So ended the most prodigious oversea combined enterprise ever before attempted. Anson was not the first to circumnavigate the world, but few had done so before him, and on that account the real purpose of his expedition has been generally overlooked in the circumnavigation feat. As ever in British naval history luck was with him; but something more than “luck” must have been in an enterprise where Pizarro, sent to intercept him, gave up, while Anson fought through the perils of Cape Horn, with his sickly crews and crazy ships. To resume the general history of the war. In October, 1742, the _Victory_ (100) was lost, presumably on the Caskets, though her actual fate was never ascertained. France had now entered into the war; her fleet consisted of forty-five ships of the line; the corresponding English fleet totalling ninety ships of the line. In 1742, Ogle succeeded Vernon in the West Indies, and a series of small bombardments resulted, usually without success. Formal hostilities with France (delayed as was the custom of the time) were declared in 1744, and outlying possessions changed hands. Anson, in command of the Channel Fleet in 1747, defeated and captured the Brest fleet, and some minor actions took place, mostly in connection with convoys. The war ended in 1748; its net naval results being as follows:-- ENGLISH. SPANISH. FRENCH. Warships lost or captured 49 24 56 Merchant ships captured 3,238 1,249 2,185 The economy order referred to on a previous page was possibly in part responsible for the bad showing made by the English as warships in this war. In any case the standardisation of classes had disappeared, and no two ships were of the same dimensions. Many ships were found so weak at sea that they had to be shored up between decks,[30] and of all the complaint was continual that they were very “crank” and unable to open their lee ports in weather in which foreign ships could do so. The seamanship, however, was of a high order compared to that of either the French or Spaniards; possibly the very badness of the English ships helped to make the seamanship what it was. After the war many constructional improvements were suggested and some few of them carried into practice. Among the prizes of the war was a Spanish ship, the _Princessa_ of seventy guns, which attracted general admiration. In 1746, a glorified copy of her, the _Royal George_, was laid down.[31] At and about this time an era of slow shipbuilding set in; for example, this _Royal George_ was ten years on the stocks. The slow building was part and parcel of the naval policy of the period, and in no way to be connected with what any such tardiness would mean to-day.