Nine were dismasted. Several had to throw their guns
overboard. None was fit for immediate service. But La
Motte did not even reconnoitre, much less annihilate,
his helpless enemy.

Pitt returned to power at the end of June 1757, in time
to plan a world-wide campaign for 1758, though not in
time to choose the best commanders and to change the
whole course of the war. This became possible only in
the Empire Year of 1759. The English-speaking peoples
have nearly always begun their great wars badly, and have
gradually worked up to a climax of victory after being
stung into proper leadership and organization by several
exasperating failures; and though now in the third year
of their most momentous struggle for oversea dominion,
they were not even yet altogether prepared.

Nevertheless, Pitt wielded the amphibious might of Britain
with a master hand. Sea-power, mercantile and naval,
enabled him to 'command the riches of the world' and
become the paymaster of many thousand Prussians under
Frederick the Great and Ferdinand of Brunswick. He also
sent a small British army to the Continent. But he devoted
his chief attention to working out a phase of the 'Maritime
War' which included India on one flank and the Canadian
frontiers on the other. Sometimes with, and sometimes
without, a contingent from the Army, the British Navy
checkmated, isolated, or defeated the French in Europe,
Asia, Africa, and America.