Draft:Station of the Royal Navy

A Station of the Royal Navy was one of the historical geographic areas into which the Royal Navy of the United Kingdom divided the planet. Each station fell under a Commander-in-Chief and included one or more bases, coaling stations and other minor shore facilities, and vessels assigned to the station, usually organised as a squadron. Larger stations were sometimes split into separate divisions. The number of stations and their boundaries changed over time, often with the merger of stations (by example, what had been designated the North American Station in 1767 became the River St. Lawrence and Coast of America and North America and West Indies Station in the 1790s when it s boundaries were expanded to include the West Indies, the North America Station again in 1813 with the separation of the Jamaica Station, the North America and West Indies Station in 1830 (after re-absorbing the Jamaica station), and finally the America and West Indies Station in 1928, after absorbing the former geographic extents of the "South American Squadron" that had been disbanded in 1921 and the Pacific Station. Waters around the British Isles were divided between a number of Home stations, with the rest of the planet divided between much larger stations. Following the Second World War, the Royal Navy was drastically reduced with its ships today all based at home stations.