The Royal Navy 1793–1815

The Royal Navy 1793–1815
Author: Gregory Fremont-Barnes
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 186
Release: 2013-02-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 1472802004

By the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 Britain was the undisputed master of the seas, owing to the power and strength of the Royal Navy. Its fleets, comprising ships of the line, frigates, and gunboats, had doubled in size since the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793, totalling almost a thousand capital vessels. This book examines the commanders, men, and ships of the Royal Navy during the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, and discusses the Navy's command structure (from the Admiralty down to ship level) and its organization at sea. The tactics employed in action by a fleet, squadron, and individual ship, respectively are also discussed, as are the medical services providing a fascinating insight into the navy that ruled the waves.

The Royal Navy 1793-1800

The Royal Navy 1793-1800
Author: Mark Jessop
Publisher: Pen & Sword History
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2018
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781526720337

France declared war upon the British in 1793. The burden to conduct a long conflict proved heavy for that island nation. Poverty increased. Liberties and freedoms were sometimes taken away. Thousands of men had to leave their families, and disease, desertion and death meant that many never returned. At first the Royal Navy barely had enough warships to cope, but eight years later she had more than enough. By that time a threat of invasion towards Ireland prompted Parliament to enact a new nation, christened The United Kingdom of Great Britain. As such, 1800 became the final year of the old Kingdom of Great Britain. As she passed away, many of her men and women might have wondered as to what had made her navy a true Neptune. What had assisted the slow birth of a naval 'superpower'? This book seeks to answer that very question.

Nelson's Navy

Nelson's Navy
Author: Brian Lavery
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 66
Release: 2020-07-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 1472841352

The perfect guide to Nelson's Navy for all those with an interest in the workings of the great fleet.

A Social History of the Navy 1793-1815

A Social History of the Navy 1793-1815
Author: Michael Lewis
Publisher: Greenhill Books
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2006-02-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 9781861762320

This finely researched book is a portrait of the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic wars; but it is particularly a portrait of the Navy's people, of the officers and men who formed that formidable fighting force made popular by novels of C.S. Forester and Patrick O'Brian. These men were assembled from all classes in society and came from all parts of the British Isles and so the social history of the Navy demonstrates a complete cross-section of contemporary life, and the divisions aboard ship, between quarter deck and lower deck for instance, reflected divisions on land. But parentage and social background form only a small fragment of the story. The author follows their lives from the cradle to the grave and paints a detailed picture of both the expectations and the reality of life at sea. He describes how men came to go to sea and explains the volunteer, the press and the quota; the story of officer-entry is dealt with, along with the whole complex business of shipboard and naval hierarchy. Pay, prize money and other inducements are explained along with insight into the unhappier predicament of half-pay. In the twenty-two years of war the cost in lives was heavy and every sailor was confronted by the persistent and daily dangers of the sea itself, the enemy and disease. If he was lucky enough to survive then an officer retired ashore on half-pay, not rich but proud of his service; a sailor from the lower deck might find a snug berth in one of the naval hospitals. He would have little but then he never expected much. First published in 1960, Lewis' book is a masterful account of how the men of the Nelsonic navy, at sea in those far-distant storm-beaten ships', organized their insular social world.

Sustaining the Fleet, 1793-1815

Sustaining the Fleet, 1793-1815
Author: Roger Knight
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer
Total Pages: 266
Release: 2010
Genre: History
ISBN: 1843835649

An assessment of the work of the contractors who were commissioned by the Victualling Board to provision the fleet in this period. Provisioning the fleet, and the army overseas, during the French Wars of 1793-1815 was a major undertaking. This book explains how the Victualling Board in London handled this enormous task, focusing in particular on contractors -that is the merchants and brokers, who provided a vast range of commodities including flour and biscuit, salt beef and pork, as well as huge quantities of fresh water and coal, and every other item needed. It shows how these merchants could be large or small concerns, and provides detailed case studies of different kinds of contractors, including examples of contractors based both in Britain and in the navy's overseas bases. The book demonstrates how, overall, the contracting system represented the mobilisation of a substantial part of the British economy for war; how the performance of contracting was effective, with little or no corruption; and how the contractors took considerable financial risks and made only reasonable margins. It assesses the performance of the Victualling Board, arguing that this was good, and that the problem in the major area of weakness - accounting - was quickly addressed following a major crisis in 1808-09. It concludes that this was "an impressive performance" by the state, but that the overwhelming advantage was the resilience of the market, and that it was "upon the success of the contractors that the war at sea was won." For most of his career, ROGER KNIGHT was on the staff of the National Maritime Museum, leaving as Deputy Director in 2000. Since then he has taught at the Greenwich Maritime Institute at the University of Greenwich, where he is currently Visiting Professor of Naval History. MARTIN WILCOX completed a doctorate in maritime history at the University of Hull, and has been employed as postdoctoral research fellow at Greenwich Maritime Institute since 2006.

The Royal Navy in the Napoleonic Age

The Royal Navy in the Napoleonic Age
Author: Mark Jessop
Publisher: Pen and Sword History
Total Pages: 192
Release: 2020-02-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 152672040X

In 1801 the newly forged United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland commenced life at war with France and her allies and remained so until 1815. After 1812 she had to shoulder the extra burden of a war against the United States of America. With conflict on multiple fronts, hardships continued to be inflicted at home. Trade was made precarious. People became bone-weary of hostilities and the threat of invasion ran high. Napoléon Bonaparte was no ordinary opponent, and the United States navy showed the world the worth of her ships, but what stood in their way was the Royal Navy. Despite notable losses, after the victory of Trafalgar in 1805 she dominated the seas. Although not the only means, her warships were the nation’s first line of defence that helped keep British shores safe. As the era ended it was obvious the navy had to change. Steam began to alter perspectives with new opportunities. From the vantage point of later decades it could be seen what the Royal Navy had once been and still was. A naval superpower. Britain’s oldest continual military force. The senior service.

Science, Utility and British Naval Technology, 1793–1815

Science, Utility and British Naval Technology, 1793–1815
Author: Roger Morriss
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 406
Release: 2020-10-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000203735

During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, the technology employed by the British navy changed not just the material resources of the British navy but the culture and performance of the royal dockyards. This book examines the role of the Inspector General of Naval Works, an Admiralty office occupied by Samuel Bentham between 1796 and 1807, which initiated a range of changes in dockyard technology by the construction of experimental vessels, the introduction of non-recoil armament, the reconstruction of Portsmouth yard, and the introduction of steam-powered engines to pump water, drive mass-production machinery and reprocess copper sheathing. While primarily about the technology, this book also examines the complementary changes in the industrial culture of the dockyards. For it was that change in culture which permitted the dockyards at the end of the Wars to maintain a fleet of unprecedented size and engage in warfare both with the United States of America and with Napoleonic Europe.

A History of the Royal Navy

A History of the Royal Navy
Author: Martin Robson
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 308
Release: 2014-03-27
Genre: History
ISBN: 0857723448

The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars were the first truly global conflicts. The Royal Navy was a key player in the wider wars and, for Britain, the key factor in her eventual emergence as the only naval power capable of sustained global hegemony. The most iconic battles of any era were fought at sea during these years - from the Battle of the Nile in 1798 to Nelson's momentous victory at Trafalgar in October 1805. In this period, the Navy had reached a peak of efficiency and was unrivalled in manpower and technological strength. The eradication of scurvy in the 1790s had a significant impact on the health of sailors and, along with regular supplies of food and water, gave the British an advantage over their rivals in battle. As well as naval battles, the Navy also undertook amphibious operations, capturing many of France's Caribbean colonies and Dutch colonies in the East Indies and Ceylon; this Imperial dimension was integral to British strength and counteracting French success on continental Europe. This book looks at the history of the Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, 1793-1815, from a broad perspective, examining the strategy, operations and tactics of British seapower. While it delves into the details of Royal Navy operations such as battle, blockade, commerce protection and exploration, it also covers a myriad of other aspects often overlooked in narrative histories such as the importance of naval logistics, transport, relations with the army and manning. An assessment of key naval figures and combined eyewitness accounts situate the reader firmly in Nelson's navy. Through an exploration of the relationship between the Navy, trade and empire, Martin Robson highlights the contribution Royal Navy made to Britain's rise to global hegemony through the nineteenth century Pax Britannica.

Britain Against Napoleon

Britain Against Napoleon
Author: Roger Knight
Publisher: Penguin UK
Total Pages: 757
Release: 2013-10-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 0141977027

From Roger Knight, established by his multi-award winning book The Pursuit of Victory as 'an authority ... none of his rivals can match' (N.A.M. Rodger), Britain Against Napoleon is the first book to explain how the British state successfully organised itself to overcome Napoleon - and how very close it came to defeat. For more than twenty years after 1793, the French army was supreme in continental Europe, and the British population lived in fear of French invasion. How was it that despite multiple changes of government and the assassination of a Prime Minister, Britain survived and won a generation-long war against a regime which at its peak in 1807 commanded many times the resources and manpower? This book looks beyond the familiar exploits of the army and navy to the politicians and civil servants, and examines how they made it possible to continue the war at all. It shows the degree to which, as the demands of the war remorselessly grew, the whole British population had to play its part. The intelligence war was also central. Yet no participants were more important, Roger Knight argues, than the bankers and traders of the City of London, without whose financing the armies of Britain's allies could not have taken the field. The Duke of Wellington famously said that the battle which finally defeated Napoleon was 'the nearest run thing you ever saw in your life': this book shows how true that was for the Napoleonic War as a whole. Roger Knight was Deputy Director of the National Maritime Museum until 2000, and now teaches at the Greenwich Maritime Institute at the University of Greenwich. In 2005 he published, with Allen Lane/Penguin, The Pursuit of Victory: The Life and Achievement of Horatio Nelson, which won the Duke of Westminster's Medal for Military History, the Mountbatten Award and the Anderson Medal of the Society for Nautical Research. The present book is a culmination of his life-long interest in the workings of the late 18th-century British state.

Nelson's Navy

Nelson's Navy
Author: Philip Haythornthwaite
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 148
Release: 2012-04-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 1780966415

Despite the many celebrated victories of the British Army during the Napoleonic Wars, the role of the Royal Navy should never be overlooked. The 'wooden walls' formed the country's first and most important line of defence, and ranged throughout the world to protect Britain's trade-routes and in support of the land forces and overseas possessions. This book covers the huge variations in uniforms not just in the Navy but the Royal Marines and Infantry regiments which served alongside naval crews. It also looks at the organisation, training and recruitment of the force and corrects a number of misconceptions regarding impressment and training.