Impérieuse‘s Purpose. The line in the text reads: “Shouldering the swell aside powerfully, Impérieuse demonstrates her purpose with crystal clarity. An easily and swiftly moved barrage of big guns; such grace and beauty, such lethal abilities, all under the absolute control of one man.”
That ships were mankind’s most powerful weapons was proved conclusively a few years after Thomas took command of Speedy. Nelson’s 27 ships at Trafalgar fired more metal at the French, than Napoleon’s entire army expended during the battle of Waterloo. John Keegan states, in his The Price of Admiralty, ‘…six times as many guns of much heavier caliber, could be transported daily by Nelson’s fleet, as by Napoleon’s Army, at one fifth of the logistic cost, at five times the speed.’
