Editing Ship of the line (section)

== Combat ==
{{See also|Sailing ship tactics}}

In the [[North Sea]] and [[Atlantic Ocean]], the fleets of the [[Royal Navy]], [[Dutch navy|the Netherlands]], [[French Navy|France]], [[Spanish Armada|Spain]] and [[Portuguese Navy|Portugal]] fought numerous battles. In the [[Baltic Sea|Baltic]], the Scandinavian kingdoms and Russia did likewise, while in the [[Mediterranean Sea]], the [[Ottoman Empire]], Spain, France, Britain and the various [[Barbary pirates]] battled.

By the eighteenth century, the UK had established itself as the world's preeminent naval power. Attempts by [[Napoleon]] to challenge the Royal Navy's dominance at sea proved a colossal failure. During the [[Napoleonic Wars]], Britain defeated French and allied fleets decisively all over the world including in the Caribbean at the [[Battle of Cape St. Vincent (1797)|Battle of Cape St. Vincent]], the Bay of Aboukir off the Egyptian coast at the [[Battle of the Nile]] in 1798, near Spain at the [[Battle of Trafalgar]] in 1805, and in the second [[Battle of Copenhagen (1807)]]. The UK emerged from the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 with the largest and most professional navy in the world, composed of hundreds of wooden, sail-powered ships of all sizes and classes.

Overwhelming firepower was of no use if it could not be brought to bear which was not always possible against the smaller leaner ships used by Napoleon's privateers, operating from French [[New World]] territories. The Royal Navy compensated by deploying numerous [[Bermuda sloop]]s. Similarly, many of the [[British East India Company|East India Company]]'s merchant vessels became lightly armed and quite competent in combat during this period, operating a convoy system under an armed merchantman, instead of depending on small numbers of more heavily armed ships which while effective, slowed the flow of commerce.