What is the Golden Fleet? | Brent Sadler
Heritage Explains
Heritage Podcast Network
4.7 • 847 Ratings
🗓️ 1 April 2026
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Over the last few decades, serious concerns have arisen about the fitness of our Navy to counter America’s enemies, most importantly China. This has led the Trump Administration to announce a vision for a "Golden Fleet". Here to talk about that is Brent Sadler, former Naval Officer and a Senior Research Fellow here at Heritage.
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Follow Brent on X: https://x.com/brentdsadler
"To Build the Golden Fleet" report at Heritage.org: https://www.heritage.org/defense/report/build-the-golden-fleet
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Three, two, one, zero, all engine run. |
| 0:06.6 | There is no other institution that has the ability uniquely. |
| 0:11.3 | Without a heritage, every generation starts over. |
| 0:14.4 | Ask not. |
| 0:15.3 | To remind the current regime. |
| 0:18.6 | We the people tell the governor what it is allowed to do. |
| 0:21.9 | All the action. We get back in their box and stay there. Let's die. We have a left. |
| 0:29.6 | From the Heritage Foundation, this is Heritage Explains. |
| 0:46.1 | On June 1, 1813, a battle was brewing in Boston Harbor. |
| 0:52.3 | It was the second year of the conflict now known as the War of 1812, and the combatants were two ships, |
| 0:56.2 | the British Royal Navy Frigate HMS Shannon and the U.S. Navy frigate USS Chesapeake. |
| 0:58.9 | The battle was short but intense, with the British succeeding and rendering the Chesapeake |
| 1:03.3 | unmaneuverable. |
| 1:05.1 | In the fighting, Chesapeake's captain, James Lawrence, was mortally wounded by small arms |
| 1:09.7 | fire. |
| 1:10.7 | As he was taken below decks, he uttered a now famous quote, |
| 1:14.8 | Don't give up the ship. |
| 1:17.0 | His crew did his best to carry out this final order, |
| 1:19.8 | but the Chesapeake succumbed to the British onslaught. |
| 1:23.0 | The vessel was captured, and 48 American sailors lost their lives. |
| 1:28.3 | But Lawrence's courageous final words took on life of their own. |
| 1:32.3 | Fellow naval officer and friend of Lawrence's Oliver Hazard Perry had the phrase stitched |
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