The British Channel fleet for the defense of home coasts numbered forty ships of the line while France and Spain together had sixty-six.

Nor had Britain resources in any other quarter upon which she could readily draw.

In the West Indies she had twenty-one ships of the line while France had twenty-five.

The British could not find comfort in any supposed superiority in the structure of their ships.

Then and later, as Nelson admitted when he was fighting Spain, the Spanish ships were better built than the British.
Lurking in the background to haunt British thought was the growing American navy.