Channel Fleet

The Channel Fleet and originally known as the Channel Squadron was the Royal Navy formation of warships that defended the waters of the English Channel from 1854 to 1909 and 1914 to 1915.
History.
Throughout the course of Royal Navy's history there had been different squadrons stationed in home waters. One of the earliest known naval formations to be based at Plymouth was called the Western Squadron which was the forerunner of the Channel Squadron that was later known as the Channel Fleet. In 1650 Captain William Penn, Commander-in-Chief, was charged with guarding the Channel from Beachy Head to Lands End with six ships. This system continued following the Restoration. It was the start of what was to become a Western Squadron. In 1690 the squadron operated out of Plymouth Dockyard during wartime periods which was for most of the 18th century and early 19th century. In 1854 The Channel Squadron and sometimes known as the Particular Service Squadron was established. The Channel Squadron only became a permanent formation in 1858.
During the 19th century, as the French developed Cherbourg as a base for steam-powered ships, the Royal Navy developed Portland Harbour as a base for the fleet. The harbour was built between 1849 and 1872 when the Royal Navy created a breakwater made of blocks from local quarries on the Isle of Portland. 
With the amelioration of Anglo-French relations, and the rise of German militarism towards 1900, the need for a Channel Formation diminished and the main European naval arena shifted to the North Sea. Admiral Sir Arthur Wilson was officially "Senior Officer in Command of the Channel Squadron" from 1901 to 1903. His subordinate flag officer in that squadron was the Second-in-Command, who commanded a division of battleships. For the period 1858 to 1903 the Channel squadron was often incorrectly referred to as the Channel Fleet.
On 17 April 1903 The Right Hon. Lord Charles Beresford was appointed Vice-Admiral Commanding, Channel Squadron. On 6 May 1903 Admiral Beresford was informed by the Admiralty "that for the future the Channel Squadron shall be known as the Channel Fleet." On 14 December 1904 the Channel Fleet was re-styled the 'Atlantic Fleet' and the Home Fleet became the 'Channel Fleet'.
On 24 March 1909, under a fleet re-organisation, the Channel Fleet became the 2nd Division of the Home Fleet.
Vice-Admiral Commanding Channel Squadron.
Post holders have included:
Note:"Channel Squadron - renamed The Channel Fleet, September, 1901"
Second-in-Command Channel Squadron.
Post holders included:
Commanders-in-Chief Channel Fleet.
"Note Channel Fleet is re-named Atlantic Fleet 1909-1914"
Second-in-Command Channel Fleet.
Post holders included:
Rear-Admirals in the Channel Fleet.
Post holders included:
Components.
1901 to 1904.
Of note:"As the Channel Squadron - renamed The Channel Fleet, September, 1901".
1914 to 1915.
Of note: On 8 August 1914, ships from the pre-war Second and Third Fleets were organised into the Channel Fleet.
In literature.
The Channel Fleet features in several historical novels about the Royal Navy, notably "Hornblower and the Hotspur" by C. S. Forester, in which Forester's fictional hero becomes a favourite of the real Channel Fleet commander, Admiral William Cornwallis. The fleet also features in several of the Aubrey–Maturin novels by Patrick O'Brian.
The novel "Billy Budd" by Herman Melville is set on board ships of the Channel Fleet, in the immediate aftermath of the Spithead and Nore mutinies of 1797.
In the novel "The War of the Worlds", the Channel Fleet protects the huge mass of refugee shipping escaping from the Essex coast in the face of the Martian onslaught. The initial heroic fight of and the subsequent general engagement, is detailed in the chapter entitled "The Thunderchild".