User:Lord Cornwallis/Western Squadron

The Western Squadron took position at the western end of the English Channel, allowing them to intercept imbound ships heading for the French coast.

The Western Squadron was a British naval strategy pioneered by George Anson during the War of the Austrian Succession inspired by a proposal by Admiral Edward Vernon. It involved the deployment of a British Royal Navy squadron at the western approaches to the English Channel rather than keeping it at one of the major channel ports as was traditional strategy. The new strategy proved a major innovation and it played a role in the British victories at the First and Second Battles of Cape Finisterre in 1747. The strategy was used again as part of the blockade of France in 1759 during the Seven Years War. It had a major influence on British naval strategy well into the ninenteenth century.

Origins

In 1588 a similar scheme had been used at the suggestion of Francis Drake. In 174- Admiral Edward Vernon proposed that a

Bibliography

• N. A. M. Rodger, The Insatiable Earl: A Life of John Montagu, Fourth Earl of Sandwich (London: Harper Collins, 1993)
• Till, Geoffrey (editor). The development of British naval thinking. Routledge, 2006.