Capt. Broke's Sword

[David R]

Great days, great Commanders and wonderful stories. A quote I once heard from a knowledgeable friend, as coming from the French, was that the British "built their warships by the mile and cut them off as needed".
On another note, one third of the British warships at Trafalgar were built in India and the crews were in proportion. Our secret weapon was Indian manufacturers and finance, without them we may have lost!

[Rick]

Also, a fair amount of captured vessels from France and Spain ended up being bought into the RN; Chesapeake was also bought into the RN after her capture.

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by David R

Great days, great Commanders and wonderful stories. A quote I once heard from a knowledgeable friend, as coming from the French, was that the British "built their warships by the mile and cut them off as needed".
On another note, one third of the British warships at Trafalgar were built in India and the crews were in proportion. Our secret weapon was Indian manufacturers and finance, without them we may have lost!

Wow! David, now thats interesting!!! I had no idea that India built those, but they did seem to have some pretty amazing vessels.
These were from the Malabar coast in India right? Mahrattas?

[David R]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

Wow! David, now thats interesting!!! I had no idea that India built those, but they did seem to have some pretty amazing vessels.
These were from the Malabar coast in India right? Mahrattas?

They were one to one copies of the standard British warships. The story goes that the RN sailed a three decker into one of the main shipbuilding centres and invited quotes. After a thorough investigation that quote was less than half what it would cost to build in Britain, and the deal was on!

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