Leaving air forces alone as they are far in the future, it took (and takes) a lot longer to train a sailor than a soldier since, as I mentioned before, the essential part of a naval officer or seaman's training is shiphandling in all weathers. Therefore, if you do not go to sea in all weathers, you don't get the essential training.

As for the matter of equipment, if I am reading the posts correctly, many readers of this Forum believe that French warships were technically better than British warships. I don't happen to agree as the two navies had quite different roles and therefore different warship needs but, if it is true, one has to agree that the RN must have overcome its deficiencies in equipment as they were rarely beaten at sea in 1793-1815.

Some posts back you made a comment about "sadistic" captains in the RN, what was your source for that statment?

dg