There is a GREAT book I'm in the middle of called "To Rule The Waves", how the British Navy Shaped the Modern World. GREAT READ. The British government used the RN as a tool to project, promote and defend free trade, ABSENT Gov't regulations, ostensilby establishing the free trade we came to know. Emphasis on LITTLE Gov't dicking around with free enterprise. Anyhow they designed entire classes of ships (frigates during the age of sail and cruisers in the steam age) with one purpose in mind, to keep the sea lanes open and they were extremely successful. This type of issue we have now would have been handled easily during the "Pax Britannica".
We (USN) just aren't built that way but more importantly, the Brits had Gladstone, Disraeli, Churchill, etc. All we have now is a marxist democrap. jorge
