The book introduction expands the war beyond North America, describing naval fighting across oceans, rivers, and lakes involving many fleets. A later passage follows Byron's exhausted force in the Caribbean, where storms, scurvy, typhus, missing sails, and inadequate stores made ships operationally useless. The strategic lesson is that flexible deployments require repair facilities and supplies in the places where fleets are expected to operate.
Chapter · 57:45-1:05:03
The American Revolution as a global naval war
A reading from The Struggle for Sea Power frames the American Revolution as a worldwide naval conflict constrained by repair, stores, disease, and distance.