Life in Nelsons Navy

Mr. Pope (greatly missed) does a superb job of detailing the activities, traditions, command structure, punishments, battles and nautical slang. This book is filled with informative information for anyone with an interest in the Age of Sail, the battles, the famous ships and commanders. If anybody reads the Kent, O'Brien, Pope or Forrester novels, this book will assist in rounding out the overall picture, a couple of sterling examples are the promotion system and how the ships were rated. Excellent and often humorous account.

This book provides an invaluable resource for readers of any 18th century naval series. It clearly explains Naval life from the aspects of all involved. The book is well illustrated with consice, and really usefull diagrams, and is filled with sketches of artefacts from the period it describes. A detailed Bibliography and index make this book a rival to Patrick O'Brian's similar book. Although I have not read any of the Ramage series, and have read the entire Aubrey/Maturin saga I prefer this to the other author's work. For an account of what life was like in Nelson's Navy I would advise you that your money is better spent on this book than any other availiable on the market currently.