Existing comment:
The Battle of Trafalgar and the End of Piracy Under Sail:
The high seas of William Dampier's day, especially in the vast reaches of the pacific, were lawless and dangerous places far beyond the reach of national naval power. But this was soon to change. In 1805, the culminating naval battle of the age of sail not only established British naval supremacy for more than century, it also signaled the ascendancy of modern nations in their control of the high seas, including the ability to eradicate piracy as a meaningful impediment to maritime trade.
Ironically, two hundred years later, no equivalent level of control exists on the high seas today. |