At the start of the American Revolution (1775–83), members of the Continental Congress (see Continental Congress, First ) debated the value and necessity of establishing an official navy.

Wellington's logistical back-up had been prefigured, however modestly, by the first wintering of a British fleet in the Mediterranean in 1694–5; but few developments in Britain's Atlantic economy were more spectacular than the doubling of her exports to the Caribbean after 1808, following the Anglo-Spanish entente. Merchantmen built to carry a substantial number of guns, and specialized for trade in contested waters such as the Mediterranean and the East and West Indies, became useful as temporary warships from the late sixteenth century up to the 1650s and 1660s. as of ‘naturally generous dispositions though turbulent, fearless, or, rather, thoughtless of consequences’, made a singular contribution to Britain's awesome repute at sea in the century of Vernon, Hawke, Rodney, and Nelson. A categorical index in the back of the book is useful for looking up entries on specific categories.The critical phase in European naval history when France lost the initiative to the maritime powers. Because each style has its own formatting nuances that evolve over time and not all information is available for every reference entry or article, Encyclopedia.

Three of those ships began service in 1797: the USS United States, the USS Constellation, and the USS Constitution. But did they pretend to naval power beyond such dictates, or occasionally commandeering the resources of English merchants trading with Scandinavian, Flemish, or, later, Gascon ports? Even if a nation under bombardment by numerous thermonuclear weapons could continue to maintain a navy, such a war would happen too fast to permit sea power to exercise any of its traditional functions. Britain's place in the ‘Viking World’ was rendered most definitive through the person of Cnut (1016–35). A Naval Encyclopdia: Comprising A Dictionary Of Nautical Words And Phrases; Biographical Notices, And Records Of Naval Officers; Special Articles Of Naval Art And Science, .

Russia under Peter I rapidly created a major navy and for most of the eighteenth century, the Danish, Swedish, and Russian navies were of the same magnitude. Wars at sea were fought with infantry weapons and they could be used on merchantmen temporarily armed for war. There have been several books written about the Navy and the Civil War, most notably, Tony Gibbons 's Warships andNaval Battles of the Civil War (Popular Culture Ink, 1990), Ivan Musicant's Divided Waters: The Naval History of the Civil War (Book Sales, 2000), and Jayne E. The mine, the torpedo, and the submarine had already set the pace of change; and at the Coronation Review of 1953 only one British battleship remained, the 42,000-ton Vanguard, which had never seen action.

Within the “Cite this article” tool, pick a style to see how all available information looks when formatted according to that style. Yet few aspects of the crown's prerogative power were more strenuously questioned through the 17th, 18th, and 19th cents.The other main type comprised the lighter and faster cruisers, of which the largest was the frigate, a vessel with one or two decks of guns of lesser calibre than those of the main fighting ships. Portugal had maintained a navy of around 20,000 to 25,000 tonnes after it regained independence in 1640, increasing it to 25,000 to 35,000 tonnes in the eighteenth century. In terms of manpower (including chained oarsmen) and requirement of provisions, they were the largest concentrated military forces of the sixteenth century.

For example, the pursuit and capture of enemy merchant vessels required the kind of ship that early became known as a cruiser. Products shown, tagged or featured on YouTube by creators are sold by merchants and are subject to merchant's terms and conditions.The system of efficient sailing vessels fighting by means of broadside exchanges of their guns prevailed almost unchanged until the second half of the 19th century. Their duties include conducting unconventional warfare, counterguerrilla warfare, and secret operations in both ocean and coastal waters. Within the period 1867–90 there was a breath-taking acceleration in the power of warships, but seamen of all ranks lacked the training to exploit these advances.