Richmond's book, The Navy as an Instrument of Foreign Policy 1558-1727 (Cambridge 1953), was published posthumously, edited by E.A. Hughes of Trinity College Cambridge. According to the Editor's Preface: Among the papers left by the late Admiral Sir Herbert Richmond were the typescript of this book and a note dated 1 March 1942 (when he was seriously ill) defining its object: The first volume of my intended history traces the use made by statesmen of the Navy as an instrument of war from Elizabeth to the end of the Northern War of 1727. I meant to carry the thing through to the end of the last war in 1918. Then this war came, and for the last two years I haven't been able to concentrate on the old one.. When Lady Richmond paid me the high compliment of asking me to carry out Sir Herbert's wishes, I willingly undertook to edit the present volume.. Sir Herbert's expressed hope that someone would write a second volume was based on a very solid foundation. He had collected a great deal of material for such a volume, and bitterly regretted his own inability through declining health and outward circumstances to do it himself.. The first volume is [according to Richmond's biographer, Barry D. Hunt], based on research completed up to 1927.