<!--QuoteBegin-Merciless Mark (Moved from B14A8 Thread)+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Merciless Mark (Moved from B14A8 Thread))</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Comparatively the United States does not have as a rich naval history as the Royal Navy. Now i am in the fortunate position here of being objective, as i am neither American, British, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese or French for that matter.
But as it was said before, the United States never had a major navy in the age of sail that could compare to the european powers, and only few ships larger than frigates in the 19th century.
The British empire on the other hand, was forged by its navy, without it there would have been no empire to speak of. And naturally Britain were victorious for the most part or else the commonwealth would not have the influence it does today.
And unlike Britain the United States never sought to establish a world empire.(at least not back then).
So... an island nation depending on the sea, a long rich history as a major naval power spanning centuries, massive naval battles and victories such as Trafalgar and the battle of the Nile with massive 1st rate 100+ gun warships, ultimatley crippling both the spanish and french navies.
Is it then really so strange that so much literature and entertainment has been inspired by it?<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I completely concur with this, but that was not my original statement. What started this was my movement to give the American ships, crews, and officers a higher quality than the British in this Build Mod. The Americans were once British, so they already had a well founded skill... the only things that prevented the United States from ruling the seas were this:
We did not want to become a world Empire like Britain, France, or Spain.
We did not have the money to build a navy as large as Britain's.
We did not have the time to build a navy as large as Britain's.
We did not have the population to man a navy as large as Britain's.
We did not have any reason to build a navy as large as Britain's... we had no world-wide Empire or far-off colonies.
Because of these reasons, we could not challenge Britain as the best navy in the world because while we had higher quality, morale, and in some cases better commanders and tactics.... they had quantity, depth, expierence, and tradition.
By the time we did start building ships-of-the-line, there were no wars in full swing and the Age of Sail was coming to an end. This sealed everyone to their place in this particular period, and Britain was the ruler of the seas. It would take the USN another hundred years to catch up to Britain in the areas where the USN was lacking. And though Britain will always be known for its legendary navy and tradition of victory (which I commend and draw inspiration from) by the Second World War the United States Navy had surpassed the Royal Navy in most regards. But by then, what did it matter? We were and still are allies!