In doing research to support Eric Jay Dolin's important essay in this issue, "Did Hurricanes Save America?," we were not able to find any current histories of the period which provided an answer to that question.
We couldn't find a definitive list of British ships lost. In fact, all available lists of the losses in 1780 turned out to be incomplete, so we created one (see below).
The Royal Navy was stretched to the breaking point in the later years of the American Revolution. We forget that at the same time as thirteen of Britain's 17 colonies in North America were rebelling, the Crown was waging a worldwide war against the French, Spanish, and Dutch powers. The Royal Navy was called upon to defend the home islands in the English Channel and North Sea, and preserve territories of the Empire in the Caribbean, India, and elsewhere.
