The Western Squadron begins with coastal defense

Around 1650, Parliament faced royalist enemies, foreign threats, and Barbary raids that carried people from the coasts of Britain, Ireland, France, and Spain into slavery. Charles I had invoked French attack and slave raids to justify ship money, although the amount demanded is criticized here in relation to actual naval spending. Local land forces could defend communities but lacked the ships needed to deal with seaborne raiders. Captain William Penn received six ships and responsibility for the Channel from Beachy Head to Land's End. The patrol proved effective and established an ancestor of the later Brest blockade force. Command after Penn remains uncertain: Parliament corresponded with a captain who was neither the senior officer nor commander of the largest ship, so correspondence alone does not settle the formal succession.