The Mess

[Smitty-48]

Destroyers, cruisers and battleships were all the spawn of the Dreadnoughts.

No they weren't, those were all the spawn of the Americans too; the Monitor and the Merrimack at Hampton Roads Virginia.



The industrial age surface combatant, and in fact attack submarine too for all intents and purposes, were invented by the Americans in 1862.

All contemporary warships since, trace their heritage to the USS Monitor; combustion drive, semi-submersible, armoured, enclosed turret with traversing and elevating mechanism, breach loading guns, the true revolutionary vessel of naval warfare, to this day in fact.

[Okeefenokee]

And the Hunley,

[Smitty-48]

Indeed, the British were never the great military innovators, the British were like their progenitors, the Romans, great military incorporators, when the British encountered something formidable, like the Romans before them, they simply incorporated it into their franchise, the French and Germans were always more innovative, but the British were more efficient in their incorporaton, and so they simply beat the French and Germans by doing it all on a budget, while the French and Germans went bankrupt always in persuit of the ultimate arm of decision, which the British actually demonstrated to be a fool's errand.

[Okeefenokee]

prost.

[Smitty-48]

A great example of this is the Royal Navy v. Napoleon, Bonaparte was ever in persuit of the ultimate battle fleet, spending inordinate amounts of resources trying to build a super fleet from scratch, whereas the Royal Navy was actually a rag-tag fleet, thrown together with odds and ends, including many prize ships which they simply slapped a Union Jack on and made into a British ship, and every time the French tried to break out, the British cut them off at the pass with the eveready rag-tag fleet, as opposed to a super fleet which was not a requirement to do so, often times, the British would raid the French coast and burn their ships before they could even launch them.

Bear in mind, the whole point of being in the Royal Navy, was to collect prizes, everyone on the ships was at sea to make money, the impressment of sailors is vastly overstated, they only ever impressed specialists who they were short on, they didn't just grab any old sod to impress, because they didn't have to, they actually had plenty of volunteers, because when you went to sea with the Royal Navy, you were going to make far more money then most ever could on dry land, when the British captured a prize, the Captain would divide the spoils amongst the officers and crew, everyone got a share, all the way down to the lowliest ratings, and even just one prize ship, was worth a shitload of money, the Captain came out the equivalent of a multi-millionaire, but even the ratings made out like bandits comapared to working a j-o-b back in Britain.

[Okeefenokee]

Sheds light on why a bunch of sailors formerly sailing for the crown decided the stay at it after the war was over become the pirates of the Caribbean.

[Smitty-48]

Sheds light on why a bunch of sailors formerly sailing for the crown decided the stay at it after the war was over become the pirates of the Caribbean.

Indeed, a Pirate is simply a rogue Privateer, seeking prize ships without the mark of the King to do so. Mind you, a prize is not a prize unless and until you can bring it to market, and you can't go to market as a Pirate under a death warrant, so that whole enterprize was heavily dependant on a network of money launderers in effect, who were willing to play both sides of the lines.

[Okeefenokee]

One of my favorite stories, probably from History Channel, so dubious, was of one pirate, possibly Black Beard, taking hostages off the coast of an American city, the Carolinas I think, and demanding payment in medicine to treat the clap they'd all gotten from Caribbean hookers.

[Smitty-48]

Edward Teach, a veteran of the War of Spanish Succession in America, a French and Indian war, otherwise known as Queen Anne's War.

[Okeefenokee]

Edward Teach, a veteran of the War of Spanish Succession in America, a French and Indian war, otherwise known as Queen Anne's War.

Right, the one most commonly named as the war that gave us our hollywood pirates.