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3 unusual facts about Armada of 1779


Armada of 1779

At the time there were fewer than 40 Royal Navy ships of the line available in the English Channel area, newly under the command of ailing 64-year-old Sir Charles Hardy, who had been desk-bound for 20 years.

Scurvy weakened the crews, and in the hot, crowded shipboard conditions, typhus and smallpox also broke out.

Napoleon's planned invasion of the United Kingdom

Building on planning for mooted invasions under France's ancien régime in 1744, 1759 and 1779, preparations began again in earnest soon after the outbreak of war in 1803, and were finally called off in 1805.



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