Nelson's Navy: The Ships, Men, and Organisation, 1793-1815

Tom Pocock's classic narrative biography of Horatio Lord Nelson and Joel Hayward's new and innovative thematic military analysis of Nelson's "warfighting" are both excellent and highly recommended, but without a good background knowledge of the Georgian Navy they might be a bit confusing in places. THIS is the book to provide that knowledge. It is wide in coverage and thorough in treatment. With beautiful illustrations (from the era) it will help you understand the naval world of the Nelson/Napoleonic periods.

I've read a number of nonfiction books lately on the Royal Navy during the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, and this is far and away the best of them -- no comparison, not even Lavery's own _Jack Aubrey Commands_ (2003), which is in many ways merely a cut-down version of this encyclopedic volume. This is 350 pages of highly detailed, heavily illustrated discussion of every conceivable subject and all its subtopics, from the engineering principles of ship design and the differences among each of the different rates, to the divisional organization of the Royal Marines, to the truth (with statistics) behind the press gang system, to a disquisition on the differences in naval fighting tactics between the British and French and Spanish fleets -- and a great deal more. And there are even graphs, flow charts, and organization tables to bring disparate informatiion together. It's actually a very slow read because there's so much to absorb, even for the experienced fan of Forester and O'Brian -- but that's certainly not a criticism! I'll be referring back to this gorgeous, oversized book for many years to come.

This is the best book I have ever encountered for this topic. It has something about everything. If you don't want a guide to all the parts, skip down to ***. Part I shows the background and is very useful to someone who doesn't know about it already. Part II is about the ships themselves. It's extremely informative and has many illustrations showing profiles of ships, from First Rates to unrated vessels. It talks about the fundamentals of ship design and the individual kinds of ships. Part III is entitled, "Ship Building and Fitting." It is divided into four subtitles: Ship Construction; Fitting of Ships; Masts, Sails and Rigging; and Armament. Each provides extensive details in its respective subject. Part IV is about the officers. It begins with telling about midshipmen (trainee officers) and their progress to the examination for lieutenant. Then the author tells us about the commisioned (or "sea") officers, telling us about the different ranks, "from lieutenant to admiral of the fleet", as he puts it. In this section, he also tells us about shore duties, half-pay, and retirement. He next discusses the warrant officers (who include the master, surgeon, purser, chaplain, boatswain {pronounced, "bo's'un"}, carpenter, gunner, and schoolmaster) and their duties and pay. The next subtitle is "Officers' Living Conditions," and it talks about uniforms very specificly from 1795-1814, but rather vaguely at other dates; decorations; swords; cabins; and victuals. The final subtitle for this book is about ship administration, and covers: the captain's responsibilities to raise a crew, keep a log, and turn in 25 forms to the admiralty; the purser's position; shipboard communication; and prize money. Part V concerns the problems of recruiting (sailors wanted to be in the merchant service more), the infamous press gangs (bands of sailors setting out to "press" or force people into the navy), and other types of recruitment. Part VI is entitled,"Seamen and Land[s]men." It talks about "Jack Tar's" (a colloquial term for an able or ordinary seaman) terms of service and how he could become a petty officer; "Land[s]men, Artificers and Servants," the positions which could easily be held by landlubbers; and the naval plagues: mutily and desertion. Part VII is about the marines, who were like people in the army except that they served on naval ships and vessels. Part VIII is called, "Techniques" and is about the skills used in basic seamanship, ship handling, boat and anchor work, battle, navigation, and disaster. It has illustrations showing several interesting knots. Part IX is titled "Shipboard Life" and talds about shipboard organisation, how time was counted, the watch system, clothing, food, pleasures, health, and discipline. Part X is entitled "Dockyards and Bases," and it's about just that. In addition to the text, there are several interesting charts. The title of Part XI is, "Fleets." It talks about their distribution ar

Being introduced to the period by Patrick O'brian's books, I have found that this volume is THE one to get about the British Navy during the Napoleonic wars. Full of scanned documents, diagrams, drawings/photos/art, a virtual encyclopedia of knowledge about everthing from how to provision a ship to how to sail it. Do not let this one sail away!

If you can only afford one book about the Royal Navy during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, then this is the one. Covering every aspect of the RN during the time of Horatio Nelson this book has it all from an historical background; details of the life on board for officers, men and marines; aspects of ship handling, weapons and tactics; and just about everything else immaginable. Extremely well illustrated, perhaps the only negative comment might be that it would be nice if a portion of the illustrations were in colour