AOS Naval Non Fiction - General
General Non-Fiction books about the Navies of the world during the Age of Sail.
- Details
- By: Hampton Sides
- Title: In the Kingdom of Ice: The Grand and Terrible Polar Voyage of the USS Jeannette by Hampton Sides
- First Published by: Doubleday
- First Published Format: HC
- First Published Date: 2014
- Details
- By: Hampton Sides
- Title: The Wide Wide Sea: Imperial Ambition, First Contact and the Fateful Final Voyage of Captain James Cook
- First Published by: Michael Joseph
- First Published Format: HC
- First Published Date: 11 April 2024
- ISBN-10: 0241437334
- ISBN-13: 978-0241437339
- Details
- By: Philip MacDougall
- Title: Islamic Seapower during the Age of Fighting Sail
- First Published by: Boydell Press
- First Published Format: HC
- First Published Date: 17 November 2017
- ISBN-10: 1783272309
- ISBN-13: 978-1783272303
- Details
- By: Augustine H. Kobayashi
- Title: Naval Warfare under the Byzantine Empire: From Justinian I to the Fourth Crusade
- First Published by: Pen & Sword
- First Published Format: HC
- First Published Date: 16 March 2026
- ISBN-10: 1036144941
- ISBN-13: 978-1036144944
- Details
- By: Robert Gardiner (Editor)
- Title: The Line of Battle: The Sailing Warship, 1650-1840
- Series: Conway's History of the Ship
- First Published by: Conway Maritime Press Ltd
- First Published Format: HC
- First Published Date: 1992
- ISBN-10: 1557505012
- ISBN-13: 978-1557505019
- Details
- By: Andrew D. Lambert
- Title: The Last Sailing Battlefleet: Maintaining Naval Mastery, 1815-50
- First Published by: Brasseys Publications
- First Published Format: HC
- First Published Date: 1991
- ISBN-10: 0851775918
- ISBN-13: 978-0851775913
- Details
- By: David Craddock
- Title: What Ship, Where Bound?: A History of Visual Communication at Sea
- First Published by: Seaforth Publishing
- First Published Format: PB
- First Published Date: 2 February 2021
- ISBN-10: 1526784823
- ISBN-13: 978-1526784827
- Details
- By: Michael G. Laramie
- Title: The Age of Sail 1697–1814: The Brown Water Navies of North America
- First Published by: Westholme Publishing
- First Published Place: UK
- First Published Format: HC
- First Published Date: 5 June 2026
- ISBN-10: 1594164630
- ISBN-13: 978-1594164637
- Details
- By: Benjamin C. Schaffer
A revealing study on the little-known and misunderstood provincial navies established by North American British colonists
In The First Fleets, Benjamin C. Schaffer reveals how, contrary to widespread beliefs, the American colonies had a long tradition of independent naval defense decades before the Revolution. He demonstrates that Anglo-American governments established and maintained significant provincial naval forces and that the history of provincial navies illuminates broader aspects of colonial history and the colonies’ ultimate break with the British Crown.
Based on meticulous research, Schaffer recounts the sea-borne threats that American colonies faced from the French, Spanish, pirates, and others. He reviews colonial governance and the relationships between colonial governments and Great Britain. Highlighting Britain’s scant naval power in North America, Schaffer demonstrates how the vulnerable coastal colonies undertook their own self-defense.
Schaffer’s readable study offers many fascinating episodes from colonial history. Establishing a navy was controversial in pacifist-minded, Quaker-dominated Pennsylvania. South Carolina deployed its scout-boat navy to pursue enslaved Africans who fled colonial capture. The first paper money issued in North America was an initiative to pay for a naval expedition against French Quebec in 1690. These and other episodes show the intimate connection between these little-known provincial navies and the major sociopolitical developments of their day.
The First Fleets will be of great interest to historians and readers of early American history, particularly colonial maritime and naval activities. Readers interested in the political and military dynamics of pre-Revolutionary America, as well as enthusiasts of naval history and maritime trade, will find The First Fleets both a valuable resource and an engrossing narrative.
- Title: The First Fleets: Colonial Navies of the British Atlantic World, 1630–1775
- First Published by: University Alabama Press
- First Published Place: US
- First Published Format: HC
- First Published Date: 15 May 2025
- ISBN-10: 0817322345
- ISBN-13: 978-0817322342
- Details
- By: Joseph Muscat
- Title: Naval Activities of the Knights of St John, 1530-1798
- First Published by: Midsea Books
- First Published Format: HC
- First Published Date: 2002