Command of the Ocean by N.A.M.Rodger

I have been reading a book that details the rise to power of Britain's Royal Navy.  The story of how a fairly small island came to have such a large impact on the history of the world is an interesting one.  That I can expect a large number of people around the globe to be able to read this blog post written in English is one of those effects.   The efficiency of the navy was obviously a big part of it, and it isn't surprising to find that the British have been very proud of and confident in their naval achievements and abilities.

This book looks in a lot of detail at just how the navy managed to do what it did.  And like most success stories there is a lot of hard work that goes on behind the scenes.

 For example, to build a really effective ship you needed not just plenty of oak trees, but you needed some from free standing trees that had grown straight to provide large planks.  But for the the more complicated bits of woodwork you needed trees from a wood that had plenty of knots.

But there was one feature of the story that struck me as even less obvious.  The British became convinced of their naval superiority long before there was any actual evidence that they had any particular skills in the arena.  The Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese and even the French could quite easily claim to have better navies than the British one right up until quite late.  It was really only by the end of the Napoleonic period that the notion that Britannia ruled the waves was actually matched by the reality.  Prior to this the British had to a large extent deluded themselves.  But maybe it was that delusion that actually was the key to their success.