British Naval Superiority

889 Words2 Pages

The British naval superiority impacted the American military strategy by controlling the water. The british military navy was the strongest at the time no other country was even close for being so powerful on the sea like the british. The battles were never fought overseas the closest it was to overseas were battles on the water, March 3, 1776, the Continental Navy captured New Providence Island, in the Bahamas. American warships and privateers also raided British merchants and warships throughout the Atlantic, and even fought naval battles around the British Island , Americans were lucky to form an alliance with France in 1778, and later joined by both Spain and the United Netherlands, land and sea battles were fought against Great Britain …show more content…

Some of the battles that gave the british navy a little fear about the US navy it was on the night of September 22, the bloodiest mutiny ever suffered by the Royal Navy erupted aboard the frigate HMS Hermione off the western coast of Puerto Rico. Stabbed repeatedly with cutlasses and bayonets, ten officers, including the ship’s sadistic captain, Hugh Pigot, were thrown overboard. the British government severely underestimated the Americans' maritime strength and how that error led to devastating consequences. The seemingly invincible navy failed to muster even one decisive victory during the extensive naval conflict. Noting the complex reasons for British failure in European waters, Syrett lays primary blame at the feet of Britain's political leadership. He describes how Lord North, the first lord of the Treasury and head of government, abdicated control of Britain's military to individual members of the cabinet. Syrett suggests that constant vacillations in policy and strategy, which resulted from power shifts among the cabinet ministers, prevented North's government from formulating a comprehensive wartime strategy or providing the Royal Navy with the strategic guidance to launch a successful …show more content…

The naval history of the American Revolution involves the interaction of three navies that were central to the conflict those of the British, the French and the Americans. In addition, the Spanish and Dutch navies, and American state navies, played a role. The primary missions of the British Royal navy were to shut down American local and international shipping, provide logistical support for the British Army, defend British shipping against American privateers, and, after France and Spain and the Netherlands entered the war, defend Great Britain from an invasion from France, and maintain naval supremacy in the Atlantic. It proved incapable of handling all those duties. The French role in supporting the Americans was more vague, but it played a decisive part in October 1781 by defeating the British relief fleet that came to the aid of Cornwallis and the army trapped at Yorktown. The American state and private naval forces were primarily privateers. French foreign minister Charles Gravier, comte de Vergennes realized that control of the seas and trade routes were critical to successfully prosecuting the war with Britain. However, the British possessed a stronger navy and more ships of the line than France. To

Open Document