The naval arms race between England and France

At the end of the 17th century, the race was on to build the largest, strongest and most technologically advanced navy. Rivalry was particularly fierce between the English and French, fuelled by the aggressive competition for control of trade routes.

In the 1670s major reforms took place on both sides of the Channel. In England, Samuel Pepys oversaw one of the most important shipbuilding programmes in its history. The building of the 'Thirty Great Ships' marked the foundations of the great Royal Navy. His counterpart in France, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, built up a huge fleet making the French navy the largest in the world for a time, laying a claim to the power and wealth of international trade.

More importantly, while the English shipbuilders were often conservative in their designs, the French were innovators. Getting information on these designs became a key ambition of the English. They would send spies to France to discover technological secrets, visit rival shipyards and promote illicit trade in ship designs. One of the best sources of information was the ships themselves. A captured French vessel would be stripped down, every timber measured, every bolt and joint examined and noted. The ships could then be rebuilt for service in the English navy and the design taken to the shipyards.

Hostilities increased and as relations between England and France descended into war, the arms race became more and more important. From 1689 disputes between them led to almost continual war for over 100 years through the European wars of succession, the War of American Independence, the French Revolution and ending in the Napoleonic Wars.

The French navy enjoyed some success, but ultimately it rarely withstood the might of the English ships. During the War of English Succession (1689-1697), the Battle of Barfleur in 1692 saw the devastating defeat of the French navy. The navy took many years to recover and France was forced to rely on hired mercenaries or privateers, often little more than licensed pirates.

Conflict broke out again over the Spanish Succession from 1703-1713. The French had attempted to rebuild its navy, but they were again crushingly defeated in 1706. Unlike his predecessor, Louis XV abandoned any hope of dominating the seas and focused his attentions on the army. The French and English navies did meet in conflict again during the 18th and early 19th centuries, but the English navy remained the most dominant force.