The BBC is to be congratulated on the production of this outstanding four-part television series, transmitted on BBC2 in late January and early February 2010.
So interwoven with, and so central to, the history of the of the United Kingdom and British Empire is the Royal Navy - the English Navy, later the British Navy - that this series is a history of Britain and Empire and wider still.
This series has certainly succeeded in its aim of showing how the Royal Navy forged the modern world. This is no idle claim from a silly old, but proud, matelot but a fact that, even today, the islands that comprise the United Kingdom, and her 14 overseas territories, forget at their peril.
The story starts just before the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 and ends with the Armistice at the end of the Great War in 1918. We see how the English Civil War actually benefited the Navy yet it was the Royal Navy that helped secure the restoration of the monarchy.
Beautifully shot and skilfully captained by presenter Dan Snow, a former Sea Cadet himself, we see how it was the Royal Navy that set the standard for the British civil service (and one that was copied in many countries), caused the founding of the Bank of England and the establishment of income tax. It was because of concern about a weak Royal Navy that the British Crown lost its powers to Parliament. It was the Royal Navy, and HM Dockyards, that became the greatest industrial organisation of its time, having an impact on farming (to feed the sailors) and on industry to provide materials in large scale to build and maintain the fleet - and to improve the design, such as with copper-bottomed sailing vessels.
As a result British ships and British naval officers and naval ratings (sailors) became the world standard and the envy of other powers. The ships were many and their stations were the seven seas, protecting British trade - and all nations' trade on many an occasion - against piracy and bad men and it was a bulwark against any enemy with eyes on the British Isles.
The French failure to defeat the Royal Navy was a cause of the French Revolution. The final defeat of France at sea, by Nelson in 1805, made possible their final defeat at Waterloo by Wellington and that was followed by a century of "Pax Britannica", when the Royal Navy policed the seas and underpinned the British Empire. The Royal Navy played a leading and honourable part in the abolition of slavery in the first half of the nineteenth century.
We see, in the final episode, how the Royal Navy was at the forefront of technical innovation, with the shift from sail to steam, with the now preserved ironclad HMS Warrior (1860) changing for ever the way of naval warfare. The introduction of submarines in 1901 - "a damned un-English weapon" - and the introduction of naval aviation in 1909 were achieved in the face of opposition from the old guard. The new Dreadnought class of battleships, in 1906, made every other battleship in the world obsolete. After a century of relative peace, the Royal Navy was just about ready for war in 1914 and played a significant part in the defeat of the Kaiser's forces.
This is a story of 340 years of a force that grew into the largest Navy in the world. The Royal Navy has not lost a significant battle for over 300 years and it set the standard for many of the world's navies today, as witnessed still in their uniforms, routines, ships and manners. The English language is peppered with words and phrases that began at sea with the Royal Navy or were used by landlubbers so proud of this truly great armed service.
This is television documentary at its very best and the series will soon, hopefully, be released on DVD to a worldwide audience. For the Royal Navy is not just part of the story of the United Kingdom or the British Empire, it is an important part of the world's story in this past half millennium.