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RECENT WORK IN BRITISH NAVAL HISTORY, 1750–1815

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 September 2008

N. A. M. RODGER
N. A. M. RODGER*
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
*
Department of History, University of Exeter, Amory Building, Rennes Drive, Exeter EX4 4RJ: [email protected]
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Abstract

This is a selective survey of books published over the last ten years or so and bearing on British naval history in the second half of the long eighteenth century.

Type
Historiographical Reviews
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 51 , Issue 3 , September 2008 , pp. 741 - 751
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Cambridge University Press

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References

1 This is a severely selective survey of books bearing on, or at least closely related to, British naval history in the second half of the ‘long eighteenth century’. I have taken as an approximate terminus a quo my earlier article ‘Recent books on the Royal Navy of the eighteenth century’, Journal of Military History, 63 (1999), pp. 683–703.

2 But Professor John Bromley of Southampton was a conspicuous exception to both generalizations.

3 John Ehrman, The Navy in the war of William III, 1689–1697: its state and direction (Cambridge, 1953); Norman Hampson, La marine de l'an II: mobilisation de la flotte d'océan, 1793–1794 (Paris, 1959); Dickinson, H. T., ‘The capture of Minorca in 1708’, Mariner's Mirror, 51 (1965), pp. 195–204CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Margarette Lincoln, ed., Nelson and Napoléon (National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, 2005). Jean-Marcel Humbert and Bruno Ponsonnet, eds., Napoléon et la mer: un rêve d'empire (Musée Nationale de la Marine, Paris, 2004).

5 Examples from outside the period under discussion here are David Loades, The Tudor Navy: an administrative, political and military history (Aldershot, 1992); and Bernard Capp, Cromwell's Navy: the fleet and the English Revolution, 1648–1660 (Oxford, 1989).

6 James Stanier Clarke and John McArthur, The life of Admiral Lord Nelson, K. B., from his lordship's manuscripts (2 vols., London, 1809).

7 Edgar Vincent, Nelson: love and fame (New Haven, CT, and London, 2003).

8 John Sugden, Nelson, a dream of glory (London, 2004).

9 Roger Knight, The pursuit of victory: the life and achievements of Horatio Nelson (London, 2005).

10 Colin White, ed., Nelson, the new letters (Woodbridge, 2005).

11 Andrew Lambert, Nelson, Britannia's god of war (London, 2004).

12 Marianne Czisnik, Horatio Nelson, a controversial hero (London, 2005).

13 Cannadine, David, ed., Admiral Lord Nelson: context and legacy (Basingstoke, 2005).

14 David Syrett, Admiral Lord Howe, a biography (Stroud, 2006).

15 Kevin D. McCranie, Admiral Lord Keith and the naval war against Napoleon (Gainesville, FL, 2006).

16 The only previous efforts were Sir John Barrow, The life of Richard Earl Howe, K. G. (London, 1838); and Alexander Allardyce, Memoir of George Keith Elphinstone, Viscount Keith (Edinburgh, 1882); neither in the least satisfactory.

17 Rémi Monaque, Latouche-Tréville: l'amiral qui défiait Nelson (Paris, 2000).

18 Paul Christopher Krajeski, In the shadow of Nelson: the naval leadership of Admiral Sir Charles Cotton, 1753–1812 (Westport, CT, 2000).

19 Thomas Cochrane, earl of Dundonald, The autobiography of a seaman (2 vols., London, 1860). Both this and his Narrative of services in the liberation of Chile, Peru and Brazil (2 vols., London, 1859) were ghost-written by George Butler Earp, and were designed to support Cochrane's financial claims against various South American governments.

20 Brian Vale, The audacious Admiral Cochrane: the true life of a naval legend (London, 2004).

21 H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison, eds., The Oxford dictionary of national biography (60 vols., Oxford, 2004).

22 Peter Le Fevre and Richard Harding, eds., Precursors of Nelson: British admirals of the eighteenth century (London, 2000); and idem and idem, eds., British admirals of the Napoleonic Wars: the contemporaries of Nelson (London, 2005).

23 Some of the most useful are: Nicholas Tracy, Who's who in Nelson's Navy: 200 naval heroes (London, 2006); Alistair Wilson and Joseph F. Callo, Who's who in naval history from 1550 to the present (London, 2004); Colin White et al., The Trafalgar captains, their lives and memorials (London, 2005).

24 On this the essential reading is still Julian S. Corbett, Some principles of maritime strategy (London, 1911).

25 Michael Duffy and Roger Morriss, eds., The Glorious First of June 1794: a naval battle and its aftermath (Exeter, 2001).

26 Stephen Howarth, ed., Battle of Cape St. Vincent 200 years (Shelton, Notts., 1998).

27 Brain Lavery, Nelson and the Nile: the naval war against Bonaparte 1798 (London, 1998); Michèle Battesti, La bataille d'Aboukir 1798: Nelson contrarie la stratégie de Bonaparte (Paris, 1998).

28 Søren Mentz, ed., Kampen i Kongedybet: slaget på Reden (Copenhagen, 2001).

29 Ole Feldbæk, The battle of Copenhagen 1801, trans. Tony Wedgwood (London, 2002); originally Slaget på Reden (Copenhagen, 1985).

30 Agustín Guimerá, Alberto Ramos, and Gonzalo Butrón, eds., Trafalgar y el mundo Atlántico (Madrid, 2004). This includes important new research by Duffy, Michaelwhich has since appeared in English: ‘“All was hushed up …” the hidden Trafalgar’, Mariner's Mirror, 91 (2005) pp. 216–40CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

31 David Cannadine, ed., Trafalgar in history: a battle and its afterlife (Basingstoke, 2006).

32 Tim Clayton and Phil Craig, Trafalgar, the men, the battle and the storm (London, 2004); Brian Lavery, Nelson's fleet at Trafalgar (National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, 2004); Michèle Battesti, Trafalgar: les aléas de la stratégie navale de Napoléon (Paris, 2004); Rémi Monaque, Trafalgar, 21 octobre 1805 (Paris, 2005); Agustín Ramón Rodríguez González, Trafalgar y el conflicto naval Anglo-Español del siglo XVIII (Madrid, 2005).

33 José Ignacio González-Aller Hierro, ed., La campaña de Trafalgar, 1804–1805: corpus documental (2 vols., Madrid, 2004).

34 Agustín Guimerá Ravina and Víctor Peralta Ruiz, eds., El equilibrio de los imperios: de Utrecht a Trafalgar (Madrid, 2005). There are contributions by André Zysberg and the present reviewer.

35 Christian Buchet, Jean Meyer, and Jean-Pierre Poussou, eds., La puissance maritime (Paris, 2004).

36 Leo Akveld et al., eds., In het kielzog: Maritiem-historische studies aangeboden aan Jaap R. Bruijn bij zijn vertrek als hoogleraar zeegeschiedenis aan de Universiteit Leiden (Amsterdam, 2003).

37 Pieter van der Merwe, ed., Science and the French and British Navies, 1750–1850 (London, 2003).

38 Jonathan R. Dull, The French Navy and the Seven Years War (Lincoln, NB, 2005).

39 Christopher D. Hall, Wellington's Navy: sea power and the Peninsular War, 1807–1814 (London, 2004).

40 Peter Padfield, Maritime supremacy and the opening of the western mind: naval campaigns that shaped the modern world, 1588–1782 (London, 1999); idem, Maritime power and the struggle for freedom: naval campaigns that shaped the modern world, 1788–1851 (London, 2003).

41 Clive Wilkinson, The British Navy and the state in the eighteenth century (Woodbridge, 2004).

42 Roger Morriss, Naval power and British culture, 1760–1850: public trust and government ideology (Aldershot, 2004).

43 Julian Gwyn, Frigates and foremasts: the North American Squadron in Nova Scotia waters, 1745–1815 (Vancouver, 2003); idem, Ashore and afloat: the British Navy and the Halifax Naval Yard before 1820 (Ottawa, 2004).

44 Christian Buchet, Marine, économie et société: un exemple d'interaction: l'avitaillement de la Royal Navy durant la guerre de sept ans (Paris, 1999). An English translation is planned.

45 Tom Wareham, The star captains: frigate command in the Napoleonic Wars (London, 2001).

46 Janet Macdonald, Feeding Nelson's Navy: the true story of food at sea in the Georgian era (London, 2004).

47 Markus Eder, Crime and punishment in the Royal Navy of the Seven Years War, 1755–1763 (Aldershot, 2004).

48 James Lowry, ed. John Millyard, Fiddlers and whores: the candid memoirs of a surgeon in Nelson's fleet (London, 2006).

49 Anne Petrides and Jonathan Downs, eds., Sea soldier: an officer of Marines with Duncan, Nelson, Collingwood and Cockburn: the letters and journals of Major T. Marmaduke Wybourn RM, 1797–1813 (Tunbridge Wells, 2000).

50 Laurence Brockliss, John Cardwell, and Michael Moss, Nelson's surgeon: William Beatty, naval medicine and the battle of Trafalgar (Oxford, 2005).

51 Michael A. Palmer, Command at sea: naval command and control since the sixteenth century (Cambridge, MA, 2005); idem, ‘Nelson, Lord: master of command’, Naval War College Review, 41 (1988), pp. 105–16Google Scholar; and idem, ‘“The soul's right hand”: command and control in the age of fighting sail, 1652–1827’, Journal of Military History, 61 (1997) pp. 679–706.

52 Margarette Lincoln, Representing the Royal Navy: British sea power, 1750–1815 (Aldershot, 2002).

53 Timothy Jenks, Naval engagements: patriotism, cultural politics and the Royal Navy, 1793–1815 (Oxford, 2006), quoted p. 2.

54 Michael Duffy, ed., The naval miscellany, vi (Navy Records Society vol. 146, Aldershot, 2003); Roger Morriss and Richard Saxby, eds., The Channel Fleet and the blockade of Brest, 1793–1801 (Navy Records Society vol. 141, Aldershot, 2001); David Syrett, ed., The Rodney papers: selections from the correspondence of Admiral Lord Rodney, i: 1742–1763 (Navy Records Society vol. 148, Aldershot, 2005). At his death Syrett left a second volume ready for the press and a third partly complete.

55 Michael J. Crawford, ed., Naval documents of the American Revolution, xi (Washington, DC, 2005). At the present rate of publication we may look forward to at least twenty more volumes of this series, spread over not less than a century.

56 Michael J. Crawford, ed., The naval war of 1812: a documentary history, iii (Washington, DC, 2002). A fourth volume is planned.

57 Eugene L. Rasor, English/British naval history to 1815: a guide to the literature (Westport, CT, and London, 2004).

58 G. E. Manwaring, ed., A bibliography of British naval history (London, 1930). This eccentric work is essentially a guide to periodical literature and manuscripts.

59 Robert Gardiner, Frigates of the Napoleonic Wars (London, 2000); Rif Winfield, British warships in the age of sail, 1793–1817: design, construction, careers and fates (London, 2005); Juan Carlos Mejías Tavero, Los navíos españoles de la batalla de Trafalgar, del astillero a la mar (2 vols., Madrid, 2005).

60 Larrie D. Ferreiro, Ships and science: the birth of naval architecture in the scientific revolution, 1600–1800 (Cambridge, MA, 2007). The only previous work on this theme by an historically aware naval architect is in some articles by D. K. Brown, particularly his ‘The form and speed of sailing warships’, Mariner's Mirror, 84 (1998), pp. 298–307.

61 Conrad Gill, The naval mutinies of 1797 (Manchester, 1913). The only recent studies of the mutinies are N. A. M. Rodger, ‘Mutiny or subversion? Spithead and the Nore’, in Thomas Bartlett et al., eds., 1798: A bicentenary perspective (Dublin, 2003), pp. 549–64; and Brown, A. G., ‘The Nore Mutiny: sedition or ship's biscuits? A re-appraisal’, Mariner's Mirror, 92 (2006), pp. 60–74CrossRefGoogle Scholar. There is also a valuable but as-yet unpublished collection of conference papers edited by Ann Coats and Philip MacDougall.

62 With the conspicuous exceptions of P. K. O'Brien and Paul Kennedy.