Intersting that the government would not susbisize the insurnace business in time of war to keep merchant ships sailing. Did they not have 'War Bonds' in the late 1700's? Mr. Blake could not have been the only one to see the madness of splitting the fleet.
shareThe Royal Navy simply did not have enough ships. Blockading Toulon and the other French ports kept ships on station for up to a year at a time without ever entering port -- it was hard on the men and the ships.
The movie captures very well, I think, the desperation of the times.
Some British naval ships would not let the men go ashore because they would have run off since they were impressed (kidnapped) to begin with. That's what lead to the War of 1812 with the United States, the kidnapping of American sailors.
Countries also signed letters of Marque. It was legalized piracy allowing enemy countries to have their merchant ships captured. Civilians armed their ships and captured merchant ships selling the cargos legally for a percentage. It bolstered their navy quickly in time of war. More difficult, was to get the privateers to stop after the war ended.
Before WWI and later, I think, Britain subsidized ship building with the agreement that if there was a war they could take over those ships for war time use. Many ended up being sunk by German submarines or raiders.
I don't know everything. Neither does anyone else