Sailing Against The Wind

[Justin Pickard]

"What, sir, would you make a ship sail against the wind and currents by lighting a bonfire under her deck? I pray you, excuse me, I have not the time to listen to such nonsense."

- Napoleon Bonaparte, when told of Robert Fulton's steamboat​

So, what if Napoleon had been taken by the idea, and had commissioned Fulton to design a series of steamboats for the French navy in the early 1810s?

 

[NapoleonXIV]

Napoleon's main problem might be hiring engineers from Glasgow. Steam engines were not exactly top secret technology by this time. I see a real shot in the arm for steam powered navies worldwide but little of a lasting advantage for Napoleon.

Now combine the steam engine with a propellor and armor (not really impossible developments all at once, though unlikely) and Boney will sink every ship the British have before they have time to make their own.

The problem is that that kind of development is far more likely in England, with lots more engineers and ironworkers, than in France, where craftsman were still mainly making intricate clockwork models for Napoleon's new nobility rather than factories

 

[Johnnyreb]

I deprecate this Turtledove idea that you send out one Monitor type and it sweeps the sea clear of all sailing ships.

Even assuming the steamship can take better weather conditions than the Monitor, it would still have to wait until the weather was exactly right to engage. If the sailing ship had any way at all, it could always bring a broadside to bear.

Its alright the Merrimac sinking little frigates like Congress, but I suspect a well-aimed broadside from 50-odd 32pdrs of a big man-o-war would knock ships like the Demologus to bits, until better iron armour was developed.

The Monitor-beats-all concept is too full of variables and uncertainties. It's like saying Tiger tanks will sweep North Europe clear of Shermans because the Tiger was a much better tank. It didn't happen.

 

[MerryPrankster]

I had a brief TL for a world where Napoleon got the steam engines and attached them to the invasion fleet he was assembling at Boulougne.

The fleet sailed during a calm period when most of the Royal Navy could not get to them, and they landed an army in Kent. Unfortunately for Boney, the wind comes back and he and his army have to beat feet, but not before devastating much of England.

The Brits promptly build their own fleet of steamships and use it to interdict a second steam-driven Napoleonic assault, this time an invasion of Ireland.

Butterflies from this mean an extended Cold War between the Napoleonic Empire and Great Britain, with Italy and Spain as the battlefields. Britain becomes a police state (earlier, more brutal Defense of the Realm acts) and they end up with their very own 1848 rebellion (perhaps a little earlier though).

The TL is actually background for a nation on a parallel world (descended from the survivors of the 1848 who passed through a hole in space-time while fleeing towards the Channel coast), so I didn't really develop it too much. What do y'all think?