ABSTRACT
Contrary to popular belief, Napoleon Bonaparte's naval challenge to Britain did not end with Lord Nelson's victory at the Battle of Trafalgar (1805). Indeed, during the last decade of the Napoleonic Wars, an ambitious French shipbuilding program drove the British to construct unprecedented numbers of ships of the line and frigates in order to maintain a safe margin of superiority. When the fighting ended in 1815, the British and French navies had many more warships than they needed for peacetime, but many had been hastily constructed from unseasoned timbers and would have short service lives. Both countries also had a backlog of warships on the stocks, many of which would remain there for years until being finished or scrapped. Because Napoleon had attempted to mobilize the resources of the shipyards in his satellite kingdoms, beyond Britain and France the maritime countries of postwar Europe inherited a variety of warship projects, built and building, in yards from the Baltic to the Adriatic. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, the United States – the only naval power beyond Europe – after 1815 proceeded with a naval program begun during the War of 1812 against Britain.
