emergency
can see, and at once take the right course, especially if, being
subordinates, they incur responsibility. In such a scene of confusion
the English, without presumption, hoped to profit by their better
seamanship; for it is not only 'courage and devotion,' but skill,
which then tells. All these effects of 'breaking the line' received
illustration in Rodney's great battle in 1782."[1]

[Footnote 1: THE INFLUENCE OF SEA POWER UPON HISTORY, pp. 380-381.]

Before we leave the War of American Independence mention should
be made of Commodore Suffren who, as we have seen, left de Grasse
with five ships of the line to conduct a campaign in the Indian
Ocean in the spring of 1781. His purpose was to shake the British
hold on India, which had been fastened by the genius of Clive in
the Seven Years' War. But the task given to Suffren was exceedingly
difficult. His squadron was inadequate--for instance, he had only
two frigates for scout and messenger duty--and he had no port that
he could use as a base in Indian waters. To conduct any campaign
at all he was compelled to live off his enemy and capture a base.
These were risky prospects for naval operations several thousand
miles from home, and for the faintest hope of success required an
energy and initiative which had never before appeared in a French
naval commander. In addition to these handicaps of circumstance Suffren
soon discovered that he had to deal with incorrigible slackness
and insubordination in his captains.

In spite of everything, however, Suffren achieved an amazing degree
of success. He succeeded in living off the prizes taken from the
British, and he took from them the port of Trincomalee for a base. He
fought five battles off the coast of India against the British Vice
Admiral Hughes, in only one of which was the latter the assailant,
and in all of which Suffren bore off the honors. He was constantly
hampered, however, by the inefficiency and insubordination of his
captains. On four or five occasions, including an engagement at the
Cape Verde Islands on his way to India, it was only this misconduct
that saved the British from the crushing attack that Suffren had
planned. Unfortunately for him his victories were barren of result,
for the terms of peace gave nothing in India to the French which
they had not possessed before. As Trincomalee had belonged to the
Dutch before the British captured it, this port was turned back
to Holland.

Nevertheless S