It is difficult to overstate the contribution that the men and women who served in the Royal Navy and in other British ships, including the merchant navy, have made to our country and indeed to the world.
I would not have wanted to live in the world we might have today if the Spanish Armada had resulted in a successful invasion.
Nor in the world empire which would probably exist if the Royal Navy had not made it impossible for Napoleon to invade Britain. Napoleon once said, "Let us be masters of the straights (e.g. the English Channel) for six hours, and we will be masters of the world."
Of all the people who have dreamed of conquering the world, Napoleon was the one whose ability gave him the best chance of achieving it, and the only one who was good enough at building things as well as conquering places that he might heve been able to create a world empire which would last - but nobody who has looked at Ingres' painting of him in his coronation robes could doubt that he was a total megalomaniac. Or that Nelson did the world a huge favour 208 years ago today when he terminated that ambition.
Then there was the abolition of the slave trade - parliament eventually voted for it, but it was the Royal Navy who carried it out.
And, within living memory, there was the role the navy played in the defeat of Hitler's Nazis - a force which did unimaginable evil and could have done far worse had they not been stopped when they were.
It is not so well known that many of the men and women who are protecting our country today at the risk of their own lives in dangerous places like Afghanistan are Royal Navy sailors who serve alongside our soldiers and airmen.
We owe the men and women of our navy, and indeed the rest of our armed services, more than words can possibly express, and Britain has a duty, which we have not always beedn good at carrying out, to honour and look after them in turn.
I would not have wanted to live in the world we might have today if the Spanish Armada had resulted in a successful invasion.
Nor in the world empire which would probably exist if the Royal Navy had not made it impossible for Napoleon to invade Britain. Napoleon once said, "Let us be masters of the straights (e.g. the English Channel) for six hours, and we will be masters of the world."
Of all the people who have dreamed of conquering the world, Napoleon was the one whose ability gave him the best chance of achieving it, and the only one who was good enough at building things as well as conquering places that he might heve been able to create a world empire which would last - but nobody who has looked at Ingres' painting of him in his coronation robes could doubt that he was a total megalomaniac. Or that Nelson did the world a huge favour 208 years ago today when he terminated that ambition.
Then there was the abolition of the slave trade - parliament eventually voted for it, but it was the Royal Navy who carried it out.
And, within living memory, there was the role the navy played in the defeat of Hitler's Nazis - a force which did unimaginable evil and could have done far worse had they not been stopped when they were.
It is not so well known that many of the men and women who are protecting our country today at the risk of their own lives in dangerous places like Afghanistan are Royal Navy sailors who serve alongside our soldiers and airmen.
We owe the men and women of our navy, and indeed the rest of our armed services, more than words can possibly express, and Britain has a duty, which we have not always beedn good at carrying out, to honour and look after them in turn.
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