Naval and Military Operations of Great Britain: Foundations of a New Naval Strategy

by Robert Beatson

Overview

Naval and Military Operations of Great Britain is the single most important contemporary account of the Royal Navy in the 18th century. Its six volumes present a new approach to naval strategy. Defeat in the American Revolutionary War called into question the assumptions of superiority upon which so much earlier commentary on naval affairs had been based. By addressing the specific causes of the disaster, the author, Robert Beatson (1742-1818), hoped to render both the navy and the nation wiser for the future. Lauded by key figures in the development of naval strategy, including John Laughton, Alfred T. Mahan, and Julian Corbett, this work remains fundamental to modern scholarship on the nature of British naval power and is an especially rich source of information on the British army's campaign in North America.

This edition contains a substantial new introduction by leading naval scholar, Andrew Lambert (King's College London).

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781784532987
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	06/23/2019
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	10.90(w) x 16.40(h) x 7.30(d)

About the Author

Robert Beatson LLD (1742-1818) was an ensign in General St Clair's regiment, the First or Royal Regiment of the Foot, later the Royal Scots. He took part in the raid on Rochefort in 1756, saw service in Ireland and took part in amphibious operations against Martinique and Guadeloupe. After the Seven Years' War he moved to Aberdeen, where he served as Barrack Master for forty years. Beatson was part of an intellectual circle that encompassed Adam Smith and other leading figures of the Scottish Enlightenment, including senior naval officers. The six volumes of Naval and Military Operations of Great Britain are regarded as his magnum opus and have influenced naval strategy from first publication to the present day.

Andrew Lambert is Laughton Professor of Naval History at King's College, London, UK.

Read an Excerpt

their gallies in fuch a manner, as that they might co-operate with their batteries on fhore, in defending this obftru£tion, and be ready to attack any naval force, that might be fent to attempt getting into Cooper river by the Hog ifland channel. Admiral Arbuthnot, by fending armed veflels into all the creeks and inlets along the coaft, invefted the town by fea as completely as circumftances would admit. The communication between the town and the country, by means of Cooper river, ftill remained open : and by this avenue, the garrifon received a reinforcement of feven hundred men from Virginia, under a Brigadier-General Woodward. On the pth, the Admiral and General fent a fummons to General Lincoln to furrender the town. They ftrongly pointed out to him the fatal confequences of perfevering in defending it ; reprefented the prefent, as the only favourable opportunity for preferving the lives and property of its inhabitants ; and warned him, that he fhould be refponfible for all the calamities which might be the fruits of his obftinacy. To this General Lincoln replied, that the fame duty and inclination, which had prevented him from abandoning Charleftown, during fixty days knowledge of their hoilile intentions, operated now with equal force, in prompting him to defend it to the .'.ait extremity. The batteries opened on the roth, and were fo well managed, that they foon acquired a fuperiority over thofe of the enemy : and the works were pufhed forward with great vigour and affiduity. Major Moncrieffe, the chief engineer, who had gained fo much honour in the defence of Savannah, now dif- played his great abilities in carrying on offenfive operations, and defervedlygained the higheft applaufe, by the very fupe- rior and mafterly manner in which he conducted the fiege of Charle...

Table of Contents

Volume I
Volume II
Volume III Appendix to Volumes I and II
Volume IV
Volume V
Volume VI Appendix to Volumes IV and V