Chapter I: Preface

I submit this second part of the _Short History of the Royal Navy_ to the kindness of the reader and the animadversions of reviewers with a profound sense of its deficiencies. That some were inevitable where so much had to be told in so narrow a space is no excuse for such errors as I have committed. It is my sincere hope that they are not very frequent nor very gross, and that my book does at least indicate the main outlines of the polity and the achievements of the navy. It is my pleasant duty to thank the Reverend William Hunt for his kindness in revising my proofs, and for the many excellent suggestions he made. I have also to present my thanks to Messrs. Blackwood for giving me their permission to make use in Chapter III. of matter published in _Blackwood’s Magazine_; and to the proprietors of the _Saturday Review_ for allowing me to make use of articles on the mutinies of 1797, formerly published in that periodical.

DAVID HANNAY

CONTENTS

CHAP. PAGE

I. The War with France till 1693 1

II. Expeditions, Convoy, and the Privateers 49

III. The Men and the Life 80

IV. The Two Colonial Wars 98

V. The Seven Years’ War till 1758 133

VI. The Years of Triumph 166

VII. The American War till 1780 204

VIII. The American War till the Fall of Yorktown 243

IX. The Close of the War and the East Indies 271

X. The First Stage of the War 293

XI. The War till the End of 1797 323

XII. The Mutinies 355

XIII. The Nile 385

XIV. Invasion till the Close of 1801 411

XV. Trafalgar 436

XVI. The Command of the Sea 467

Index 493

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ROYAL NAVY