In this book, Britain's leading naval historians and analysts have come together to produce an investigation of the development of British naval thinking over the past three centuries, from the sailing ship era to the present day. It describes the beginnings of formalised thought about the conduct of naval operations in the eighteenth century, its transformation through the impact of industrialisation int he nineteenth century and its application in the two world wars of the twentieth. The book concludes with a review of modern British naval thinking and the appearance of naval doctrine against the uncertainties of the loss of empire, the Cold War, nuclear weapons and the huge changes facing us in the new millenniem. How perceptive and distinctive was British naval thinking? Where did British ideas come from? Did they determine or merely follow British experience? Do they explain British naval success? Containing essays by many leading members of the British naval community, this is a commemorative volume of the life and work of Professor Bryan Ranft.