pub question

[thos]

who is the father of english navy I answered King Alfred Ans given Hy v111 Who is right ?

[MarkRae]

Henry VIII, as a quick Google search would have told you:
http://www.google.co....c95&biw=1920&bih=1109

[dickythecook]

I thought it was Sam Pepys

[Khandro]

Henry 8

[Baldric]

Henry V111 is correct by the look of it.

[Lisa-Bee]

100% HenryV111

[chelle7272]

Henry VIII

[chris1970]

http://www.royalnaval...ets_naval_history.htm

[boxtops]

Henry 8 (not sure why you thought Alfred?)

[bookbinder]

Henry VIII gets the vote.

[thos]

Right Mark thanks for being clever!!Sarcastic I did look it up and looked up Alfred and if you look him up it says he was the father of the english navy

[THECORBYLOON]

The results on the link posted by Mark includes a site which says Alfred is the answer.

[THECORBYLOON]

There may be a difference in an English navy and the Royal Navy.

[Old_Geezer]

Well for what it is worth it is my understanding that Henry pulled all together as a single national fleet under the king. It's possible there were multiple fleets beforehand of course. I guess it depends on what is meant by the question.

[MarkRae]

There's also a link which says it's Admiral Sir Erasmus Ommanuey! Anybody can post anything on the Internet, within reason.

It's a stupid question anyway because there's no definitive answer. If the question had been which Tudor king of England is considered by many historians as the father of the British Navy, then fair enough...

[thos]

I think corbyloon youmay be right I remember from my schooldays being told it was Alfred the Great who biuilt a navy to repel the Vikings and that is why he was great

[thos]

sorry built

[chris1970]

No navy or fleet existed in any shape or form in England until the reign of King Alfred (871-901). His first seaborne engagement was in 882 against four Danish ships in the Stour estuary, and in 895-7 Alfred built longships to his own design and defeated the Danes off Essex and in the Thames estuary. It is for this reason that King Alfred is often claimed to be the founder of the Navy.

Henry VIII had ships built which had improved sea-worthiness and armaments, and in 1514, the Henry Grace a Dieu, the largest warship in the world, was launched. It was the first ship with heavy guns, and this led to an end of archers firing on ships and hand to hand fighting, and so developed a new technique of sea warfare. In the same year Trinity House was inaugurated to develop navigational aids such as lighthouses, buoys and beacons, the latter being used to signal the invasion of the Spanish Armada in 1588. In 1540, Henry built the first naval dock in Britain at Portsmouth, and in 1546 he established the Navy Board, which remained almost unchanged for 300 years, and created the Office of Admiralty, which set up the administrative machinery for the control of the fleet. For his achievements Henry VIII was known as the “Father of the English Navy”. From the Tudor period, England produced many eminent naval officers

[VHG]

It is a bit like asking "who was the first king of England" which can elicit a number of different answers depending what you define as "England" (instead of it being Mercia etc)

[thos]

thanks everyone for answers seems the pub question was framed badly

[shoota]

Perhaps Henry was the father and Alfred the grandfather?