ABSTRACT
To students of the seventeenth century it must always appear remarkable that the period of the Commonwealth should have witnessed, in a State already exhausted by civil war, a striking increase in naval power and a vast extension of the range of naval operations. The period of the Commonwealth undoubtedly saw a notable advance in the purity and efficiency of naval administration. The Commonwealth was the first English Government to make systematic provision for sick and wounded seamen, besides regarding the men as subjects for humane consideration in other ways. Rupert’s reception at Lisbon created a fresh difficulty for the Commonwealth. The effect of their victory off Dungeness was to transfer to the Dutch the control of the Channel; and the great highway of Dutch trade once more swarmed with ships. The tactical problems involved in the history of the First Dutch War are at once important and difficult of solution.
