Infrastructure, readiness, and Lord Sandwich

The wartime crisis followed the running down of the Western Squadron, which could not contain French fleets when the wider war began. Gibraltar's survival protected a position whose loss would have severely weakened British power projection. Recovery depended on investment in ships, fitting-out, copper sheathing, and the supporting infrastructure that kept fleets available. Sandwich's sustained work at the Admiralty helped restore British effectiveness despite his hostile political reputation. Britain's inefficient conduct of the war also encouraged French and Spanish leaders to question whether it remained a functioning major power.