Naval history

Definition and stakes

Portrait of A. T. Mahan A. T. Mahan,  Types of Naval Officers, Drawn from the History of the British Navy

“ Thus they were able to make a substantial and distinctive contribution to the art of naval warfare, and that on its highest side. For the artist is greater than his materials, the warrior than his arms; and it was in the man rather than in his weapons that the navy of the eighteenth century wrought its final conspicuous triumph. ”
Source: Gutenberg

Portrait of Willis J. Abbot Willis J. Abbot,  The Naval History of the United States…

“ Of these, no less than two hundred and fifty-four were ships-of-the-line, mounting over seventy-four guns each. Behind this great navy were the memories of long years of conquests, of an almost undisputed supremacy upon the ocean. Small wonder was it, then, that the British laughed at the idea of the Americans giving battle to their hitherto unconquered ships.
(p. 289) What, then, was the secret of the success which, as we shall see, attended the American arms on the sea? The answer is, that men, not ships, carried the day. Yet Great Britain had the more sailors on her muster-rolls.
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Source: Gutenberg

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