Atlantic Warfare Yesterday : 371 



could also counter the great English strength at sea. The purpose of 

 the alliance with France, negotiated in 1778, so far as Washington 

 was concerned was to win the support of a strong French fleet so 

 that a joint land and sea attack could be made on some strong point 

 held by Britain, preferably New York. This failed to materialize 

 and Washington waited three years and sent a special mission to France 

 before he achieved the support of the superior fleet under Admiral 

 Comte de Grasse. Even though the army of Rochambeau arrived in 

 1780 Washington delayed the grand attack until de Grasse was off 

 the Virginia Capes and Cornwallis at Yorktown was doomed. 



The traditional form of naval battle up to the end of the eight- 

 eenth century was for the two fleets of ships involved to approach 

 each other in some broad expanse of water where the vessels could 

 maneuver freely. The vessels approached each other in long lines, 

 either following each other in a formation known as "line ahead" or 

 sailing parallel courses in a formation known as "line abreast." Thus 

 the important vessels of any navy came to be known as "line-of-batde 

 ships" or, more briefly, as "ships of the line." 



Such a ship of the line was an enormous structure with multiple 

 decks each deck fitted with ports and implemented with appropriate 

 types of guns. The number of guns in fact was used as a rough 

 rating of a ship's size and capacity. Thus a frigate might be rated as 

 forty-four guns; a ship of the line sixty. Obviously, to carry those 

 sixty guns together with shot, powder and stores a vessel had to be 

 constructed with great strength and weight. To drive this massive 

 structure through the water required three masts, each made from 

 the section of a tree of great girth, straightness and strength; each 

 mast fitted with full array of large and heavy sails. Such ships were 

 dignified and impressive, whether seen in a harbor or moving up 

 the channel in battle formation. In an actual engagement when a 

 ship was maneuvering to bring its broadside to bear on an enemy, 

 where speed and nimbleness represented the difference between life 

 and death for captain and crew, they would appear painfully un- 

 wieldy and sluggish. The design of a successful sailing warship 

 involved a thousand nice adjustments and compromises between the 

 desire for strength and firepower and the desire for maneuverability. 

 The character of the ships dictated the character of the formalized 

 naval battle. The commander of the fleet wanted his vessels in one 

 kind of line or another so that he could as far as possible keep track 

 of their positions and performance and prepare and issue sets of or- 



