The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries witnessed the rise of oceanic battle-fighting sail navies, which developed into instruments of worldwide strategic power. Spain, France, Holland and Britain were the leading protagonists but, after the eclipse of first Holland and then Spain, the struggle for history at sea resolved chiefly into a Franco-British conflict. It culminated in Britain's maritime triumph in the Napoleonic Wars and the elevation of the Royal Navy to global dominance. WAR AT SEA IN THE AGE OF SAIL shows how such dominance was eventually achieved, with detailed accounts of each of the key naval conflicts from the highest strategic level right down to the experience of the ordinary sailor.