After 1777, indeed, there was a considerable fall
in the figures of English tonnage 'outwards.' I give these figures
down to the first year of peace.
1777 736,234 tons 'outwards.'
1778 657,238 " "
1779 590,911 " "
1780 619,462 " "
1781 547,953 " "
1782 552,851 " "
1783 795,669 " "
1784 846,355 " "
At first sight it would seem as if there had, indeed, been a
shrinkage. We find, however, on further examination that in reality
there had been none. 'During the [American] war the ship-yards in
every port of Britain were full of employment; and consequently
new ship-yards were set up in places where ships had never been
built before.' Even the diminution in the statistics of outward
clearances indicated no diminution in the number of merchant
ships or their crews. The missing tonnage was merely employed
elsewhere. 'At this time there were about 1000 vessels of private
property employed by the Government as transports and in other
branches of the public service.' Of course there had been some
diminution due to the transfer of what had been British-American
shipping to a new independent flag. This would not have set free
any men to join the navy.
When we come to the Revolutionary war we find ourselves confronted
with similar conditions. The case of this war has often been
quoted as proving that in former days the navy had to rely
practically exclusively on the merchant service when expansion
was necessary.
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