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

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(More customer reviews)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 around the world, fleet administration, signaling, and tactics.
Part XII is "The Seaman's World." It talks about winds, currents, and other maritime bodies.
Part XIII is called, "Foreign Navies." It's primarily about the French, Spanish, and American Navies, as these were the two most often encountered, but there is a section on "Other Foreign Naval Forces."
Part XIV is "Tactics," and it is about actual battles, blockade, cruisers, convoys, and amphibious operations.
At the end there are some appendices, all of which are extremely informative. I use them more than any other part of the book.
***This is a great book, but not for the faint- hearted. If you've never looked at something like this before, I would suggest something like /Men of War/ by Patrick O'Brian and then maybe this if you're still interested. That book is a great introduction. /Nelson's Navy/ is very costly, so if you know you're interested but you're on a tight budget, I would recommend /The Illustrated Companion to Nelson's Navy/ by Nicholas Blake & Richard Lawrence. This is smaller, but it's also in depth, and it has references to most novels on the topic, as well as being more detailed about the uniforms. If you can afford it, I suggest that you get it along with this one.

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First published in 1990, this encyclopedic yet highly readable work gives an indepth description of the Royal Navy in Lord Nelson's time. Filled with over four hundred illustrations, the book is divided into fourteen sections that deal with the design and construction of ships, the navy's administration, and life at sea. Other topics include shiphandling and navigation, gunnery techniques and fighting tactics, and a discussion of foreign navies of the day. Nelson's Navy is an important source book for the naval historian, a valuable reference for the enthusiast, and a revelation to the general reader.

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