Longstanding informal use of Si vis pacem, para bellum differed from an officially recognized Royal Navy motto. The documentary trail appears to reach the early eighteenth century, with references in the 1730s to roughly two decades of earlier use. It does not reach back to the Navy's institutional formation in 1546. The Royal Marines received an official motto first, prompting the Navy to formalize wording it had already used.
Notable Point · 33:23-35:08
The Royal Navy's motto was adopted later than tradition suggests
The familiar motto is traced to eighteenth-century usage and later official recognition rather than to the Navy's Tudor foundation.