British Admirals of the Eighteenth Century (1972) examines the problems of eighteenth-century naval warfare, and differs in two important respects from orthodox opinions. It shows that the belief that the fighting instructions of the eighteenth century were Admiralty orders which cramped the initiative of admirals has been disproved by documentary evidence; and it argues that a study of the most important sea battles of the period indicates that the view that tactics at sea should always be based on principles which had been accepted as axiomatic in land warfare appears to have been misguided. The book examines the tactical problems which faced some of the greatest admirals of the time and analyses how they dealt with them.
