Public-domain ebook
by William Wood
Language: en1,548 downloads on Project Gutenberg
Subjects
In: World War I·History - British·History - Warfare
Public-domain ebook sourced from Project Gutenberg #19849.
Flag and Fleet is a sweeping historical study that argues the Royal Navy has been the decisive factor in Britain’s rise and survival. The author opens with a broad declaration that sea‑power, not just the navy, underpins the empire, then moves into a chronological survey that begins with prehistoric log rafts and dug‑out canoes and proceeds through the “Rowing Age,” the “Sailing Age,” and finally the “Age of Steam and Steel,” covering such milestones as Henry VIII’s fleet, the Spanish Armada, the wars with France and the United States, and the World War I battles of Jutland and submarine warfare. The introductory passage frames the work as a corrective to conventional histories that neglect the “how” and “why” of naval dominance, promising a narrative that links every major conflict to Britain’s control of the seas.
Written in a vigorous, nineteenth‑century prose style, the book blends patriotic rhetoric with detailed descriptions of ships, battles and technological evolution. Its tone is didactic yet vivid, reflecting the era’s confidence in empire and naval supremacy. Readers who enjoy comprehensive military histories, maritime enthusiasts, and anyone interested in the strategic underpinnings of British imperial power will find this work engaging, while those seeking a more neutral or modern analysis may prefer a different perspective.
The opening · free to read
The Navy is not the whole of British sea-power; for the Merchant Service is the other half. Nor is the Navy the only fighting force on which our liberty depends; for we depend upon the United Service of sea and land and air. Moreover, all our fighting forces, put together, could not have done their proper share toward building up the Empire, nor could they defend it now, unless they always had been, and are still, backed by the People as a whole, by every patriot man and woman, boy and girl.
But while it takes all sorts to make the world, and very many different sorts to make and keep our British Empire of the Free, it is quite as true to say that all our other sorts together could not have made, and cannot keep, our Empire, unless the Royal Navy had kept, and keeps today, true watch and ward over all the British highways of the sea. None of the different parts of the world-wide British Empire are joined together by the land. All are joined together by the sea. Keep the seaways open and we live. Close them and we die.
This looks, and really is, so very simple, that you may well wonder why we have to speak about it here. But man is a land animal. Landsmen are many, while seamen are few; and though the sea is three times bigger than the land it is three hundred times less known. History is full of sea-power, but histories are not; for most historians know little of sea-power, though British history without British sea-power is like a watch without a mainspring or a wheel without a hub. No wonder we cannot understand the living story of our wars, when, as a rule, we are only told parts of what happened, and neither how they happened nor why they happened. The how and why are the flesh and blood, the head and heart of history; so if you cut them off you kill the living body and leave nothing but dry bones. Now, in our long war story no single how or why has any real meaning apart from British sea-power, which itself has no meaning apart from the Royal Navy. So the choice lies plain before us: either to learn what the Navy really means, and know the story as a veteran should; or else leave out, or perhaps mislearn, the Navy's part, and be a raw recruit for life, all thumbs and muddle-mindedness.
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