II.

Recruitment, Structure, and Training

In 2006 the Royal Navy employed about 37,500 personnel (of whom about 3,000 were women), including 6,000 Royal Marines. It deployed a total of 91 ships and submarines, including 3 Invincible-class aircraft carriers, and 182 aircraft. Until the end of the Napoleonic Wars, in 1815, in times of war, men could be forced into service with the Navy by “press gangs”, which toured the public houses in Britain’s ports seeking likely candidates, especially former naval or merchant seamen. During World Wars I and II conscription was introduced. After 1945, it was continued as national service until 1960. Since then all members of the Royal Navy have been volunteers.

The Royal Navy’s surface fleet was augmented during World War I by an air arm of the service, and a submarine force, and it also transports the Royal Marines. From 1968, with the launch of the submarine HMS Resolution, carrying Polaris submarine-launched strategic (long-range) ballistic missiles (SLBM), the Royal Navy has carried Britain’s independent nuclear deterrent.

A.

Training

Until 1996 naval officers were trained at the Royal Naval College, Greenwich, London, and subsequently at a new tri-service academy, first at Bracknell, and then permanently near Shrivenham, Oxfordshire. Ratings undergo initial training, and all ranks can attend specialist courses at a number of naval shore bases usually referred to as “stone frigates” within the Navy.