A practicable plan for manning the Royal Navy, and preserving our maritime ascendancy, without impressment : addressed to Admiral Lord Viscount Exmouth / by Thomas Trotter.

  • Thomas Trotter
Date:
1819
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A practicable plan for manning the Royal Navy, and preserving our maritime ascendancy, without impressment : addressed to Admiral Lord Viscount Exmouth / by Thomas Trotter. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    transport her legions for the subjugation of this island. Britain had not then a single ship to oppose the entrance of a hostile navy into her ports; and as gun-powder was not then invented, the Roman vessels could chuse a secure anchorage without being assailed from the shore. The introduction of Roman arts, manners, and laws, was a necessary consequence of this invasion, and began the civilization of Britain. When the Romans quitted the island in the fifth century, and the southern Britons were compelled to seek assistance from the Saxons, against the inroads of the Piets and Scots, they must have made some progress in ship-building and navigation, for they probably sailed to the mouth of the Elbe or Weser, in vessels of their own construction. And when the Danes came to invade Britain, some centuries afterwards, ship-building must have arrived at considerable improvement, for fleets were collected to op¬ pose the Danes, and they were sometimes fought at sea. The harbours of the southern parts of the island, the Cinque Ports in parti¬ cular, as being nearest to the continent, were no doubt the first places where ships were built, whether for the purposes of trade or war. The service of these ships was frequently called up¬ on by government, and some privileges seem
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