SPIES VERSUS PRIZE: TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER BETWEEN NAVIES IN THE AGE OF TRAFALGAR

• Published in: Mariner's mirror Vol. 93; no. 1; pp. 16 - 27
• Main Author: Ferreiro, Larrie D.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2007
• ISSN: 0025-3359; 2049-680X
• DOI: 10.1080/00253359.2007.10657024

This paper examines the mechanisms by which naval technology was shared between nations and addresses how they influenced the ships of Trafalgar where many of the Spanish ships had been designed and built by Britons or Frenchmen, the French ships of the Combined Fleet were equipped with new technologies such as copper hull sheathing copied from the British navy, and where more than half of the British fleet consisted of the 74-gun ships that owed their design to a captured French warship. Each nation had its preferred method of obtaining the necessary information: for France, it was industrial espionage; for Britain, capturing warships as prizes; and for Spain, a combination of exchanges and espionage. The article shows that advances in the science and technology of ship design and construction in one navy quickly found their way into other navies, adapted and often improved. Long before "globalisation" the naval industries were already a global marketplace. (Quotes from original text)