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