XPost: sci.military.naval   
   From: steel@rodent.demon.co.uk   
      
   In message , Ian MacLure   
    writes   
   >   
   >       Its not the French ships that are crap, its the Crapauds who   
   >       man them.   
   >       The Royal Navy was more than happy to take captured French   
   >       naval assets into service after the previous owners had scarfed   
   >       their cheese and surrendered.   
   >   
   >       IBM   
   >   
      
   Not only did the RN routinely incorporate French ships into the navy   
   when captured, they also found them, on the whole, to be larger, better   
   equipped to provide the crew with their needs, and most importantly,   
   better sailing ships than the ships the RN was building. The theme of   
   the major exhibition at Chatham Dockyard (Sorry, Millennium World Naval   
   Station - or whatever crappy name the idiots  market it under these   
   days) showing the building of a mid 18th Century third rate is how the   
   ship was built to incorporate lessons learned from captured French   
   ships.   
      
   In so many ways, it was the iron, and not the wood that made all the   
   difference.   
      
   --   
   Julian Barker   
      
   "Many battles have been fought and won by   
   soldiers nourished on beer,and the King does not   
   believe that coffee-drinking soldiers can be   
   relied upon to endure hardships in case of   
   another war."   
                           Frederick the Great, 1777   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)