Early Naval Aviation
On July 12, 1849, the Austrian Navy ship Vulcano launched a manned hot air balloon in order to drop bombs on Venice, the attempt failing due to contrary winds. During the US War Between the States in the peninsular campaign balloons were used to reconnoitre Confederate positions. When the battles moved inland they were transferred to the decks of coal tenders, the decks cleared to make room for generators and other apparatus used to inflate the balloons with hydrogen. It was at this time that Prof. Thaddeus S.C. Lowe, Chief Aeronaut of the Union Army Balloon Corps, made his first ascents over the Potomac River telegraphing to those on the ground, the ship bourn balloon telegraphing the ground an aviation first. More barges were converted so as to launch military balloons transported about the eastern waterways to reconnoitre confederate positions. Although none of these vessels had ever taken to the high seas they did lead to the introduction of balloon carrying ships into the navies of Great Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, and Sweden. About ten such "balloon tenders" were built, their main objective being aerial observation posts.
The development of heavier than air aircraft in the early 20th century caused various navies to take an interest in their reconnaissance potential for big gun warships. Captain Thaylor Mahons book ‘The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, 1660–1783 (1890).’, which was gospel at the time, had emphasized the supremacy of the battle ship and so the role of aviation was seen as ancillary to it. However modern technology was wreaking his thesis. On 16 October 1916, the German submarine U-53 entered the harbour of Newport, R. I. to ‘pay respects to the naval authorities of the base.’ The U-53 departed a few hours later after a hostile reception.. Within 24 hours of leaving the U-boat captain had sunk five steamers of British, Dutch and Norwegian registration inside U.S. continental waters. This new generation German submarine was one of the recently developed classes of U-boats with extended cruising range and large displacement. The sole purpose of the visit was to impress upon the US the formidable new German technology so as to deter it from entering the war or from supplying the Allies.
.In 1909 the French inventor Clément Ader described in his book ‘L'Aviation Militaire’ ‘a ship to operate airplanes at sea, with a flat flight deck, an island superstructure, deck elevators and a hangar bay. These vessels would be constructed on a plan very different from that currently used. The deck will be cleared of all obstacles’, the book stated, ‘and will be flat, as wide as possible without jeopardizing the nautical lines of the hull, and it will look like a landing field.’ That year the US Naval Attaché in Paris sent a report, the above included in his observations.
In March 1910 the French ship Le Canard flew the first float plane, designed to carry airplanes, albeit equipped with floats. In December of 1911 the French Navy ship La Foudre appeared, the first seaplane carrier, and the first known air craft carrier. It carried float-equipped planes under hangars on the main deck which were lowered to the sea by crane. La Foudre was again modified in November 1913, now having a 10 metre flat deck so as to launch seaplanes. In April-May 1913 the British followed up with HMS Hermes, a temporarily converted seaplane carrier, the first experimental seaplane carrier of the Royal Navy, originally laid down as a merchant ship, converted on the building stocks as a seaplane carrier in 1913, and again converted to a cruiser and back again to a seaplane carrier in 1914, to be sunk by a German submarine in October 1914. The US too in December 1913 introduced its first seaplane tender, the USS Mississippi, this also a conversion.
Throughout the war the Royal Navy mounted attacks upon Zeebruuge and Ostend but were rarely successful. Aircraft were driven off by naval gunfire, suffered mechanical problems, were turned back or downed by patrolling Hansa Brandenburg fighters. However there were some success. On 19 July 1918 seven Sopwith Camels launched from HMS Furious attacked the German Zeppelin base at Tondern, with two 50 lb bombs each. Several airships and balloons were destroyed. Unfortunately the carrier had no method of recovering the aircraft safely; two of the pilots ditched their aircraft in the sea alongside the carrier while the others headed for neutral Denmark. This was an ongoing problem throughout the war. Many an aircraft was lost in this way. The Royal Navy flew both land and seaplane, the latter needing calm water, the land aircraft able to be used in rougher sea conditions the art of landing on a pitching deck not yet mastered.
Soon these problems would be ironed out but by then the war would be over.WWI had partially demolished Captains Mahan’3s thesis that the Battle Ship ruled the seas . German U boats operating on their own sank massive amounts of allied shipping with no support or interference by Battle Ships. WWII put the final nail in the coffin regarding the theory of the superiority of the Battle Ship in naval warfare. At the battle of the Corral Sea not a single big gun was used , at least not in the ship to ship role, the Japanese and American fleets never coming within sight of one another; the aircraft carrier and its aircraft the deciding factor.