Age of Sail Naval Non-Fiction Section
AOS Naval Non-Fiction - Famous Ships
Non-Fiction books which are about specific famous ships from the Age of Sail.
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Trincomalee: The Last of Nelson's Frigates
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- By Andrew D. Lambert
Trincomalee belonged to a large class of 38-gun Fifth Rates that have a strong claim to being the Royal Navy's standard frigate type for the whole of the Napoleonic Wars. Following the success of the Shannon against the Chesapeake in 1813, the class was chosen as the post-war mass-production design. Intended to replace large numbers of worn-out war-built frigates, this programme emphasised quality of construction for longevity, and included a number built of teak at Bombay in India. One of these was Trincomalee, launched in 1817. This book reflects the multiple significance of the ship - its place in the development of the frigate, the importance of the teak building programme in India, its role in the changing world of the nineteenth-century Royal Navy, and even its last contribution as a training vessel for young seamen. Because the teak hull was considered resistant to extremes of climate, most of the ship's active life was spent on American stations - the West Indies, Newfoundland, and later the north Pacific and Arctic - combining imperial policing duties with oceanography and exploration.
HMS Warrior 1860
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- By Andrew D. Lambert
Built to underline Victorian Britain's supremacy at sea,HMS Warrior was the world's first iron-hulled, armoured warship. In 1979 she was rescued from ignominy as an oil jetty in Milford Haven to become the subject of an ambitious restoration programme, and for the last twenty years has been open to the public at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard. The story of her revolutionary design, career history and the strange twists of fate that enabled her to survive into an age when her significance in naval architecture would be fully recognised, is described in detail together with the meticulous research that went into faithfully restoring every aspect of the ship.
The Frigate Surprise: The Design, Construction and Careers of Jack Aubrey's Favourite Command
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- By Brian Lavery and Geoff Hunt
There is no more famous a vessel in naval fiction than HMS Surprise, the principal ship in Patrick O'Brian's much-celebrated "Aubrey-Maturin" series of sea stories. Yet, the frigate also had a true historical career serving in both the French and British navies before being captured by Inconstant in the Mediterranean in 1796 and delivered into the fictional captaincy of Jack Aubrey.
A Frigate of King George
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- By Brian Vale
Life and Duty on a British Man-of-war
What was life really like on a wooden warship? This book takes a look at life aboard the 42-gun frigate HMS "Doris" - launched from Bombay in 1807 and finally retired at Valparaiso in 1829. Vale concentrates on her service on the South American station under Sir Thomas Hardy as she protected British interests during the stormy years of South American Independence. The author covers in vivid detail the operations in Brazil, Chile and Peru, both from the political and military angle and from the perspective of the sailors, to give a fascinating account of the everyday concerns and routines of life on shipboard.
Fame: The Salem Privateer
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- By Capt. Michael H. Rutstein
The first section of this 208-page book explores the career of the 1812 privateer Fame in depth, relying on historical documents and five of her original logbooks. The second section covers the building of a replica of this historic vessel in 2003 at the Essex boatyard of Harold Burnham, whose family has been building boats since the 1640s. Includes background information on schooner design, privateering, and the War of 1812, as well as the maritime history of Salem, Massachusetts and the surrounding communities. Over 60 illustrations including maps, portraits, and reproduced documents.
Ironsides!
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- By Charles E. Brodine Jr., Michael J. Crawford & Christine F. Hughes
The Ship, the Men and the Wars of the USS Constitution:
On October 21st 1797, the 44-gun frigate Constitution slid down the ramp at Hartt's shipyard and into the chilly waters of Boston Harbor. While the workmen were proud of their efforts, no one-but NO one-thought she would still be serving her country over 200 years later.