Talk:Naval tactics in the Age of Sail

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, now in the public domain.
MILHIST This article is within the scope of the Military history WikiProject. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the project and see lists of open tasks and regional and topical task forces. To use this banner, please see the full instructions.
Start This article has been rated as Start-Class on the quality scale.

[edit] Against a Merge

I'm strongly against merging 'the line of battle' into this article for the simple reason that the line of battle does not belong exclusively to the Age of Sail and the information of the origional article would have to be needlessly recreated in several different articles, which is pointless, unweildy and a waste of space. (Also could whoever suggested the merge actually give their reasons for it here? It'd be helpful)81.151.124.131 10:52, 14 November 2006 (UTC) Elmo

That'd be me. At present we have two articles with large blocks of text that discuss exactly the same thing. Most of the information included in Naval tactics in the Age of Sail and that in Line of battle is duplicated, needlessly recreated in two different articles. When information has not been duplicated it would be worthwhile doing so; for instance, the inclusion of specific battles which occured during the period of developing the line to illustrate the implementation of the tactic, as seen in Line of battle, would be worthwhile (sourced and possibly rewritten) in Naval tactics in the Age of Sail.
What'd I'd suggest is making Line of Battle a disambig(ish?) page with a short description along the lines of the current Naval tactics article. Linking to Naval tactics in the Age of Sail and Naval tactics in the Age of Steam. I would also sugggest merging Crossing the T into Naval tacitcs in the Age of Steam (since it is enabled by the advent of steam). The overall result would be to put all the pertinent info into the parent 'Naval tactics in the Age of X' articles.
An alternative solution would be to improve the Line of Battle page, reduce the information in the Developing the Line of Battle section of Naval tactics in the Age of Sail to a single overreaching paragraph and refer to the Line of Battle article for more information.Inane Imp 10:56, 5 December 2006 (UTC)
I agree. Line of Battle should cover both sail and steam, and the section on it here should be stubified. The Land 08:21, 29 December 2006 (UTC)
Land, I'm right in thinking you agree to my "Alternative Solution"?Inane Imp 08:19, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] WPMILHIST Assessment

Wow. A beautiful article, with lots of detail, and seemingly, upon a quick glance, very pertinent, accurate, and to-the-point analysis. However, I do believe the introduction could use some work. Rather than being such an empty and over-generalized overview of the article, it should introduce the subject, perhaps by explaining briefly any or all of the following (a) the period defined as the Age of Sail, and the reasoning behind the dates given, (b) the most significant elements of tactics in this period, particularly those that are markedly different from what came before or after, (c) key examples of battles or engagements in which concepts of naval tactics were keenly represented. Thanks for all your hard work, to everyone who's contributed here. LordAmeth 21:51, 19 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Battle of Lissa (1811)

I am not sure I see the point being made by this reference. It seems that the (First) Battle of Lissa is being used to illustrate the ineffectiveness of British Admiral's tactics, yet this is widely considered to be the most briliant frigate action of the time (& did not involve any admirals). Am I missing something, or could this be clarified?--Streona (talk) 19:08, 1 June 2008 (UTC)