Which Empire/Country does this quote pertain to,please help?

Well, man, ya stumped me. I did try a few different phrase searches to see what would turn up, and I ran it through the huge maritime library here at work. No hits.

Sound like this is retrospective, looking back on a ship. There were not ever very many first-raters, in anyone's navy. One of the most famous was the "Santisima Trinidad," the Spanish first-rate flagship captured during the Battle of Trafalgar, but then lost in the huge storm that blew in the day afterward.

First-raters were big, big ships. The concept of "ratings" came about during the Anglo-Dutch Wars of the 1600's, when the strategy of "line of battle" evolved, and ratings were developed to class ships by their firepower. The line of battle is pegged by one historian as first occuring in 1653 at the Battle of the Gabbard, between Dutch and English fleets 9the innovation was English).

The first two "first-rate" ships were also English, the Prince Royal, which by 1660 sported 100 cannon, and the Sovereign of the Seas, built for 100 guns in 1637. Soon there after major dutch, French, and Spanish ships were also built with more than 100 guns.

Please note that the gun count does not typically include smaller weapons such as the 1-pound "murder gun" that was usually a swivel-mounted weapon used to devastate an enemy's decks and rigging.

Yet in all, there were probably fewer than 100 first-rate vessels ever built before the end of the age of sail. These were monster ships, they needed massive crews, consumed immense amounts of supplies, required deep-water ports and very expensive maintenance, and except during a large fleet battle were not any more effective than third- or fourth-rate ships used for blockade, defense, convoy, and raiding.

You can actually look up all of those first-rate ships on-line or at a library and learn about their fates. Each one was famous in its way.

"Jazz is the large brother of the blues. If a guy's playing blues, he's in severe college. even as he begins playing jazz this is like occurring to school, to a school of better studying". B.B. King "you basically %. a chord, bypass twang, and also you've were given track" Sid Vicious "track is the single incorporeal the front into the better international of expertise which comprehends mankind yet which mankind can't understand" Ludwig van Beetoven "actual, i do not imagine track can do a lot to modify something. If it may, then it already could have occurred" Henry Rollins "track is the mediator between the religious and the sensual life." Lugwig van Beethoven "track is your own journey, your ideas, your awareness. in case you do not stay it, it gained't come out of your horn. They teach you that track has obstacles. yet, guy, there is not any boundary line to artwork". Charlie Parker take care dave

England. Always the "Empire of the Seas", especially during colonization.

Only three navies had first-raters: Great Britain, France, and Spain. Problem is, all that colonies here.