4th Royal Marines
The Royal Marines served throughout
the Napoleonic Wars on-board Royal Navy ships in every
notable naval battle including St Vincent, Camperdown, the Nile, Copenhagen,
Trafalgar, the Dardanelles, Cape Lissa and Aix Roads. The marines also saw
action in various amphibious operations.
The number of marines on board Royal Naval ships depended on
the size of the ship and was generally kept at a ratio of one marine per ship
gun with officers. For example: a First Rate Ship of the Line contained 104
marines while a 28 gun Frigate had 29. Between 1807 and 1814 the total marine
establishment number was 31,400 men. Manpower (recruitment and retention)
problems saw regular infantry units from the British Army being used as
shipboard replacements on numerous occasions. One result of the Royal Navy's
dominance of the seas in Europe, and the blockading of the French Navy's ports
did mean that manpower constraints became less of an issue at the end of the
Napoleonic Wars. From 1812, such maritime supremacy meant the Mediterranean and
Channel Fleets were assigned additional marines for use 'in destroying signal
communications and other petty harassing modes of warfare.
