How the Navy Even Sailed....

I will say this about any navy that accomplished even setting sail in the eighteenth century...miracle.

I am not even being coy really, the fact that these ships made it to sea proves pretty miraculous, especially when they are able to sail and defeat another force.

Was the British navy pretty hardcore in the 1700s...yes, but they also almost always operated with too little men, with huge numbers of sick and inexperienced sailors, and the weather... the weather out there!

I came across one instance when the British were preparing to sail and one ship doctor found fifty FIFTY sailors on ONE SHIP with venereal disease and that does not account for problems with typhus and scurvy...

Ships were in disrepair, the officers were all eligible for the senior citizen discount at Ye Olde Golden Coralle, everyone was sick and you probably were short at least a few dozen men.

Now to be fair... in France it was ten times worse and the Revolution and Terror pretty much slapped the French Navy in the face and kicked it in the mud.

But still... The fact that they were able to sail at all sometimes seems like a miracle.

This just seems more likely than the amazingly triumphant landscapes I usually see...

Now just imagine all the guys on shore had venereal disease...