Chapter II: Introduction

Who wants to be a raw recruit for life, all thumbs and muddle-mindedness? Well, that is what a boy or girl is bound to be when he or she grows up without knowing what the Royal Navy of our Motherland has done to give the British Empire birth, life, and growth, and all the freedom of the sea.

The Navy is not the whole of British sea-power; for the Merchant Service is the other half. Nor is the Navy the only fighting force on which our liberty depends; for we depend upon the United Service of sea and land and air. Moreover, all our fighting forces, put together, could not have done their proper share toward building up the Empire, nor could they defend it now, unless they always had been, and are still, backed by the People as a whole, by every patriot man and woman, boy and girl.

But while it takes all sorts to make the world, and very many different sorts to make and keep our British Empire of the Free, it is quite as true to say that all our other sorts together could not have made, and cannot keep, our Empire, unless the Royal Navy had kept, and keeps today, true watch and ward over all the British highways of the sea. None of the different parts of the world-wide British Empire are joined together by the land. All are joined together by the sea. Keep the seaways open and we live. Close them and we die.

This looks, and really is, so very simple, that you may well wonder why we have to speak about it here. But man is a land animal. Landsmen are many, while seamen are few; and though the sea is three times bigger than the land it is three hundred times less known. History is full of sea-power, but histories are not; for most historians know little of sea-power, though British history without British sea-power is like a watch without a mainspring or a wheel without a hub. No wonder we cannot understand the living story of our wars, when, as a rule, we are only told parts of _what_ happened, and neither _how_ they happened nor _why_ they happened. The _how_ and _why_ are the flesh and blood, the head and heart of history; so if you cut them off you kill the living body and leave nothing but dry bones. Now, in our long war story no single _how_ or _why_ has any real meaning apart from British sea-power, which itself has no meaning apart from the Royal Navy. So the choice lies plain before us: either to learn what the Navy really means, and know the story as a veteran should; or else leave out, or perhaps mislearn, the Navy's part, and be a raw recruit for life, all thumbs and muddle-mindedness.

CONTENTS

BOOK I

THE ROWING AGE

WHEN SOLDIERS FOUGHT ROWBOAT BATTLES BESIDE THE SHORES
OF THE OLD WORLD

From the Beginning of War on the Water to King Henry VIII's
First Promise of a Sailing Fleet
1545

CHAPTER

I THE VERY BEGINNING OF SEA-POWER
(10,000 years and more B.C.)
II THE FIRST FAR WEST (The last 5,000 years B.C.)
III EAST AGAINST WEST (480 B. C.-146 B.C.)
IV CELTIC BRITAIN UNDER ROME (55 B.C.-410 A.D.)
V THE HARDY NORSEMAN (449-1066)
VI THE IMPERIAL NORMAN (1066-1451)
VII KING OF THE ENGLISH ERA (1545)

BOOK II

THE SAILING AGE

WHEN SAILORS FOUGHT ON EVERY OCEAN AND THE ROYAL NAVY
OF THE MOTHER COUNTRY WON THE BRITISH COMMAND
OF THE SEA BOTH IN THE OLD WORLD AND THE NEW

DRAKE TO NELSON

1585-1805

PART I--THE SPANISH WAR

VIII OLD SPAIN AND NEW (1492-1571)
IX THE ENGLISH SEA-DOGS (1545-1580)
X THE SPANISH ARMADA (1588)

PART II--THE DUTCH WAR

XI THE FIRST DUTCH WAR (1623-1653)
XII THE SECOND AND THIRD DUTCH WARS (1665-1673)

PART III--THE FRENCH WAR

XIII THE FIRST WAR AGAINST LOUIS XIV (1689-1697)
XIV THE SECOND WAR AGAINST LOUIS XIV (1702-1713)
XV WAR AGAINST FRANCE AND SPAIN (1739-1748)
XVI PITT'S IMPERIAL WAR (1756-1763)
XVII THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION (1775-1783)
XVIII NELSON (1798-1805)
XIX "1812"

BOOK III

THE AGE OF STEAM AND STEEL

WHEN THE BRITISH COMMAND OF THE SEA SAVED THE WORLD
FROM GERMAN SLAVERY IN THE GREATEST OF ALL WARS

1914-1918

PART I--A CENTURY OF CHANGE (1814-1914)

XX A CENTURY OF BRITISH-FRENCH-AMERICAN PEACE (1815-1914)
XXI A CENTURY OF MINOR BRITISH WARS (1815-1914)