Rodney arrived in the Caribbean with seventeen ships of the line, helping give Britain a numerical advantage when the fleets met. Copper sheathing imposed an additional burden on dockyards and naval expenditure during the war. That investment formed part of the effort to recover sea control. All seventeen ships brought by Rodney were coppered, as were most of the ships already present. Their fresh, clean hulls remained an advantage despite the Atlantic passage.
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Coppered ships strengthen Rodney's Caribbean fleet
Seventeen fresh, coppered ships strengthened Rodney's fleet at the cost of additional wartime dockyard work and expenditure.