Lanterna Rally

Author: Francis J. Higginson

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2018-02-26

Total Pages: 498

ISBN-13: 9780666403155

Excerpt from Naval Battles in the Century During the eighteenth century, by means of her navy, England laid the foundations of that great Colonial Empire which has brought to her in the present century both wealth and power. Many col ouies, indeed, acquired during that period were sur rendered after conquest, a doubtful policy which may perhaps never be repeated. The sailing period which began about 1571 at the time of the battle of Lepanto, and during which all this great work was accomplished, came gradually to its death about the middle of the nineteenth century, when it was sup planted by steam power. Thus the nineteenth century saw one of those revolutions in the methods of naval warfare which mark the beginning of a new epoch. It seemed as if the magic wand of science had been waved over the face of the waters, transforming all that moved thereon into new and more powerful shapes. Navies were changed from wood to steel; from unarmoured to armoured, the motive power from sails to steam, and the guns from muzzle to breech-loading. The changes of tactics and methods of naval war fare produced by the introduction Of steam carry us back, singularly enough, in many respects to the starting points of all navies, the Galley Period. This period goes back, as far as we have any records, to 1400 B. C. And lasted to about 1571 and was then gradually succeeded by the Sail Period. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.