ABSTRACT
However sensible her views on other things, Anne was wrong about there being ‘no science nor strategem in sea-fights’. There is, but naval officers around the world have traditionally been averse to thinking about it. Mahan lamented the fact that not only were British naval officers not ‘instruit’ in the French sense, they did not want to be. ‘To meet difficulties as they arise, instead of by foresight, to learn by hard experience rather than by reflection or premeditation, are national traits.’1
