Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Preface
- Contents
- LIST OF PLATES
- ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT
- ABBREVIATIONS
- HENRY VIII
- ELIZABETH
- JAMES I AND CHARLES I
- THE COMMONWEALTH AND PROTECTORATE
- THE RESTORATION NAVY
- WILLIAM III AND ANNE
- THE PEACE PERIOD AND NEED FOR REFORM
- WAR OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, 1778–1783
- REVOLUTIONARY AND NAPOLEONIC WARS
- INDEX
REVOLUTIONARY AND NAPOLEONIC WARS
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2010
- Frontmatter
- Preface
- Contents
- LIST OF PLATES
- ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT
- ABBREVIATIONS
- HENRY VIII
- ELIZABETH
- JAMES I AND CHARLES I
- THE COMMONWEALTH AND PROTECTORATE
- THE RESTORATION NAVY
- WILLIAM III AND ANNE
- THE PEACE PERIOD AND NEED FOR REFORM
- WAR OF AMERICAN INDEPENDENCE, 1778–1783
- REVOLUTIONARY AND NAPOLEONIC WARS
- INDEX
Summary
In the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars Great Britain speedily regained the prestige lowered so dangerously in the previous war.
As in the preceding sections, no attempt is here made to traverse the whole period historically. The documents selected illustrate partially two crises—the outbreak of the naval mutinies, and the invasion schemes of 1803–5. The selection aims primarily at presenting problems as they appeared to the chief contemporary actors.
Though administration remained far from perfect and abuses survived, British superiority not only in the quality of officers and men but in the number of ships available for service was apparent throughout this period. Only in the black year of mutinies (1797) was public confidence in the service shaken, and even that year witnessed two of our greatest naval victories.
THE COPPERING OF SHIPS
Memoranda of Advice. Forethought and Preparation. (By Sir Charles Middleton, almost certainly intended for Lord Melville, on his appointment as First Lord, May, 1804. N.R.S. xxxix, p. 24.)
From every information I could pick up for guarding iron bolts in ship's bottoms against the corrosive effects of copper, I was convinced in my own mind that we might with safety copper the bottoms of every ship in the fleet and by that means increase our activity, as far as doubling our force in numbers. The measure to be sure was not only bold, but arduous.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Select Naval Documents , pp. 192 - 224Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1922