It is convenient, if not imperative, to detail the story of war at sea by itself, although we can understand the Navy and its services only with a knowledge of affairs on land, social and economic as well as military and political. Accordingly, these studies deal simply with the naval side of the great war Queen Anne and her Allies fought “for reducing the exorbitant power of France”. They do not cover all the ground even in the period chosen, the first seven years of a long war. I have dwelt rather on certain particular services, the great conjunct expeditions in the Mediterranean, the ways and means of securing the lines of passage at sea and preventing invasion.

Despite the cramping handicaps of a rude system of manning the fleet, of ignorance about preserving food and drink on board ship, of rigid dependance on wind and weather, which make the story of deeds two centuries old sound strange in our ears today, I have, while putting the story together, constantly noticed a likeness to events and problems of twenty years ago.

Papers published by the Historical Manuscripts Commission and the Navy Records Society furnish nearly all the printed material for my work, and I thank the Controller of His Majesty's Stationery Office and the Council of the Navy Records Society for leave to quote from these papers.