 Ultimately the revolutionary excesses of the period would prove disastrous for the French Navy . <unk> leadership , conflicting and arbitrary orders and the <unk> of the experienced <unk> in the ranks promoted a negative attitude in the French officer corps . The French <unk> did not contest British dominance in Northern European waters again , and their raiding operations repeatedly ended in failure at the hands of more confident British squadrons and the <unk> Atlantic weather . By 1805 , when the last great French fleet to take to the sea was crushed at the Battle of Trafalgar , poor training and low investment in the Navy had reduced its efficiency to levels <unk> 20 years earlier . 
