Convoys

Convoys PDF Author: Roger Knight
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300246978
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 425

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Book Description
The first account of Britain's convoys during the Napoleonic Wars--showing how the protection of trade played a decisive role in victory During the Napoleonic Wars thousands of merchant ships crisscrossed narrow seas and wide oceans, protected by Britain's warships. These were wars of attrition and raw materials had to reach their shores continuously: timber and hemp from the Baltic, sulfur from Sicily, and saltpeter from Bengal. Britain's fate rested on the strength of its economy--and convoys played a vital role in securing victory. Leading naval historian Roger Knight examines how convoys ensured the protection of trade and transport of troops, allowing Britain to take the upper hand. Detailing the many hardships these ships faced, from the shortage of seaman to the vicissitudes of the weather, Knight sheds light on the innovation and seamanship skills that made convoys such an invaluable tool in Britain's arsenal. The convoy system laid the foundation for Britain's narrow victory over Napoleon and his allies in 1815 and, in doing so, established its naval and mercantile power at sea for a hundred years.

Convoys

Convoys PDF Author: Roger Knight
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300246978
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 425

Get Book Here

Book Description
The first account of Britain's convoys during the Napoleonic Wars--showing how the protection of trade played a decisive role in victory During the Napoleonic Wars thousands of merchant ships crisscrossed narrow seas and wide oceans, protected by Britain's warships. These were wars of attrition and raw materials had to reach their shores continuously: timber and hemp from the Baltic, sulfur from Sicily, and saltpeter from Bengal. Britain's fate rested on the strength of its economy--and convoys played a vital role in securing victory. Leading naval historian Roger Knight examines how convoys ensured the protection of trade and transport of troops, allowing Britain to take the upper hand. Detailing the many hardships these ships faced, from the shortage of seaman to the vicissitudes of the weather, Knight sheds light on the innovation and seamanship skills that made convoys such an invaluable tool in Britain's arsenal. The convoy system laid the foundation for Britain's narrow victory over Napoleon and his allies in 1815 and, in doing so, established its naval and mercantile power at sea for a hundred years.

Confederate Ironclads at War

Confederate Ironclads at War PDF Author: R. Thomas Campbell
Publisher: McFarland
ISBN: 1476676402
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 277

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Book Description
Hampered by lack of materials, shipyards and experienced shipbuilders, even so the South managed to construct 34 iron-armored warships during the Civil War, of which the Confederate Navy put 25 into service. The stories of these vessels illustrate the hardships under which the Navy operated--and also its resourcefulness. Except for the Albemarle, no Confederate ironclad was sunk or destroyed by enemy action. Overtaken by events on the ground, most were destroyed by their own crews to prevent them from falling into Union hands. This account covers the design and construction and the engagements of the Confederate ironclads and describes the ingenuity and courage, as well as the challenges and frustrations of their "too little, too late" service.

The Command of the Ocean

The Command of the Ocean PDF Author: N. A. M. Rodger
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 9780393060508
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1022

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Book Description
"N. A. M. Rodger provides reassessments of such famous figures as Pepys, Hawke, Howe, and St. Vincent. The particular and distinct qualities of Nelson and Collingwood are contrasted, and the world of the officers and men who made up the originals of Jack Aubrey and Horatio Hornblower is brought to life. Rodger's comparative view of other navies - French, Dutch, Spanish, and American - allows him to make a fresh assessment of the qualities of the British."--BOOK JACKET.

The Wager

The Wager PDF Author: David Grann
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1471183696
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 259

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Book Description
From the international bestselling author of KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON and THE LOST CITY OF Z, a mesmerising story of shipwreck, mutiny and murder, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth. On 28th January 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty’s ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon, the Wager was wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The crew, marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing 2,500 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes. Then, six months later, another, even more decrepit, craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways and they had a very different story to tell. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes – they were mutineers. The first group responded with counter-charges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous captain and his henchmen. While stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death—for whomever the court found guilty could hang.

Nelson, Navy & Nation

Nelson, Navy & Nation PDF Author: Quintin Colville
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1844862259
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 632

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Book Description
Nelson, Navy & Nation explores the Royal Navy's relationship with Britain from the Glorious Revolution to the Napoleonic Wars. The book encompasses the realities of naval life in this period; the navy's connection to society; culture and national identity; and the story of Nelson's life and career. It brings together a distinguished panel of leading historians including Roger Knight, Andrew Lambert, Brian Lavery, N.A.M. Rodger and Dan Snow. Together, they give a fascinating contextual overview, from the terrifying realities of battle in the age of sail to the lives of ordinary people ashore who celebrated the navy's achievements. It places the extraordinary achievements of Horatio Nelson within a wider context that makes sense of his dazzling celebrity. In so doing, it reveals that the story of the Royal Navy and Nelson is also the story of the fears and ambitions of the British people. Beautifully illustrated throughout from the world-leading collections of the National Maritime Museum, the book combines accessible narrative history for the general reader with superb visual appeal. It is an ideal companion to the Museum's new permanent 'Nelson, Navy, Nation' gallery, which opened in October 2013.

The Evil Necessity

The Evil Necessity PDF Author: Denver Alexander Brunsman
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
ISBN: 081393351X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 615

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Book Description
A fundamental component of Britain's early success, naval impressment not only kept the Royal Navy afloat--it helped to make an empire. In total numbers, impressed seamen were second only to enslaved Africans as the largest group of forced laborers in the eighteenth century. In The Evil Necessity, Denver Brunsman describes in vivid detail the experience of impressment for Atlantic seafarers and their families. Brunsman reveals how forced service robbed approximately 250,000 mariners of their livelihoods, and, not infrequently, their lives, while also devastating Atlantic seaport communities and the loved ones who were left behind. Press gangs, consisting of a navy officer backed by sailors and occasionally local toughs, often used violence or the threat of violence to supply the skilled manpower necessary to establish and maintain British naval supremacy. Moreover, impressments helped to unite Britain and its Atlantic coastal territories in a common system of maritime defense unmatched by any other European empire. Drawing on ships' logs, merchants' papers, personal letters and diaries, as well as engravings, political texts, and sea ballads, Brunsman shows how ultimately the controversy over impressment contributed to the American Revolution and served as a leading cause of the War of 1812. Early American HistoriesWinner of the Walker Cowen Memorial Prize for an Outstanding Work of Scholarship in Eighteenth-Century Studies

Shipwrecks of the Revolutionary & Napoleonic Eras

Shipwrecks of the Revolutionary & Napoleonic Eras PDF Author: Terence Grocott
Publisher: Stackpole Books
ISBN: 9780811715331
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 454

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Book Description
With fascinating insight into everyday conditions at sea in the years of the great French wars, this unique and authoritative book covers more than 1,500 natural shipping disasters from the years 1793 to 1815. The day-to-day accidents of marine life are included, as well as major disasters, and the work provides an unusual perspective on the life of the seaman and the perils of seafaring in the age of sail.

Sociable Places

Sociable Places PDF Author: Kevin Gilmartin
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107064783
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 283

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Book Description
This collection explores how location shaped sociability in the Romantic period.

Sons of the Waves

Sons of the Waves PDF Author: Stephen Taylor
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300245718
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 535

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Book Description
"[A] rollicking narrative . . . Superb"--Ben Wilson, Times A brilliant telling of the history of the common seaman in the age of sail, and his role in Britain's trade, exploration, and warfare British maritime history in the age of sail is full of the deeds of officers like Nelson but has given little voice to plain, "illiterate" seamen. Now Stephen Taylor draws on published and unpublished memoirs, letters, and naval records, including court-martials and petitions, to present these men in their own words. In this exhilarating account, ordinary seamen are far from the hapless sufferers of the press gangs. Proud and spirited, learned in their own fashion, with robust opinions and the courage to challenge overweening authority, they stand out from their less adventurous compatriots. Taylor demonstrates how the sailor was the engine of British prosperity and expansion up to the Industrial Revolution. From exploring the South Seas with Cook to establishing the East India Company as a global corporation, from the sea battles that made Britain a superpower to the crisis of the 1797 mutinies, these "sons of the waves" held the nation's destiny in their calloused hands.

The Billy Ruffian

The Billy Ruffian PDF Author: David Cordingly
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 158234468X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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Book Description
A portrait of a British warship that played a key role during the wartime years of the Napoleonic era describes the ship's service in three crucial sea battles--the Glorious First of June (1794), the first action against revolutionary France; the 1798 battle of the Nile; and the battle of Trafalgar (1805)--as well as its role in Napoleon's ultimate surrender. Reprint. 15,000 first printing.