Book Description
An epic story of one man’s devotion to the American cause
In October 1776, four years before Benedict Arnold’s treasonous attempt to hand control of the Hudson River to the British, his patch-work fleet on Lake Champlain was all that stood between British forces and a swift end to the American rebellion.
Benedict Arnold’s Navy is the dramatic chronicle of that desperate battle and of the extraordinary events that occurred on the American Revolution’s critical northern front. Written with captivating narrative vitality, this landmark book shows how Benedict Arnold’s fearless leadership against staggering odds in a northern wilderness secured for America the independence that he would later try to betray.
Praise for James L. Nelson:
"James Nelson is a master both of his period and of the English language."
--Patrick O'Brian, author of Master and Commander
"James L. Nelson tells this story with clarity and literary skill and with such ease and order that the reader feels he is attending a dissertation on history given by a consummate lecturer."
--Ron Berthel, Associated Press, on Reign of Iron: The Story of the First Battling Ironclads, winner of the American Library Association’s 2004 Award for Best Military History
"It is, by far, the best Civil War novel I’ve read; reeking of battle, duty, heroism and tragedy. It’s a triumph of imagination and good, taut writing . . . "
--Bernard Cornwell on Glory in the Name, winner of the W. Y. Boyd Literary Award
Customer Reviews:
Outstanding - A Must Read!!.......2007-08-12
This outstanding narrative documents the Battle of Valcour island but it is much more. My 9 year old recently asked about Benedict Arnold and I replied with the standard dogma of "Arnold the traitor". This book has caused me to revise that narrow view. Benedict Arnold was one of the greatest military commanders of his day. Had he remained true to the Cause, history would have remembered Arnold in the same breath as George Washington. I was amazed by Arnold's heroic determination to defend and establish the American ideal - even as the Continental Congress seemed determined to let the dream slip away. Congrats to James L. Nelson for an outstanding book that is a must read for Revolutionary era fans!!
Nelson is the Master.......2007-08-11
I met James Nelson two years ago at a book signing at Colonial Williamsburg. I purchased one of his books on that occasion and have since read everything he has written to date. He is a master weaver of stories and a master historian. His work is refreshing and spellbiinding. I heartily recommend Benedict Arnold's Navy. It offers an eye-opening look at the Revolutionary War era from both land and sea (or lake, as the case may be).
Much Much More than the title implies.......2007-06-14
I had the pleasure of purchasing the book from the author while taking part in the 225th Yorktown Reenactment last year. I thought the these of the book was interesting and unique. As a result, i felt it should be worth adding to my collection. What i got, was much more than I could have ever hoped.
The book provides one of the best and detailed accounts of the initial taking of Fort Ticonderoga by Arnold and Allen. The book details the make up of the men that were present and not just centering on the leaders themselves.
The work goes into detail regarding the invasion of Canada in 1775, the portion on the western attack may be the best and most in debth coverage ever given. While the book is not the first to cover Arnold's march to Quebec, it may be one of the first to so detail the other half of the invasion and the fights that took place there.
In the end, the book does cover the retreat from Canada and the building of the Navies on the lake. The detailed descriptions of the ships involved was very well worth the read.
The great dramatic detail in the work gives you the feel of reading a novel, but for the notes detailing the sources betraying it as a non-fiction book. Of course, this simply means that a work of non-fiction can be every bit as exciting as a work of fiction...that is what sets Nelson a part.
If you are greatly interested in filling your shelf with an easy read that would give you plenty of information on a part of the war most histories forget (1776 outside of Washington v Howe) this is the book to do it. Buy the book, read the book and keep it. This will be the main source on the subject matter for years to come.
Read Kenneth Roberts for the novels on this topic.......2007-05-17
Anyone who wants to read classics on Arnolds exploits during this period should read Kenneth Roberts' Arundel and Rabble in Arms.
A History.......2007-05-15
Unlike many other novels by James L. Nelson, "Benedict Arnold's Navy" is truly a history, not an historical novel. It seems well written but lacks the excitement of his other novels.
Book Description
A dazzling biography that is destined to be the definitive account of Horatio Nelson's life for generations
How did Horatio Nelson achieve such extraordinary success? In this authoritative biography, the eminent scholar Roger Knight places him firmly in the context of the Royal Navy of the time. Nelson was passionate and relentless from the outset of his career; his charisma and his coolness in battle are legendary. But his success depended also on the strength of intelligence available to him, the quality of the ships he commanded, the potency of his guns, and the skill of his seamen.
Based on a vast array of new sources, this biography demolishes many of the myths that have for two centuries surrounded Nelson. Knight demonstrates that this great Romantic hero was in his time a shrewd political operator and often a difficult subordinate. He was occasionally na•ve, often impatient, and only happy when completely in command.
Readers will emerge from this biography with a greatly enriched understanding of this singular man-one who was brilliant, severely flawed, and never to be crossed.
"A wonderfully clear portrait of a complex man, seen squarely in his time. There is every reason to think that this superb work will become the definitive Nelson biography." (The Economist)
Customer Reviews:
An Engrossing Description of Nelson's Career and Era.......2006-11-18
I highly recommend The Pursuit of Victory: The Life And Achievement of Horatio Nelson, a new biography of England's greatest warfighting admiral, Horatio Nelson.
This biography does a superb job of providing context and background for Nelson's astonishing rise to fame and his equally astonishing victories at sea--and lesser known defeats, which always occurred on territory unfamilar to Nelson, i.e. land. We find that the extreme risks of Britain's war with Napoleonic France created a brief window of opportunity for commoners such as Nelson to rise within the class-conscious and peerage-dominated Admiralty. Merit was so essential to victory that the Admiralty could not afford to advance captains by favoritism alone.
Equally interesting is the author's careful descriptions of the role of mentors in Nelson's career arc--captains and admirals above him in the bureaucratic Royal Navy who guided, aided and promoted him, not so much to benefit themselves but in recognition of his talents. Without these mentors--several of whom he maintained as close personal friends until death--his rise from the ranks of hundreds of junior captains to admiral at a young age would not have happened.
Not that Nelson enjoyed a perfect career. A gross political miscalculation--falling under the influence of the King's ne'er do well son, who had been given a position as Admiral not on talent but on birthright--caused Nelson's career to falter at a critical juncture. Having fallen out of favor for his destructive sycophancy, Nelson was sent home without a command, where he languished for seven long years as a poor gentleman landowner.
A renewal of the war with France gave him one more chance, and with the aid of his mentors, he assumed command of the Mediterranean Fleet (bypassing many jealous senior admirals), enabling him to score his first great strategic victory in the Battle of the Nile.
Life at sea was not easy, and Nelson was often ill and exhausted. Having lost an eye and an arm in two land engagements (he was deployed twice to joint Army-Navy commands, both of which ended badly, partly due to Nelson's ignorance of land warfare), he was often in pain. he also had to make judicious political decisions regarding allies, harrass the Admiralty for supplies, maintain discipline on a huge fleet of wooden ships in poor weather, and a host of other challenges which would have ground down by sheer workload alone a lesser commander.
This engaging, masterly paced work covers not just Nelson's life but the political context of the Royal Navy and the role of senior commanders in his rise to the highest levels of command. It is a portrait of one man's life set within a detailed account of his family, era, superiors and comrades.
Best One Volume Biography on Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson.......2006-10-20
Noted Nelson scholar Roger Knight has written an elegant biography of Great Britain's greatest fighting admiral, Vice Admiral Horatio Nelson, which was published shortly after the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar; both Nelson's greatest victory and the scene of his tragic, yet heroic, death. But is it the definitive biography devoted to Admiral Nelson's life and career? Although it does come close, regrettably, the answer is "no", since another eminent Nelson scholar, John Sugden, is currently at work on the second volume of his Nelson biography, which will cover Nelson's exploits from late 1797 to the Battle of Traflagar, which occurred on October 21, 1805 (This review is being published here at Amazon.com one day prior to the 201st anniversary of this battle.).
Knight covers Nelson's life and career in a massive tome of more than 800 pages, breaking it down into five sections. Much to my amazement, Knight has successfully covered Nelson's life and career from his birth in 1758 to his appointment as captain of HMS Agamemnon in January, 1793 in slightly more than a hundred pages, "I Youth and Disappointment 1758-1793" (Readers who think they are missing important aspects of Nelson's career should turn instead to the first volume in John Sugden's Nelson biography, "Nelson: A Dream of Glory", which emphasizes the young Nelson's rapid rise through officer ranks to becoming among the Royal Navy's youngest post captains.). Here Knight demonstrates how Nelson relied upon patronage from well-connected relatives like his uncle Captain Maurice Suckling and substantial exposure to good seamanship and officer conduct, which allowed him to secure rapid promotion to Post Captain and command of a frigate during the American Revolution. We also get our first glimpse of the heroic Nelson through his participation in an ill-fated joint Royal Navy and Army invasion to seize Nicaragua from the Spanish, which will not only cost him his command of a heavily armored frigate, but also his good health, and indeed, almost his life. Knight covers succinctly Nelson's two tours of duty in the British West Indies, devoting substantial coverage to Nelson's adulation of the mediocre Prince William Henry, later, Duke of Clarence, and eventually, King William IV, assigned to Nelson's command as a junior Royal Navy frigate captain (Here we see Nelson's unabashed admiration for royalty emerge unexpectedly, which will have serious consequences for his career in the late 1790s.).
The biography's second section, "II Maturation and Triumph 1793 - 1798" covers Nelson's early career during the French revolutionary wars, chronicling his eventual rise to Rear Admiral and his hard-fought victories at the battles of Cape Saint Vincent and the Nile. Nelson learns how to command a squadron at sea, cultivating friendships with many of the Royal Navy officers who would become his celebrated "Band of Brothers"; distinguished captains such as Thomas Troubridge, Samuel Hood, Benjamin Hallowell and Thomas Masterman Hardy. Knight also discusses Nelson's complex relationships with his superiors, most notably Admiral Sir John Jervis, later Earl Saint Vincent, his commanding officer at the Battle of Cape Saint Vincent. We also witness the disastrous attack on Tenerife, Santa Cruz, in the Canary Islands, which nearly costs him his life.
The biography's third section, "III Passion and Discredit 1798- 1801", is devoted to the most controversial period of Nelson's career; his service as Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean, in which he finds himself supporting unabashedly the Bourbon royal dynasty of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. Knight demonstrates clearly that Nelson's actions in "liberating" Naples following a French-supported popular insurrection, were motivated solely by his notions of loyalty and duty to a royal family in dire need of both, and though quite critical of them, he does not agree with Terry Coleman, author of "The Nelson Touch: The Life and Legend of Horatio Nelson", that these acts amounted to war crimes. Moreover, he demolishes completely the myth that Nelson fell immediately in love with Emma Hamilton, the young wife of Britain's ambassador to the Bourbon court at Naples, showing that it blossomed months later. And Knight, while sympathetic to Nelson, does show that Nelson's actions immediately before and after the Battle of Copenhagen, left much to be desired for someone serving as a fleet commander.
In "IV Adulation and Death" Knight opens with Nelson, now living openly with Emma Hamilton, enjoying nearly 18 months of peace, finding time to take a leisurely journey through Wales and serving in the House of Lords. With the resumption of hostilities between Great Britain and Napoleonic France, Nelson, now a vice admiral, returns to the Mediterranean Sea as the Royal Navy's Commander-in-Chief, Mediterranean, hoisting his broad pendant aboard HMS Victory. Some of Knight's finest prose is devoted to the long chase across the Atlantic Ocean to the West Indies in search of French admiral Pierre Villeneuve's fleet, culminating of course in the bloody Battle of Trafalgar. In "V Transfiguration", Knight describes not only Nelson's funeral in London, but also takes stock of the admiral's character, yielding a sympathetic, yet highly nuanced, appraisal of Nelson's life and career.
"The Pursuit of Victory: The Life And Achievement of Horatio Nelson" includes several appendices, of which the most important ones are the brief chronologies of the major events in Nelson's life and career, and of world events during Nelson's life, especially with regard to the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. There is also a chronological recounting of Nelson's service aboard various Royal Navy warships, which, regrettably, isn't nearly as succinct as both chronological outlines. Less successful, but still quite useful, are the brief biographical sketches devoted to Nelson's family, friends, and associates, both in the British government, and of course, in the Royal Navy itself.
The Best Biography of Nelson I've Read.......2006-06-05
As others have noted, there are many biographies of Nelson, and almost all of them suffer from the same problem: that a man so brilliant, talented, contradictory, demented, jealous, generous, gracious, foolish, naive and clear-thinking is very hard to understand. The fact that his death at the triumphant British naval victory of Trafalgar in 1805 immediately turned his life into legend, means that from first to last it's been hard to get a handle on Nelson the flawed but unique human being.
I've read many biographies of the man, and I was shocked to find that many second-hand truths fine biographers have relied on in prior biographies are incorrect. Knight's meticulous scholarship, his lifetime of study of the age of fighting sail in Britain and France, means that his careful analysis of sources in this book is stunning and irrefutable. No book I have ever read on Nelson is so thorough in finding every possible source to illuminate the daily life at sea, as well as by land, of this remarkable leader. That he quietly sets the record straight on innumerable myths and errors of past biographies with grace is simply another pleasure of the book. The fact that Knight deals tautly with the fairly disastrous consequences of Nelson's affair with Emma, Lady Hamilton, without letting it swallow his book, is a fine achievement. The heart of Nelson's importance in English history lies in his life at sea, and there Knight's study is especially enlightening.
Although not a book for everyone - you need to want to learn about both Nelson and the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars - I tend to agree with the dust jacket blurb, that this book will be THE definitive factual study of Nelson. But as Knight himself admits - in the end, the whole of the man is greater than the sum of his parts, and probably always will be.
Great Nelson Biography.......2006-05-02
There is no shortage of books about Nelson. The past couple of years have added several more titles. There is no shortage of interest in the man, and the great days of the Royal Navy.
This book is very good--I doubt there are any better. It is detailed, full of new information, and extremely readable. The man can write, and the book carries you away.
Nelson is presented as a man with some great abilities-- and some faults. He did not always distinguish himself, but he never made any fatal blunders. It is interesting to note that he, too, was able to benefit from connections--something that was almost impossible to get along without in the Royal Navy, with so many officers, and so few ships.
Nelson's faults did cost him, but his strengths and abilities overcame them. He was lucky. His ability to ignore orders helped him, when it would have hurt others. His connections carried him through other difficulties, and , in the end, he was the right man at the right time.
As is usual, the reader also comes to appreciate his great friend Collingwood. If Nelson had a secret weapon, it had to be Collingwood, who was less impetuous, and more reasoned in his actions. His behavior and skill helped Nelson more than a few times. This book, like so many others, makes it obvious.
Nelson will always fascinate--his affair with Lady Hamilton, his bravery in battle, his fearless method of attack, and his brilliance always appeal to new generations. A great story about a great man.
Praise for author - keelhaul the publisher!.......2006-04-11
This 800-plus page book, painstakingly put together by its author is one of the worst copy-edited books I have ever seen. Additionally its binding is cheap and flimsy. There is no pagination of the charts it includes and the biographical sketches that could clarify much of the text are hopelessly out of order. It is another demonstration that slovenliness in publishing is acceptable.
Customer Reviews:
Great for what it is........2002-08-11
Nakata's book, aside from showcasing some of his Imperial Japanese reproduction line, is a good all around reference on I.J.A. and I.J.N. militaria. Some of the pictures are a little incongruous (i.e. photo of a Japanese South Manchurian Railroad colorguard in a section on wartime publications) but every addition is interesting. Notable pages for me were numerous photos of the front pages of Japan's national dailies at different points during the second Sino-Japanese war and Pacific (Greater East Asia) war. Bouyant reports of the fall of Hong Kong and Singapore contrast with news of the invasion of Saipan and a final, somber front page of August 14th 1945, with only the Imperial Rescript announcing surrender occupying the page. The book nicely documents changes in Army and Navy uniforms, headgear, and equipment from the 1860s through WWII. Pages of photos show different variations of field caps and helmets, additionally there are several nice color shots of recruiting posters from the war and there are several pages of excavated war relics alongside other pages of similar artifacts in original condition. Aside from a few minor organizational points the book is excellent and is a good servey of Japanese Militaria. One wonders whether Nakata will come up with a new edition, maybe showing more of his collection.
Awesome compendium, but most of the text in JAPANESE?!?.......2001-10-24
This is in my opinion THE authorative book on Japanese Military Equipment to 1945. Since I already owned the Japanese version of this I knew it was nothing short of a five star book before ordering the English version. Imagine my disdain to realize more that 80% percent of the text in the book is not translated. The hastily prepared English translation by item number insert was pathetic, translating things like "Medal of the 5th order of the Sacred Treasure" (Japanese) to "medal" in the English version.
If you know what you are doing as a Japanese speaker, militaria collector or military studies major buy this book. Otherwise you may want to look for something more accessible.
Amazon.com
Any Aubrey Maturin reader determined to learn the locations of the orlop and the mizenmast, the etiquette of epaulettes, or the range of a 32-pounder will delight in this invaluable reference companion to O'Brian's epic and series. An exploration of what daily life was like in Nelson's navy, for everyone from the captain on down to the rawest recruit. Line drawings and charts help us understand the construction and rigging of the great ships, the types and dispositions of the guns, and how they operated in battle. Contemporary drawings and cartoons illustrate aspects of naval life from the press gang to the scullery. Finally, a generous selection of full-color paintings renders the majesty and the excitement of fleet actions in the age of fighting sail.
Customer Reviews:
Good basic outline.......2006-05-05
Brief outline of main points of interest in the Royal Navy. Excellent for those who do not wish too much detail.
Navy life for armchair voyagers.......2004-03-19
Being a known Jane Austen buff, a colleague told me I ought to have a look at Patrick O'Brian's novels which cover the same period. It has often been remarked upon that Jane Austen ignored the wars taking place during her time. In fact, she did not. Key characters such as Captain Wentworth (Persuasion) and Fanny Price's brother William (Mansfield Park), were career shipmen whose merits are well-enunciated in her novels. Two of Miss (how everyone likes to call her "Miss"!) Austen's brothers were also career navymen. The Navy was all around her and she knew it but had no need, despite that famously interpreted reference to "rears and vices," to discuss Navy life or strategy.
Nevertheless, this reader is curious to know how these men lived away from the ordered, civilised life of those "three or four families" in that country village of which Austen writes and to which these men inevitably returned to marry. Here in MEN-OF-WAR: Life in Nelson's Navy, we learn about the ships, the gunnery, the lifestyle and the protocol of the 18th century British Navy which successfully defended England from an invasion led by Napoleon.
The information in this book is concise and easily comprehensible, thanks to an economical and cheerful writing style. Information is brilliantly illustrated by color photos of paintings, drawings, cartoons and models of sailing vessels.
On a final note, there is now a wave (pun intended) of interest in Patrick O'Brian as a result of the detailed film MASTERS AND COMMANDERS. The Navy lifestyle illustrated in this book is depicted in the film, to the advantage of both.
An interesting overview.......2000-06-02
This is a book of history-lite. Now that is not necessarily a bad thing in my view; far too many history books (& this comes from a History Major) are written by and for hyper-specialists. This book, however, hands you a lot of information quickly and in a relatively painless manner about the Royal Navy at the time of the Napoleonic Wars.
The book is divided more or less into topics, although some material "sloshes" over from chapter to chapter. The style is neither drily academic nor chatty -- it is not an ABC book, however, with definitions of every term. O'Brien assumes that you already know a little something about nautical terms and the warfare of the era.
If you are a historian, this is not such a good book -- you will not find enough footnotes or bibliographical material to follow through for further research. If you are merely into battles, again this book will be a disappointment; much like the Aubrey-Maturin books, this work is as much concerned (if not moreso) with minor details of daily life and the ins and outs of naval bureaucracy as it is about battle.
If you want to know something about the topic, this is a decent introduction.
Good Crutch for us Landlubbers.......2000-04-01
I cannot claim to any nautical experience, however, I do claim to be one of Patrick O'Brian's all time fans. This book has helped me understand what the ____ some of the late 18th and early 19th century nautical terms and concepts mean. So, to keep this concise, if you love Patrick O'Brian's seafaring novels (start with Master and Commander if you are uninitiated to this amazing series), but are not a sailer yourself- then this is the book for you. It is fairly short, but interesting. You will be briefed on life in the navy, parts of the ships, names and functions of sails, combat, and many other topics that can confuse.
I also know that this book would serve as an excellent source for a H.S. to college level paper/presentation on life in Nelson's navy. The length and writting style make it highly readable. Also recomended are Dean King's lexicons on Patrick O'Brian's books ("A Sea of Words"). They include several sections on the history of the era, and are very interesting, as well as including an extensive dictionary of terms, old words, places and events.
If you already know a great deal about Nelson's Navy, then this might be a little too basic.
Not for landlubbers..........2000-01-22
First off, I must say that I am a very big fan of Patrick O'Brians Aubrey/Maturin novels. It is because of them that I searched for this book. I am, as O'Brian's sailors would have it, "a daisy cutting landlubber" & the maritime terms in his books leave me lost. I hoped "Men-of-War" would help rectify this, so that I could tell a poop from a head, & a ship from a brig, but I'm still sadly confused!
Even tho "Men-of-War" is well illustrated, the captions discuss things that I still can't find in the pictures! There are diagrams of sails & decks, then the text mentions other sails (such as "studding sails") or locations on the decks that do not appear in the diagrams! Confused? You bet! About the only fact I learned from this book is that the sails could be rotated; in every other aspect I am still as "at sea" as I was before reading this.
Also, this book is very very thin. It simply isn't worth the price! (Luckily I got mine from the library!) I remain a fan of O'Brians novels, but will not look to him to clarify facts in the future...
Book Description
Two of Jane Austen's brother served in Nelson's navy and later became admirals. Francis Austen, on board the Canopus, narrowly missed the battle of Trafalgar; Charles Austen in Endymion captured numerous small prizes. It is not surprising that that the Austen family, including Jane, took a deep personal interest in naval affairs. Apart from the church, the navy was the profession which she knew and admired most. Her novels reflected this: Mansfield Park includes a portrait of life in Portsmouth, the estimable midshipman William Price and the less attractive Admiral Crawford; Persuasion presents her most extended account of naval officers and attitudes, from the redoubtable Admiral Croft to Captain Wentworth himself. Jane Austen and the Navy demonstrates clearly the importance of the navy both in Jane Austen's life and her novels."She was convinced of sailors having more worth and warmth than any other set of men in England; that they only knew how to live, and they only deserved to be respected and loved!"--Jane Austen, Persuasion
Book Description
The prevailing image of food at sea in the age of sail features rotting meat and weevily biscuits, but this highly original book proves beyond doubt that this was never the norm. Building on much recent research Janet Macdonald shows how the sailor's official diet was better than he was likely to enjoy ashore, and of ample calorific value for his highly active shipboard life. When trouble flared and food was a major grievance in the great mutinies of 1797 the usual reason was the abuse of the system. This system was an amazing achievement. At the height of the Napoleonic Wars the Royal Navy's administrators fed a fleet of more than 100,000 men, in ships that often spent months on end at sea. Despite the difficulty of preserving food before the advent of refrigeration and meat-canning, the British fleet had largely eradicated scurvy and other dietary disorders by 1800. This was the responsibility of the Victualling Board, a much-maligned but generally efficient bureaucracy that organized the preparing and packing of meat, the brewing of beer, the baking of ship's biscuit, and all the logistics of the Navy and on an industrial scale unparalleled elsewhere. Once aboard ship food and drink was subject to stringent controls to ensure fairness, and this book takes a fresh look at the tarnished reputations of Purser and Cook, before turning to the ways both officers and men were able to supplement their official rations, including the keeping of livestock on board. A chapter compares provisions in the other major navies of the time, and the book concludes with recipes for some of the exotic sounding dishes, like lobscouse, prepared by naval cooks. While Feeding Nelson's Navy contains much of value to the historian, it is written with a popular touch that will enthral anyone with an interest in life at sea in the age of sail.
Customer Reviews:
An excellent look into an important but neglected subject.......2004-12-12
Cervantes in "Don Quixote" lampoons the writers of chivalric romances for failing to address the mundane realities of life, chief among them being how their heroic knights errant managed to feed themselves. To a lesser degree, perhaps, the modern authors of nautical fiction likewise do not much address the question of how their seaborne heroes (and their crews) were fed, day in and day out. Undoubtedly this is partly because it is far more interesting to write about boarding an enemy frigate than boiling salt beef, but I suspect that it also has to do with the absence of readily available, reliable information about the subject. Now, Janet Macdonald has addressed this want of discussion with "Feeding Nelson's Navy: The True Story of Food at Sea in the Georgian Era". Coming from a background of writing about cookery, she has tackled the complex and surprisingly mysterious question of how in the world the Royal Navy fed itself during the classic Age of Fighting Sail. Although it might be thought that a matter of such obvious vital importance to maintaining a fighting fleet of tens of thousands of mariners would have been recorded officially in detail, in point of fact Macdonald has had to sift through obscure primary documents such as ships' logs, personal memoirs, and period letters to adequately explore how it was all done: from procuring the foodstuffs (and drink) in the first place, to storing them, getting them to the ships in port and at sea, storing the victuals aboard, preparing meals, and serving them to officer and crews. And even with such diligent research, she must resort to informed speculation to address some questions, such as just how a ship's cook kept separate the rations for the various messes and served them out in an efficient manner. The breadth of coverage is impressive: the Navy's Victualling Board administration, officially mandated rations and substitutes, typical recipes, shipboard organization, disease and vermin, the "hardware" of food preparation and consumption (stoves and dining implements), and surrounding social customs. For anyone interested in the real world of the Royal Navy behind the fiction Horatio Hornblowers and Jack Aubreys, "Feeding Nelson's Navy" is a revelation, dispelling old myths and offering new facts such as the caloric and vitamin content of the men's meals. Macdonald throughout her book illustrates the practicalities of the subject by citing numerous real-life incidents drawn from period documents.
Book Description
Although Nelson was the most prominent naval officer of the age, he was only the most successful of a outstanding group of commanders that led the Royal Navy to its unprecedented success in the wars of 1793-1815. The contribution of his contemporaries has been neglected, however, largely because so few admirals have received proper modern study. This volume sets out to adjust the record by providing a series of in-depth biographical essays of the most important figures, each written by a well-known specialist in the field. Since every chapter was commissioned specially for this book, the coverage has been organised to dovetail perfectly, resulting in a coherent history of the art of command in the sailing navy at its apogee. At around 10,000 words, each essay is substantial and allows the author scope for both detail and argument. Each of the contributors is a recognized authority and the resulting book is largely based on original and unpublished research. Following the pattern of the well-received Precursors of Nelson, this book is a major contribution to the naval history of the great French wars. It will become required reading for every historian of the period.
Book Description
This new collection of short biographies tells of the heroic deeds of two hundred prominent officers who fought at sea through the wars against the French Republic and Empire. The circumstances of a war for national survival and social order put an end to the political divisions which had characterized the officer class of the Royal Navy in the preceding two centuries and produced a remarkable body of men whose competence, commitment and ability where to lead to Britain's complete command of the oceans; the most outstanding of these form the core of this book. Each biography, of around one thousand words, describes the events in these men's careers and sets their achievements within the context of the wars. Their early lives and promotions are detailed as well as their marriages and family lives. Indeed, the extraordinary web of personal and service relationships that emerges is one of the fascinating themes of the book; connections made a vast difference between languishing as a lieutenant and being remembered when a ship needed a commander. Drawing on contemporary and nineteenth-century sources the author has put together a fascinating collection of lives which make for rousing reading; but the details of promotions and other events will also make the book an important reference work for scholars and enthusiasts of the period.
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- Beyond Valor: World War II's Ranger and Airborne Veterans Reveal the Heart of Combat
- Burnt Offerings (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter: Book 7)
- Coal Black Horse
- Cocktails In Tahiti
- Cold War Civil Rights: Race and the Image of American Democracy (Politics and Society in Twentieth Century America)
- Corporate Aviation Management (Southern Illinois University Press Series in Aviation Management)
- Courage After Fire: Coping Strategies for Troops Returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and Their Families
- Covert Action As a Tool of Presidential Foreign Policy: From the Bay of Pigs to Iran-Contra
- D-Day June 6, 1944
- Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance
Books Index
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General
| Military
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Through a Howling Wilderness: Benedict Arnold's March to Quebec, 1775
Washington's Spies: The Story of America's First Spy Ring
George Washington and Benedict Arnold: A Tale of Two Patriots
Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy
Thieves of Mercy : A Novel of the Civil War at Sea
