Avast ye maties!

The tall sloops of the late 18th century are shaking off their cobwebs and coming out of storage this week to reenact the battle of Trafalgar off the coast of Britain today.

Whenever I think of Naval battles- I remember a book I read two years ago- a two volume series on the war of 1812 between the US and Canada.

On Lake Erie in 1813 there was a tremendous battle between the two fleets! It totally crippled both navies and was the largest fresh water battle in the history of naval warfare. What was amazing was the planning for the battle that was executed. It involved spies reporting back details of ships under construction- and the reaction of the navies to the others ships. For example- the spies would see that the Canadian fleet was building a three masted, 60 foot vessel with 6 guns on each side- so they got to work on a 70 foot, three masted vessel with 8 guns on each side. The Canadian spies saw this and abandoned plans for the mere 60 footer for a behemoth 80 footer with 11 guns on each side... and there was always speed vs. size vs. reach of cannons.

All of this and they had to complete their own fleet before their enemies fleet got finished on the opposite bank of the lake, or it would be a simple matter of a float by shooting to destroy all boats, facilities and the entire town.

I think there's a lesson to be learned from these old salts about logistics management.