1. British Naval Battles 1779-82
Count the ships,
multiply by 700

2. This painting shows a battle in the Chesapeake Bay
between British and French naval forces in This battle was a key to the victory at Yorktown
during the America Revolution.

3. You can view a list of British naval battles at
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1782_in_Great_Britain
You can choose a different year by replacing the date.
This website has hotlinks to stories about the battles.
For a good example, check out the “Armada of 1779.”
Copyright laws do not allow us to reproduce
the individual stories, but we can show you
some paintings made back in the 1700s.

4. Dogger Bank (Dutch)

5. Grenada, Caribbean

6. Saintes, near Jamaica

7. Saintes, near Jamaica

8. Cape Spartel, Morocco

9. Siege of Gibraltar

10. Porto Praia, Cape Verde

11. Trincomalee, near India

12. We can also put the locations of the battles
on a world map, along with some information
about the number of ships and the commander.
This will allow us to estimate the total number of ships
involved in defending British colonies in the late 1700s.

13. Armada of 1779
Hardy 38 ships
59,000 troops
Cook Expedition
5 ships 2/1779
Anglo-Maratha War
1/ troops
Grenada 7/79
Byron 21 ships
Gibraltar
Eliott 12 ships

14. Cordova captures 55 British ships
St Vincent 1/80
Rodney 24 ships
St Vincent 8/80
Cordova captures 55 British ships
Anglo-Mysore War
Porto Praia 4/81
Johnstone 5 ships
Gibraltar
Eliott 12 ships

15. Chesapeake 9/81
Graves 19 ships
Ushant 12/81
Kempenfelt 12 ships
Channel fleet
Hardy 35 ships
Dogger Bank 8/81
Parker 7 ships
Anglo-Mysore War
Hughes 9 ships
Sint Eustatius 2-11/81
Rodney 15 ships
Gibraltar
Eliott 12 ships

16. Sadras 2/81
Hughes 9 ships
St Kitts 1/82
Hood ships
Providien 4/82
Hughes 11 ships
Saintes 4/82
Rodney ships
Cape Spartel 10/82
Howe ships
Trincomalee 8/82
Hughes 12 ships

17. As a separate line of evidence,
note that Wikipedia also has a list that shows the names of 89
“Ships of the Line”
(major warships)
in the British navy
between 1755 and 1785.

18. This old photograph shows HMS Victory,
a “First-Rate
Ship of the Line.”
It had 3 decks,
104 guns, and
a crew of 850.

19. We should not forget that some British ships
were also involved in slave trading
in the same years.
This old painting shows the mass murder on the Zong slave ship in 1781.

20. In short, Great Britain had a lot of sailors
on active duty in the ships of its global navy.
They were fighting battles in many places.
Meanwhile, Britain was also running
an active slave trade
(which required even more ships and sailors).
It also had several explorer expeditions -
still more ships and sailors. To see a map, look up

21. Question Summary The British navy was fighting battles
in many places during the late 1700s.
These required a lot of ships and sailors.
Question
Was the British navy overextended,
and therefore unable to send enough ships
to fight the French in Chespeake Bay?

22. Copyright 2015, Phil Gersmehl
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