul Tiran ships.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Without an equivalent body, the ships of Azeroth remained bound purely by materials and mundane limitations, leading to consistently smaller ships of sturdier construction. By the close of the Fifth Century, the galleon designs had morphed into new configurations, usually with three masts rather than four and sleeker, heavier hulls.

The Line of Battle
<p style="font-weight:normal;">This change came early in Azeroth, in an attempt to exploit perceived weaknesses in the slow designs of Kul Tiran ships. The Royal Navy accordingly instituted a new ship building program in 488KY, creating the first ‘ships of the line’: vessels built first and foremost to maintain distance, sail in formation, and pound the enemy into submission with cannonfire. Their first use against Kul Tiran ships in 490KY in a minor trade dispute proved the validity of the concept and validated the then-novel use of wheeled gun carriages, though the sling-carriage proved disastrous.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">These new designs, with their higher speeds and superior sailing capabilities, quickly came to prominence in the navies of Lordaeron and Kul Tiras in the years following the early clashes. The tactics of battle underwent a fundamental shift towards prolonged shooting matches followed by boarding rather than preliminary shooting with boarding as the main course of action or brief, furtive shooting matches followed by withdrawal, and the Kul Tiran navy quickly refitted its ships with carriage-guns while building new, sleeker designs.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Despite their momentary superiority, the larger numbers of Kul Tiran ships proved decisive in the following decades of conflict. The naval race continued, with Azeroth’s fleets expanding at a constant rate. While numerous new developments came first and foremost from Azerothian shipyards (often in conjunction with Dwarven cannon founders and Gnomish engineers), they were usually quickly adopted by the Kul Tiran and Lordaeronian navies, leaving little room for advantage. No major naval conflicts were fought by the Royal Navy during the time period until the 542KY dispute with Stromgarde, which saw the galley-fleets of Stromgarde and Gilneas reach their final peak in sophistication and firepower and asserted that modern galleys could remain a threat to ships-of-the-line.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">By 550KY, Azeroth’s navy had expanded to include several ‘rates’ of ship-of-the-line, frigates, and multiple smaller vessels, with over 100 ships and numerous brigs, sloops, and other non-rated designs in service in supporting roles, as cruisers, or as trade escorts. The Royal Navy was again strong enough to challenge Kul Tiran naval supremacy, and the Sealord had his chance to do so when Lordaeron called on Azeroth to aid it in a dispute over the Kul Tiran Embargo of 551KY. <p style="font-weight:normal;">

The War of 552
<p style="font-weight:normal;">With the conflict birthed at sea, the ensuing War of 552 was a predominantly naval affair with minimal ground actions. Kul Tiran ships-of-the-line, frigates, and light ships fought against their Azerothian and Lordaeronian equals in skirmishes, harassing actions, blockade actions of various ports, and in three main pitched battles.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Throughout the conflict, Kul Tiras exhibited an advantage in their firepower. With standardized cannon of superior casting, they were capable of higher firing rates, more accurate fire, and heavier shot than their opponents; however, they proved less capable at speed and on the tack than Azerothian ships and were overall too large to follow Lordaeron’s ships into the shallow waters of the Arevass river mouth, which together proved decisive in the first major naval action of the war at the Battle of the Arevass.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">The second major battle of the war took place around the island of Carrickton between a primarily Azerothian fleet of a dozen ships-of-the-line supplemented by Lordaeronian frigates and sloops-of-war, opposed by a larger Kul Tiran fleet. The superior quality of Azerothian ships at the tack again proved decisive, though the battle ended in an overall Kul Tiran victory when their sea-magi conjured a storm to take advantage of the less stable configuration of the Azerothian fleet.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">The third and final major battle of the war saw the addition of the last great action by galleys prior to the Second War, with Stromgarde joining the conflict on the side of Lordaeron and Kul Tiras persuading Gilneas to join in exchange for aid settling colonies abroad. Fought once again in the waters off the coast of Tol Barad, the battle saw the Kul Tiran and Azerothian fleets equally battered, Lordaeron’s fleet heavily damaged, and the galley fleets of both Gilneas and Stromgarde shattered by the now overwhelming superiority of the improved ships of their rivals.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">The war’s end was not the decisive shattering of a hegemony that had been hoped by the Sealord, but nonetheless proved that the Azerothian navy was now capable of standing toe-to-toe with the dominant naval force of the known world in deep and shallow waters both. Inspired by their performance, the Sealord promptly ordered several fresh runs of frigates, though these proved to be a difficult bid due to cost overruns, issues with timber, and architects making unplanned, unauthorized changes to nearly every ship that rendered them with marked differences from their drafts. <p style="font-weight:normal;">

Reform of 559
<p style="font-weight:normal;">With the cost overruns of the Establishment of 555 and the generally questionable judgement of the Sea Lord, the King ordered a broad reformation of the Royal Navy. The Sea Lord was dismissed in 557KY and the office dismantled, replaced with an Admiralty Board empowered to determine and carry out the necessary reforms to bring a decisive advantage to Azeroth in conflicts with other naval powers.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Beginning in 559, the decisions of the Board saw a major restructuring of the traditionally decentralized Royal Navy into a highly rigid hierarchical structure beneath the Board, with the creation of subdivisions dedicated to areas of key importance (e.g. ship design), orders of mass standardization of ship designs and cannon, and the creation of a system of promotion based primarily around merit rather than pure seniority and favouritism. Previously, promotion to the rank of lieutenant had solely been at the discretion of the captain of a ship, with captains selected by seniority from among the lieutenants. Following the reforms, captains were to be selected by demonstrations of expertise or valour among the lieutenants, with the promotion of midshipmen and mates to lieutenant being governed by a Board of Examination.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">The Royal Navy’s new emphasis became a varied fleet capable of all necessary roles, including hitherto missing ‘first-rate’ ships-of-the-line and lighter, faster ships for cruising, interception, and anti-piracy operations. Beginning in 560KY, the badly managed ships of the Establishment of 555KY were broken up to provide materials for a number of ships built to standardized patterns incorporating lessons from the war, the follies of the Establishment, and the latest developments in cannon. The foremost of these new designs were the Landen-class First Rates – 100-gun ships mounting heavy batteries of 32 and 24 pounder guns, explicitly designed to counteract the larger warships of the Kul Tiran Navy.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">By the year 570, the reforms had significantly concentrated the Royal Navy’s power into a centralized hierarchy better able to maintain standards of competence in its officers, to recruit larger crews, and to ensure the adherence to designs in its shipyards. With new ships capable of going toe-to-toe with the heaviest ships of the Kul Tiran fleet, attention was turned to the slow, but steady, replacement of the fleet’s lighter ships, culminating in a focus on race-built frigates to supplement the heavy first and second rates. These designs in turn reached their peak with the Adamant-class frigates in the immediate years before the First War.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Unfortunately, the mettle of the Royal Navy was not tested in anything but minor conflicts, skirmishes, and anti-piracy actions until the outbreak of the First War and the first years of the Age of Chaos. <p style="font-weight:normal;">

Age of Chaos
<p style="font-weight:normal;">Thanks to its newly reinvigorated navy, the nation of Azeroth stood among the most secure of the human Kingdoms at the end of the Warring Kingdoms Period. With no organized enemies to its south and with the Burning Steppes as an extremely effective natural barrier to the north safeguarding them from land invasion, the Kingdom appeared all but unassailable.

The Orcish Wars
<p style="font-weight:normal;">Unfortunately, this proved to be the undoing of Azeroth. As a result of their strong emphasis on naval defence, the internal fortifications of the Kingdom were neglected over the decades prior to the First War. Consequently, come the onslaught of the Orcish Horde, the nation quickly found itself in dire circumstances – circumstances in which the Royal Navy was all but useless.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">The sole exception was the Battle of Balor late in the war, in which the Horde employed captured Royal Navy ships to invade and conquer the island province. By that time, the Royal Navy was in shambles with many crews having been pressed into service on land and was unable to respond quickly or aggressively enough to the Horde assault.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">The only major action of the Royal Navy came in the mass exodus of the Azerothian people north, with many ships packed to the brim with refugees, supplies, and whatever could be carried. Other ships remained behind to prevent Horde pursuit in stolen craft; few were seen again, fewer still in human hands.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">With the Royal Navy much depleted, it took a marked back seat to Kul Tiras for the naval operations of the Second War, with its ships largely relegated solely to coastal defence to prevent a second Horde naval attack. Many of the sailors found themselves pressed into service on Kul Tiran ships or shore militias for the defence of Hillsbrad and Lordaeron.

First Interbellum Period
<p style="font-weight:normal;">As part of the newly restored Kingdom of Stormwind, the Royal Navy received a surprising boost in funding and finances to begin immediate operations once again. Naval shipping was vital for reconstruction efforts and remnant Horde forces maintained pirate bases along both the East and the West coasts of Azeroth, necessitating escorts for all but the fastest, most agile clippers. Few ships were constructed during this time frame, though a handful of half-built frigates and third-rates were completed after being found intact in their berths.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">The majority of engagements in the Interbellum period fell against Orcish remnants and pirates, usually with predictable results of decisive Royal Navy victories against the undergunned and outbuilt pirate fleets. The major exception came in 604KY.

War of Baradi Independence
<p style="font-weight:normal;">Inspired by the remaining local population and the long history of the island, the Alliance forces garrisoned on Tol Barad took to piracy and raiding along the interior coast of the Bay of Barad in 604KY. Desiring independence and the ‘restoration’ of the Kingdom of Tol Barad (despite having no lawful claim to the throne, the priesthood, or indeed, usually any blood tie to the populace), these rebels seized the Kul Tiran naval garrison and released the rogue sea-magi imprisoned there in an unnerving precursor to the pirate-fortress and chaos that would rise on the islands after the Third War.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Newly armed with no less than three third-rate ships-of-the-line and a half dozen smaller ships, the Baradi rebels posed a significant threat. With the bulk of the remaining Kul Tiran navy mothballed or on duties protecting the farthest flung reaches of the Kul Tiran naval empire, the duty of resolving the conflict fell to the Royal Navy as part of Stormwind’s duties under the Alliance of Lordaeron.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">The following war was brief but brutal, seeing no less than five Royal Navy frigates captured as prizes by the Baradi before a fully fledged force was able to drive the rebels back to Baradin Harbour and, having there trapped them, destroy them. The ultimate cost was some eight hundred dead or missing Stormwind sailors and officers, three Royal Navy frigates, and one of the remaining 104-gun first-rate ships-of-the-line courtesy of a suicide attack by the last of the rebel sea-magi. The death toll among the rebels is not recorded, but it is known that in the aftermath the newly replaced Stromic garrison systematically slaughtered the remnant population of native-born Baradi.

Third War
<p style="font-weight:normal;">The Royal Navy’s important role as a bulwark against northern enemies came to greater light in the Third War, when the near total collapse of the Northern Kingdoms and Quel’thalas led to a naval crisis. While Stromgarde stood against the Scourge and largely prevented their advance into the southern continents, a number of captured Scourge fleets sailed south in an attempt to rampage through Stormwind and encircle the dwarves from all sides.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Fortunately, the barely sentient undead make exceptionally poor sailors and the Scourge placed little value on naval warfare, leading to total victories in the defence of Azeroth by sea during the war even as global trade effectively ceased.

Second Interbellum Period
<p style="font-weight:normal;">With the end of the Third War, a new world order rose. Stormwind’s reconnection to the remnants of Lordaeron both in Kalimdor and the Lordaeron landmass proper lead to renewed emphasis on escorted shipping, while the global turmoil created scores of new pirates, including multiple fleets wholesale looted from the shattered docks of Lordaeron, Stromgarde, and Kul Tiras.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">There again proved relatively few major engagements by the Royal Navy, and the necessity of escorting many ships over long distances led to a gradual downscaling of ships in favour of an ever-greater number of frigates and reinforced brigs over the large-ship dominated fleets of yesteryear. The early conflicts of the period – the Defias Insurrection, the War of the Shifting Sands, and the Burning Crusade – had no naval fronts. <p style="font-weight:normal;">

The Rise of Steam
<p style="font-weight:normal;">During this time period, new technologies came to the fore. Dwarven steam ships had a long history as merchant cruisers and coastal defence rigs for the Kingdom of Ironforge, but had previously been too temperamental for regular use as military vessels. The work of Goggins Brasslock in refining the steam engine after the Third War saw marked improvements in efficiency and range for coal powered boilers, reducing the reliance on oil reserves endured by the Dwarven fleet during the Second War.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">The Royal Navy, crippled by the severe mismanagement of the Regency, was late to adopt this technology. It was only with the end of the Regency and the preparations for war against the Lich King, with the unreliable and often northerly winds threatening sail propulsion, that this new development became of evident utility. A number of test ships were converted to coal-fired steamships and deployed on brief trials; on satisfaction, the Admiralty ordered the construction of the first major series of steam ships in the Royal Navy’s history.

The Lich War
<p style="font-weight:normal;">Come the commencement of the Lich War, the Albatross-class steam-transport and the Wrath-class steamer ‘frigate’ were ready for service. Both were hastily assembled with wood not properly seasoned, but were not intended for long-term service. Both bore a similar plan – a steam-paddle mounted at the rear, square-rigged sails (two-masted brig-plan for the Albatross, three-masted ship-rigged for the Wrath), a heavily armoured prow in the event of ice sheets, and a steel-plated underside for protection from reefs and Scourge forces lurking on the bottom. The Wrath frigates were designed for superior speed while the Albatross transports had only the safe delivery of men and supplies as their goal and, accordingly, were lightly armed with deck guns and had near flat bottoms.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">During the initial deployment of the war to reinforce the extant port of Valgarde and establish Valiance Keep, the Royal Navy clashed repeatedly with the remnants of the Scourge Navy. Assisted by Horde forces, the Scourge fleet was entirely destroyed, granting perceived naval superiority to the Royal Navy, though the poor construction of the Wrath class saw the design shelved.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">This decision was affirmed when, early in the war, the Forsaken assaulted the Royal Navy off of the Grizzly Hills. With the Albatross ships not intended to stand up to heavy cannon fire and the poor construction of the Wrath class ships, the fighting was a disaster, leading to major losses at the Derelict Strand. With a fleet of conventional transports and escorts dispatched to the aid of the survivors, the war quickly took a worse turn with the appearance of the Vrykul.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">In circumstances reminiscent of those centuries earlier against the Dwarves, the Royal Navy found itself encountering a foe able to strike freely from above with little countermeasure. The remaining Wrath class ships were destroyed, and for the remainder of the war, Albatross class ships were escorted by Dwarven gryphon riders and by sea-magi.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Despite this disastrous deployment, the Albatross-class transports proved sufficiently capable that they were renewed and refined for further construction, leading to the Aquila-class ships in current use as transports, messenger ships, and in modified form, warships. By the end of the war, the importance of the Royal Navy was indisputable once again, and while emphasis remained on lighter ships, work began on the construction of a new class of ship-of-the-line incorporating lessons learned, alongside the initial drafts of what has since become the Gryphon-class.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">The history of the Royal Naval Aviation Corps will be treated separately, but in brief, the Corps arose during the War with the construction of the Alliance’s first air battleship. Operating off naval principles and built on similar design lines, it was crewed by veterans of the Royal Navy and the remnant Kul Tiran navy, firmly cementing it as a naval establishment.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">With the tensions of the Wrathgate incident and the Siege of the Undercity resurfacing in the aftermath of the war, the Horde’s fleet was evaluated in secret by the Royal Navy. Disturbing sights were in evidence in Orgrimmar’s dockworks – the handful of crashed Orcish war-galleys seen in Northrend were entering mass production, forged in part of iron and armed with a heavy ramming prow.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">The doctrines of the Second War returned to prominence. While the Royal Navy had fought few engagements, the fleets of Lordaeron and Kul Tiras had repeatedly clashed with troll war galleys, which proved lethal in close quarters. The answer had been heavy gun batteries and swift Elven interceptors. Without Elven interceptors, heavy gun batteries became the answer, as did a new development in munitions: explosive shell. <p style="font-weight:normal;">

The Fourth War
<p style="font-weight:normal;">The time to test these new munitions quickly arose. With the devastation of the Cataclysm and the resource crisis created by it for the Horde, the skirmishes along the borders quickly broke into open fighting and warfare on multiple fronts. The Royal Navy’s first deployment of note in the early months of the Fourth War came with the assault on the Twilight Highlands – an initially mutual deployment by the Horde and the Alliance that almost immediately turned to hostilities between the two.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Undefended cargo ships were attacked and destroyed by Horde air forces without provocation, formally commencing the new war. The Royal Navy suffered a serious black eye in the skirmish, but remained operative and continued to deliver war materiels to the Twilight Highlands until the end of the fighting against the Twilight cult in that region. No further major naval engagements took place in the region, though marines and naval gunners joined the shore fighting against both Twilight forces and Horde forces.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Covertly, the Royal Navy also launched an operation to capture the Warchief of the Horde, ultimately proving unsuccessful despite managing to sink the Horde ships carrying him to his destination. The task force dispatched for the purpose was destroyed.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Simultaneously, elements of the fleet deployed to the newly risen reefs of Vash’jir to counter the Horde’s attempt to seize control of the newly restricted shipping channel while the majority of the fleet steamed to the Highlands or was detached to special operations with the 7th Legion and thus outside of the Navy’s command. The resulting battle saw heavy losses on both sides, compounded by attacks by the fel beast Ozumat and by the Naga, leading the Royal Navy to a desperate situation.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">With many of its ships destroyed, missing, or engaged in conflict, the decision was made by the Admiralty Board to, for the first time in a century, make a mass purchase of merchantmen and privateer brigs for the sake of ensuring Stormwind’s naval defence. The Mass Purchase of 623 saw dozens of ships suddenly added to the Royal Navy’s lists, crewed with pressed men and retired officers.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">In a dose of no small irony, the majority of the subsequent fighting in Vash’jir took place between Naga and Twilight forces and the Royal Navy’s SEAL teams underwater. While ultimately victorious, the death toll was extremely heavy, reducing the operational capacity of the nascent SEAL teams to an extreme degree and depleting Stormwind’s garrison fleet of many of its best and brightest officers. Only minor surface engagements were fought, with minimal losses on either side, between the Horde and Alliance.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">During these early stages of the war, the conflict was repeatedly disrupted by the simultaneous war with the Twilight cult. It was not until the defeat of Cho’gall and the final demise of Deathwing that the war came to focus entirely on the true enemy: the Horde.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">The Royal Navy was, by the middle of the war, in dire straits. Damaged by the loss of many officers in conflict with Twilight forces or the Forsaken (under the separate auspices of the Legion), the Royal Navy embarked on a heavy recruitment campaign while the new Gryphon class ships finally entered service. Sleek ships equipped with heavy frontal armour and a ram to counter the Horde’s war-galleys, the relatively light Gryphons could be fielded in significant numbers.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Unfortunately, these attributes proved of no use in the first salvo of the renewed aggressions. The destruction of Theramore saw a large proportion of the Royal Navy taken with it as part of the 7th Legion relief force sent to the city. In the days that followed, Horde warships saw several victories against older Royal Navy ships in the Tol Barad taskforce and in the refugee fleet off shore of Tanaris.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">The technological and doctrinal advantages of the Navy were proving insufficient, and this reached a head with the catastrophic loss of the royal fleet off the coast of Pandaria – and with it, the loss of Prince Anduin Wrynn. The entire Admiralty board was subsequently dismissed and replaced with new leadership.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">With the new Admiralty Board installed, the Royal Navy underwent a major change in tactics. While a large part of the Alliance fleet sailed south to escort transport ships and reinforce the handful of Alliance forces in the Isles – with multiple skirmishes along the way – the Royal Navy dispatched a large number of its remaining frigates to cruising duties in Horde shipping lanes. The lines of trade and logistics between the Horde forces in the East and West were subsequently badly damaged and impaired, with the Orcish fleet largely unable to respond to the deep-sea actions of the cruising frigates and their depredations and the Forsaken fleet increasingly outpaced by Royal Navy Gryphons.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">There were no major naval encounters until the withdrawal from Pandaria of True Horde forces. Striking from the mists, the Royal Navy engaged a large Orcish fleet returning to Kalimdor off the coast of the Thunder Isles in a pitched battle involving a dozen ships-of-the-line and thirty-odd frigates and Gryphons. The battle proved costly on both sides, and cemented the dangerous nature of Orcish war-galleys in shallow coastal waters with unpredictable winds when ramming destroyed three first-rates and eight smaller ships.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">The lack of subsequent major actions has led some commenters and historians of the Fourth War to speculate that the newly dominant Aviation corps has largely overtaken the role of Stormwind’s navy; however, this is untrue. The most important contribution of the Royal Navy came in the form of the cruising against enemy shipping and the severe strain imposed on Horde and True Horde supply chains as a result, reaching a peak with the months-long blockade of Orgrimmar which saw over thirty of the Royal Navy’s ships anchor off the coast of Bladefist Bay and intercept nearly every blockade runner sent with supplies, beat off over a dozen attempts at cutting out, and finally, bombard the shoreline so heavily in the lead-up to the assault that ground troops were able to disembark safely. <p style="font-weight:normal;">

The Steam Reform
<p style="font-weight:normal;">The economic and strategic impact of the Royal Navy’s actions saw the fleets expanded with new cruising designs and an authorization for the construction of a dozen new ‘steam frigates’ at the close of the war, both to replace losses and to accommodate the growing mechanization of the Royal Navy.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">The new direction of the Royal Navy was formalized in the Stormwind Naval Reforms of 627, the major features of which were the complete standardization of ship classes in future, the introduction of a cannon trial group dedicated to developing optimum designs for countering the increasing might of the Forsaken’s ironclads, and a program for the promotion of enlisted men and direct recruitment of many former officers and retired captains to replace the losses incurred during the Fourth War. <p style="font-weight:normal;">

The Iron War
<p style="font-weight:normal;">Unfortunately, the reforms were cut short by the outbreak of the Iron War. Beyond a naval landing and the employment of naval cannon both on and off ship to establish a front line against the invading Iron Horde forces and open a flank, the early stages of the Iron War saw minimal involvement by the Royal Navy. Its ships were instead detailed to anti-piracy campaigns and to enforcing the Embargo on Orgrimmar established as part of the Treaty of Razor Hill.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">Late in the war, however, the Royal Navy sent a number of crews and supplies to Draenor through the newly stabilized Ashran portals. Light ships joined them, disassembled and rebuilt on the other side of the portal to establish preliminary patrols and naval charting of the wild Draenic seas off the coast of Tanaan Jungle. While a multinational effort, Royal Navy cannon and gunners formed the backbone of the Draenor Fleet’s combat capability, and Royal Navy architects were set to purpose applying the lessons learned in the Fourth War to captured Iron Horde Drudgeboat-class ships alongside Gnomish and Dwarven innovators, resulting in the development of the first true naval aircraft carriers fielded by any power of Azeroth.

<p style="font-weight:normal;">During the remainder of the war, ship combat remained a relatively minor element. Interdiction of Iron Horde supply ships, troop transports, and scouting vessels proved once again the most substantial part of the Naval contribution to the war effort. Multiple skirmishes against Horde forces saw the same fact reaffirmed: the air corps now dominates direct combat operations, while the Royal Navy increasingly favours interdiction, anti-shipping, and troop transport roles. <p style="font-weight:normal;"> <p style="font-weight:normal;">

Organization
<p style="font-weight:normal;">The current organization of the Royal Navy derives from the divisions established in the Reforms of 559, supplemented by those introduced in the intervening years and the more recent Steam Reform of 625KY.

Admiralty Board (557)
<p style="font-weight:normal;">The presiding body over the Royal Navy, the Admiralty Board consists of the seven senior-most Admirals of the fleet and its ground garrisons, and following the Steam Reform, an eighth seat dedicated to the senior-most Sky Admiral of the Royal Navy Aviator’s Corps. It possesses total authority within the Royal Navy to, as needed, create new boards, new departments, and to authorize deployments, actions, and fleet maneuvers.

Surgeon's Board (559)
<p style="font-weight:normal;">The first major establishment of the Admiralty Board in 559, the Surgeon’s Board is overseen by an appointed Surgeon-General of the Royal Navy and his appointed six-man advisory panel. It is responsible for ensuring that medical care on the ships of the Royal Navy is sufficient and suitable to ensure that the Navy’s sailors remains fit for service, and is also charged with developing new surgical techniques and countermeasures to issues of food degradation, malnutrition, and venereal disease.

Design Board (559)
<p style="font-weight:normal;">The second major establishment of 559, the Design Board consists of a panel of shipwrights and engineers who, in conjunction with a variety of commercial and academic resources, are empowered and charged with the design of the ships, armaments, and munitions of the Royal Navy.

Logistics Board (559)
<p style="font-weight:normal;">The final major establishment by the Admiralty Board in 559, the Logistics Board is concerned primarily with ensuring the security of Stormwind’s supply lines for fighting overseas, the resupply of ships abroad and at home, and the ordering or manufacturing of sufficient quantities of ammunition, powder, guns, and foodstuffs for the fleet.

Department of Cryptography (620)
<p style="font-weight:normal;">A minor establishment of 620, the Department of Cryptography’s mandate is primarily to protect the increasingly used ‘squawkers’ and ‘radios’ introduced by the Dwarves and Gnomes from interception by enemy forces and to decrypt the same signals when intercepted. They have also undertaken highly successful work creating ciphers for the use of captains and other fleet officers.

Royal Navy Aviator's Corps (622)
<p style="font-weight:normal;">The defacto Airforce of Stormwind, the Royal Navy Aviator’s Corps possesses authority over Stormwind’s air assets and is commanded by the Sky Admiralty. It is an increasingly vital part of Stormwind’s forces and is lobbying to be recognized as a wholly independent branch of the military, no longer subject to Admiralty Board authority.

Department of Cartography (624)
<p style="font-weight:normal;">The only major establishment of 624, the Department of Cartography is charged with the vital task of mapping out prevailing conditions, coastlines, and wind patterns in the post-Cataclysmic world. With the disruption of many ancient routes in the chaos and upheaval, the monumental task could not be left to trial and error and to the reporting of individual captains any longer.

Department of Coordination (625)
<p style="font-weight:normal;">The first major establishment by the Admiralty Board in 625KY, the Department of Coordination exists to provide military liasons with the other naval forces of the Grand Alliance. While these navies remain distinct, independent entities, the Fourth War emphasized the need for experts in each navy to collaborate to develop tactics capable of exploiting the fullest strength and capability of each navy. The department is highly unpopular in the navies of the Kaldorei state and the remnant fleets of Kul Tiras, Theramore, and Gilneas and is perceived as an unwarranted attempt to impose the will of the Admiralty Board onto independent forces.

Royal Submariner Corps (625)
<p style="font-weight:normal;">A new branch of the Royal Navy established in 625, the Royal Submariner Corps is subordinate to the Admiralty Board and is dedicated to developing, countering, and adapting the techniques, principles, and tools of submarine warfare developed by the Gnomes for use by the Royal Navy. <p style="font-weight:normal;">

Commands
<p style="font-weight:normal;">At the present time there are four distinct commands of the Royal Navy, each of which consists of one or more fleets headed by an admiral referred to as the commander-in-chief for that command. In wartime, the commander-in-chief possesses total authority to confirm and grant commissions up to, but not including, post-captain and any warrants he or she sees fit, though this power yields to the Naval Board upon peacetime and it may affirm or revoke the wartime promotions as it sees fit. Each command covers an extraordinary territory, in large part due to the preeminent status of the Royal Navy among the remaining Alliance naval powers, including territorial waters of some allies.

Azeroth
<p style="font-weight:normal;">The most important command, Azeroth is headed by the seniormost admiral of the Royal Navy, who accordingly holds the title of Grand Admiral of Azeroth. It holds responsibilities for the security of the nation itself, and with the collapse of the remaining states of the Grand Alliance, of all operations along both the Oriental and Occidental coasts of the continent above the Prime of Stranglethorn and below the Prime of Quel’thalas, excepting the coastal waters of the Kingdom of Ironforge. The position is presently filled by Grand Admiral Jes-Tereth. It consists of the following distinct groups and flotillas: • Royal Fleet. Dedicated to the naval defence of Stormwind and its immediate surrounding waters, and the personal fleet of the Grand Admiral of Azeroth. • Baradin Fleet. Dedicated to ensuring the control of the vital ports along the Baradin Bay. • Oriental Fleet. Dedicated to ensuring the security of the Eastern Coast of the Continent against intruders. • Northern Fleet. Ostensibly dedicated to ensuring the security of all waters north of the Baradin, the Northern Fleet is increasingly dedicated to the harassment of Horde shipping both military and civilian.

South Seas
<p style="font-weight:normal;">A command of increasing importance, the South Seas command is charged with policing the wealthy and pirate-infested shipping lanes of the South Seas and, in recent years, the waters around Pandaria. It has seen the most combat action of all Royal Navy commands in the last two years, and consists of many hardened veterans. It is currently commanded by Admiral Lauren Dystra-McClure. It consists of two main fleets, being the Australian Fleet of Pandaria, and the Islands Fleet controlled directly by the Admiral.

North Seas
<p style="font-weight:normal;">Now the smallest command of the Royal Navy, the North Seas fleet is charged with the waters north of the Prime of Quel’thalas. Today, it consists largely of a small number of frigates and lighter ships charged with interrupting piracy and Horde privateers who attempt to interfere in Alliance trade with the Northrend settlements. The role of defending Draenei waters remains with the Fleet of Ancients.

Kalimdor
<p style="font-weight:normal;">The Kalimdor command is the second most combat-experienced command of the entire Royal Navy at this time. It is also, courtesy of the heavy losses incurred in the Fourth War, one of the most depleted and third in size. It nonetheless maintains vital roles in protecting trade with the remaining Dustwallow settlements, with Alliance outposts in Uldum and Tanaris, and with the Kaldorei nation. It further bears responsibility for enforcing the embargo against Orgrimmar and for combating the multitude of pirates and Horde-sanctioned privateers plaguing the waters, but receives substantial aid from the Kaldorei navy. It consists of three fleets: • 1st Fleet: Oriental Coast south of the Dustwallow-Barrens border. • 2nd Fleet: Oriental Coast north of the Dustwallow-Barrens border. • 3rd Fleet: Occidental and Australian coasts.

Ranks
<p style="font-weight:normal;">Coming at a later date. <p style="font-weight:normal;">

Disclaimer and Rationale
<p style="font-weight:normal;">This article is largely fanon. It deliberately deviates from what is seen in-game to be more interesting, but remains 'lore-friendly'. The following are major deviations and their rationales for inclusion or exclusion:
 * The existence of the Steppe Confederacy dovetails with the Morgan quests in Burning Steppes, the region previously being uninhabited by the Dwarves until relatively late in history, and its proximity to a major human kingdom.
 * The existence of Stormwind as a major naval power prior to the modern day derives in large part from the improbability of seven major kingdoms remaining peaceful for 1000+ years. Additionally, if Kul Tiras developed into a naval superpower - which is its reputation - it stands to reason that there must have been a reason. Without conflict, there is no need to develop superior warships as dedicated warships tend to be quite awful at freight purposes compared to mercantile designs of similar size.
 * The existence of a militant Empire of Khaz'modan is included for two reasons: One, it's neat, and two, it actually helps to explain the isolationist nature of Ironforge and their absence in the First War. Shattered by the War of Three Hammers and bound to non-intervention in human affairs by prior peace treaties, they would have no reason to aid Azeroth until it became apparent how vile the Horde was. This same crippling treaty limited Dwarven expansion, concentrating their population into Dun Morogh and Loch Modan, leading to the tensions that ultimately flared up in that War.
 * Dwarves inventing naval gunpowder just makes sense, but is not to my knowledge canon. Officially.
 * Wildhammers did not, in lore, have gryphons until the collapse of the unified Dwarven state with the death of King Modimus. This is ignored because dwarven 'aircraft carriers are awesome. This seems a sufficient reason to me.
 * In-game, the ships we see are largely brig-rigged light ships with low gun counts. I view this as an abstraction, hence the larger ships of my fanon. The rationale applied in the article may also be true - with their main enemy not favouring large warships, there is significantly less call for 74-guns and first-rates.
 * The sudden appearance of coal fired ships is here rationalized by an improvement in furnace design, while also hooking in the Warcraft 2 use of oil for warships. With fuel oil relatively rare (but notably having been present in WoW since vanilla for various purposes) compared to coal, a sudden boost in coal's competitiveness and an outside factor - the winds blowing south near northrend - seemed appropriate as an explanation for the steam paddlers we see.