[cardinal4]

Interesting article on the early British Navy..

[thundrey]

Why call it the ‘English Navy’ though? after 1707, it would have been the ‘British Navy’. Although the correct title throughout it’s entire history has been the ‘Royal Navy’ and that is what it should be called, as there is no other navy in the English-speaking world called the ‘Royal Navy’....

[DManA]

If you are interested in this period of history and like historical novels, Stephenson’s Baroque Cycle covers this era and IMO is excellent.

[BroJoeK]

"When the Seven Years War began, the navy had increased to 239 total ships in commission, in which 90 were ships of the line.[37] And the manpower had increased to over sixty thousand.[38]

At the height of the Seven Years War in 1759, the Navy had increased to about 300 ships with over 80,000 Navy personnel.[39]

However, the attempt to tax the American colonies in the 1760s would reveal the limitation of the fiscal power of the early British Empire.[40] The wars in this period would lead to a shortage of government revenue that would eventually lead to the loss of the American colonies in 1776.[41]"

[testing photo post]

[hellbender]

Why did they bother with a navy? They could have just kept a token militia force at home and relied on “free trade” with everybody, including their potential enemies, and everyone would have been rich and happy. /s

[BroJoeK]

[watch out, now I'm getting dangerous ;-)]

[BroJoeK]

"Interesting article on the early British Navy.. "

Battle of the Nile, 1798.

Nelson defeats Napoleon.

They don't do it this way any more...