British Mediterranean Fleet

Mediterranean Fleet
The battleships Bulwark, Renown and Ramillies at Malta in 1902
Active	1690 – 5 June 1967
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	Royal Navy
Type	Fleet
Garrison/HQ	Malta
Commanders
Notable commanders	Samuel Hood, Horatio Nelson, Andrew Cunningham

The British Mediterranean Fleet was part of the Royal Navy. The Fleet was one of the most prestigious commands in the navy for the majority of its history, defending the vital sea link between the United Kingdom and the majority of the British Empire in the Eastern Hemisphere. The first Commander-in-Chief for the Mediterranean Fleet may have been named as early as 1665 and the Fleet was in existence until 1967.

The Royal Navy gained a foothold in the Mediterranean Sea when Gibraltar was captured by the British in 1704 during the War of Spanish Succession, and formally allocated to Britain in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht. Though the British had maintained a naval presence in the Mediterranean before, the capture of Gibraltar allowed the British to establish their first naval base there. The British also used Port Mahon, on the island of Minorca, as a naval base. However, British control there was only temporary; Minorca changed hands numerous times, and was permanently ceded to Spain in 1802 under the Treaty of Amiens. In 1800, the British took Malta, which was to be handed over to the Knights of Malta under the Treaty of Amiens. When the Napoleonic Wars resumed in 1803, the British kept Malta for use as a naval base. Following Napoleon's defeat, the British continued their presence in Malta, and turned it into the main base for the Mediterranean Fleet. Between the 1860s and 1900s, the British undertook a number of projects to improve the harbours and dockyard facilities, and Malta's harbours were sufficient to allow the entire fleet to be safely moored there.

In the last decade of the nineteenth century, the Mediterranean Fleet was the largest single squadron of the Royal Navy, with 10 first-class battleships—double the number in the Channel Fleet—and a large number of smaller warships.