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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- By: David Hannay
Plagued with gout and gambling debts, George Brydges Rodney fought against his fate to become a successful and respected man.
- Title: Rodney
- First Published by: Macmillan and Co.
- First Published Place: London
- First Published Format: HC
- First Published Date: 1891
- Details
- By: Brian Vale & Griffith Edwards
Details Thomas Trotter's important contributions, as a naval surgeon and after, to the eradication of scurvy and typhus, to the study of addiction, and to improved health and safety in mines. Thomas Trotter, after studying medicine at Edinburgh, began his naval career as a surgeon's mate in 1779 and saw continuous service up to the peace of 1802, rising as a result of great abilities and the right patronage to become Physician to the Channel Fleet, and being present at the great battles of Dogger Bank in 1781 and the Glorious First of June in 1794. As Physician to the Channel Fleet, he was a major player in the conquest of scurvy and the control of typhus and smallpox in the navy. After the peace he settled in Newcastle where he produced pioneering work on alcoholism and neurosis, as a result of which he is regarded as one of the founders of the field of addiction studies. This book provides an intimate account of naval life in the great age of sail from the perspective of a surgeon, describing the impact of Enlightenment ideas and new medical techniques, and showing how improved health was a crucial factor in making possible the British fleet's great victories in this period.
- Title: Physician to the Fleet: The Life and Times of Thomas Trotter, 1760-1832
- First Published by: Boydell Press
- First Published Format: HC
- First Published Date: 20 January 2011
- ISBN-10: 1845114469
- ISBN-13: 978-1843836049
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- By: William M. Fowler, Jr
Silas Talbot’s life illuminates his time―not with greater brightness than the lives of his more famous contemporaries, but with perhaps broader range and greater insight into the experiences and circumstances of a plain citizen of the new republic―a citizen whose bravery and energy helped to create it.
Silas Talbot was a farmer’s son who went to sea, learned the building trades, saved and invested his money wisely, married well several times, fought as a Rhode Island soldier in the Revolutionary War, became a lieutenant colonel, served with courage and competence, became a privateer and a prisoner-of-war in the conflict at sea, speculated in western lands, was elected to the New York State Legislature and the U.S. Congress, represented the interests of American sailors forced to serve in Britain’s navy, and finally achieved the rank of U.S. Navy captain and became the second commanding officer of the frigate USS Constitution.
- Title: Commanding Old Ironsides: The Life of Captain Silas Talbot
- First Published by: The Lyons Press
- First Published Place: US
- First Published Format: PB
- First Published Date: 7 May 2024
- ISBN-10: 1493077880
- ISBN-13: 978-1493077885
- Details
- By: Heather Noel-Smith & Lorna M. Campbell
- Title: Hornblower's Historical Shipmates: The Young Gentlemen of Pellew's Indefatigable
- First Published by: Boydell Press
- First Published Format: HC
- First Published Date: 27 September 2016
- ISBN-10: 1783270993
- ISBN-13: 9781783270996
- Details
- By: Ronald S. Coddington
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During the American Civil War, more than one hundred thousand men fought on ships at sea or on one of America’s great inland rivers. There were no large-scale fleet engagements, yet the navies, particularly the Union Navy, did much to define the character of the war and affect its length. The first hostile shots roared from rebel artillery at Charleston Harbor. Along the Mississippi River and other inland waterways across the South, Union gunboats were often the first to arrive in deadly enemy territory. In the Gulf of Mexico and along the Atlantic seaboard, blockaders in blue floated within earshot of gray garrisons that guarded vital ports. And on the open seas, rebel raiders wreaked havoc on civilian shipping. In Faces of the Civil War Navies, renowned researcher and Civil War photograph collector Ronald S. Coddington focuses his considerable skills on the Union and Confederate navies. Using identifiable cartes de visite of common sailors on both sides of the war, many of them never before published, Coddington uncovers the personal histories of each individual who looked into the eye of the primitive camera. These unique narratives are drawn from military and pension records, letters, diaries, period newspapers, and other primary sources. In addition to presenting the personal stories of seventy-seven intrepid volunteers, Coddington also focuses on the momentous naval events that ushered in an era of ironclad ships and other technical innovations. The fourth volume in Coddington’s series on Civil War soldiers, this microhistory will appeal to anyone with an interest in the Civil War, social history, or photography. The narratives and photographs in Faces of the Civil War Navies shed new light on a lesser-known part of our American story. Taken collectively, these "snapshots" remind us that the history of war is not merely a chronicle of campaigns won and lost, it is the collective personal odysseys of thousands of individual life stories. |
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- Title: Faces of the Civil War Navies: An Album of Union and Confederate Sailors
- First Published by: Johns Hopkins University Press
- First Published Place: US
- First Published Format: HC
- First Published Date: 30 October 2016
- ISBN-10: 1421421364
- ISBN-13: 9781421421360
- Details
- By: Bruce A. Castleman
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Explores the life and times of John Drake Sloat, the US Navy Pacific Squadron commander who occupied Moneterey and declared the annexation of California at the beginning of the war with Mexico. Knickerbocker Commodore chronicles the life of Rear Admiral John Drake Sloat, an important but understudied naval figure in US history. Born and raised by a slave-owning gentry family in New York’s Hudson Valley, Sloat moved to New York City at age nineteen. Bruce A. Castleman explores Sloat’s forty-five-year career in the Navy, from his initial appointment as midshipman in the conflicts with revolutionary France to his service as commodore during the country’s war with Mexico. As the commodore in command of the naval forces in the Pacific, Sloat occupied Monterey and declared the annexation of California in July 1846, controversial actions criticized by some and defended by others. More than a biography of one man, this book illustrates the evolution of the peacetime Navy as an institution and its conversion from sail to steam. Using shipping news and Customs Service records from Sloat’s merchant voyages, Castleman offers a rare and insightful perspective on American maritime history. |
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- Title: Knickerbocker Commodore: The Life and Times of John Drake Sloat, 1781-1867
- First Published by: Excelsior Editions
- First Published Format: Kindle
- First Published Date: 12 May 2016