Age of Sail Naval Non-Fiction Section
AOS Naval Non-Fiction - Biographical
Non-Fiction books which are biographies of specific officers or men, discussion of a particular officers tactics or battles, etc during the Age of Sail.
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The Life of Captain Frederick Marryat
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- By David Hannay
"If you seek to understand nautical fiction, you must start with Frederick Marryat."
People the world over have thrilled to the fictional exploits of Horatio Hornblower, Jack Aubrey, Nicholas Ramage and others. But few know that these characters, along with the modern nautical fiction genre itself, can be traced in large part to the writings of one man-Frederick Marryat. Even fewer know that Marryat personally experienced many of the events he described.
Admiral Lord Howe: A Biography
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- By David Syrett
This original and thoroughly researched book is the first and only scholarly biography of Admiral Lord Howe who served in four wars, and who was not only a figure of major historical importance but also one of the great British admirals of the Age of Fighting Sail. This book makes a unique contribution and fills a large gap in British naval history. Admiral Howe's adventures included: Serving as a midshipman in one of the ships on Anson's expedition to the South Seas. He carried out Pitt's raids on the French coast in the Seven Year's War and then led the British attack at Quiberon Bay. He sought to forestall the American Revolutionary War by negotiating with Benjamin Franklin. In the first years of the American War he commanded the squadron in America and later conducted the Third Relief of Gibraltar (1783). He served as First Lord of the Admiralty in the government of the Younger Pitt. He commanded the Channel Fleet in the French Revolutionary War and defeated the French on the Glorious First of June.
In the Shadow of Nelson: The Life of Admiral Lord Collingwood
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- By Denis Orde
Vice Admiral Cuthbert (Cuddy) Collingwood may have been 10 years older than Horatio Nelson but he was Nelson's close friend from the outset. They served together for over 30 years and only at Trafalgar, was Nelson his superior officer.returncharacterreturncharacterThe relationship is all the stranger as their temperaments greatly differed. Collingwood was reserved, austere and shy but utterly competent which was why Nelson's meteoric career was so closely linked to his. Collingwood's reputation was made in battles such as The Glorious First of June (1794) and Cape St Vincent (1797). Collingwood's career survived reverses; he was court-martialed in 1777 by a commander for whom he had no respect. He was acquitted. Collingwood in The Royal Sovereign led the lee column at Trafalgar. After assuming command of the Fleet on Nelson's death he was the author of the famous Trafalgar Despatch that announced the victory and death of Nelson to the Nation. He became Commander in Chief Mediterranean Fleet but was never to return home. He died at seain 1810. He is buried beside Nelson in St. Paul's Cathedral.
The Men Who Spoke to Hornblower
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- By Edited by T. M. Grundner
Millions of readers have thrilled to the high seas adventures of characters such as: Horatio Hornblower, Jack Aubrey and Nicholas Ramage. They are characters in nautical fiction, but their exploits are based on people whose contributions and courage were very real indeed.
Could Hornblower have possibly been unaware of Rodney's famous maneuver at the Battle of the Saints? Could Aubrey not have been influenced by Nelson's technique at the Battle of the Nile? Would Ramage have ever proceeded into a fleet action without the signaling system devised by Howe? Would any of our literary heroes have been unaware of the exploits of Anson, Hawke, Duncan and Keppel?.
The Memoirs of Sir Sidney Smith: Volumes I and II
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- By Edward Howard
Who was the greatest British admiral of the Napoleonic Era? Horatio Nelson? Perhaps. But, great as Nelson was, a very strong case could be made that Sir Sidney Smith was at least his equal. His exploits were every bit as daring as those of Nelson, and in some ways he accomplished even more. But Nelson got the "good press" and Smith did not, and does not even today.
John Paul Jones: Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy
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- By Evan Thomas
John Paul Jones, at sea and in the heat of the battle, was the great American hero of the Age of Sail. He was to history what Patrick O'Brian's Jack Aubrey and C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower are to fiction. Ruthless, indomitable, clever; he vowed to sail, as he put it, "in harm's way." Evan Thomas's minute-by-minute re-creation of the bloodbath between Jones's Bonhomme Richard and the British man-of-war Serapis off the coast of England on an autumn night in 1779 is as gripping a sea battle as can be found in any novel.