sentences:  This breakthrough was to be what would win over the Admiralty.Fisher's letter was seen by the new Navy Board Controller Charles Middleton, who had the major problem at the time with supplying over 100 ships for the American Revolutionary War (1775–1783), which was compounded that same year (1778) by French opportunism in declaring war on Britain to support the American rebels.This effectively turned what was a local civil war into a global conflict.