I. Four Days' Battle, 1666 119 II. Four Days' Battle, 1666 124 III. Battle of Solebay, 1672 146 IV. Battle of the Texel, 1673 153 V. Battle of Stromboli, 1676 161 V a. Pocock and D'Aché, 1758 161 VI. Battle of Beachy Head, 1690 183 VI a. Battle of La Hougue, 1692 183 VII. Matthews's Action off Toulon, 1744 265 VII a. Byng's Action off Minorca, 1756 265 VIII. Hawke and Conflans, 1759 303 IX. Battle of Ushant, 1778 351 X. D'Estaing and Byron, 1779 368 XI. Rodney and De Guichen, April 17, 1780 378 XII. Arbuthnot and Destouches, 1781 386 XIII. Suffren at Porto Praya, 1781 423 XIV. Suffren and Hughes, February 17, 1782 431 XV. Suffren and Hughes, April 12, 1782 438 XVI. Suffren and Hughes, July 6, 1782 447 XVII. Suffren and Hughes, September 3, 1782 454 XVIII. Hood and De Grasse, January, 1782 470 XIX. Hood and De Grasse, January, 1782 472 XX. Rodney and De Grasse, April 9, 1782 482 XXI. Rodney's Victory, April 12, 1782 486 INFLUENCE OF SEA POWER UPON HISTORY. INTRODUCTORY. The history of Sea Power is largely, though by no means solely, a narrative of contests between nations, of mutual rivalries, of violence frequently culminating in war. The profound influence of sea commerce upon the wealth and strength of countries was clearly seen long before the true principles which governed its growth and prosperity were detected. To secure to one's own people a disproportionate share of such benefits, every effort was made to exclude others, either by the peaceful legislative methods of monopoly or prohibitory regulations, or, when these failed, by direct violence. The clash of interests, the angry feelings roused by conflicting attempts thus to appropriate the larger share, if not the whole, of the advantages of commerce, and of distant unsettled commercial regions, led to wars. On the other hand, wars arising from other causes have been greatly modified in their conduct and issue by the control of the sea. Therefore the history of sea power, while embracing in its broad sweep all that tends to make a people great upon the sea or by the sea, is largely a military history; and it is in this aspect that it will be mainly, though not exclusively, regarded in the following pages.