The year 1588 marked a turning point in our national story. Victory over the Armada transformed us into a seafaring nation and it sparked a myth that one day would become reality - that the nation's new destiny, the souce of her future wealth and power lay out on the oceans. This book tells the story of how the navy expanded from a tiny force to become the most complex industrial enterprise on earth; how the need to organise it laid the foundations of our civil service and our economy; and how it transformed out culture, our sens of national identity and our democracy.