ABSTRACT
In these wars of the middle eighteenth century the English Government devoted more of its naval strength to the West Indies than it had ever consistently done before. It had kept a striking force at Jamaica during Queen Anne’s reign in the hope of intercepting the galleons, or even of starting a movement in favour of the Archduke Charles among the Spanish colonists. From that time the Jamaica squadron had been a permanent institution. Elsewhere, however, the system of colonial defence had been primitive: a warship or two were attached to each colony for the protection of its coasts and trade. The men-of-war would convoy out the merchant vessels, remain for a time on guard, and convoy the merchants home again. Sometimes all these operations took place in a single year; but when nearly every important colony came to have more than one guardship allowed to it, the captains were able to relieve each other in rotation and stay for two or three seasons each. This system lasted until the establishment of the Leeward Islands station in 1743 and the North America station in 1745.
