Royal Navy

The naval service of the United Kingdom, the senior service, with origins in the standing Tudor navy under Henry VIII and its formal establishment after the Restoration of 1660. From the 18th century it was the largest navy in the world, securing British trade and empire through the line-of-battle fleet, the rating system of ships, and a global network of dockyards. Victories at the Nile (1798) and Trafalgar (1805) under Nelson confirmed its command of the sea; it held the two-power standard set by the Naval Defence Act 1889 into the 20th century.