Illustrated Companion to Nelson's Navy

by Nicholas Blake

Book Overview

No other period of history has spawned such a huge fictional oeuvre as the Nelsonic era. Marryat, Forester, Pope, Kent, Woodman, Donachie and O'Brian are some of the authors whose have fought against... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0811732754
• ISBN13: 9780811732758
• Release Date: September 2005
• Publisher: Stackpole Books
• Length: 2 Pages
• Weight: 1.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 7.8" x 9.7"

Customer Reviews

Much praised and enjoyed by many...

I fail to understand why I should pay attention to a review that pans this book ,(Richard Lawrence) which has been praised and enjoyed by many, myself included, and pans it on the basis of what clearly must be a personal or professional grudge against the publisher or co-author. Bizarre to say the least. I think for the reader of Hornblower or the Jack Aubrey novels, this book opens up a world of fascinating and most useful knowledge that wonderfully complements the reading of these novels. It also stands alone and a comprehensive and richly detailed glimpse of this remarkable period of naval history. I'm sure a second edition would set to rights the occasional factural errors. Cheers, Peter Lower, Port Hope, Ontario Canada.

An excellent value

The previous reviewers have said it all, and well. I'll just add my weight and say that the book is packed with just the kind of information that someone new to the subject wants, is an excellent value and a great companion to whatever nautical fiction series you may be reading. It's true that some illustrations will make you scratch your head (What is the purpose of the painting of H.M.S. Victory on pg. 24 that looks like it was done by a second-grader?) but the vast majority are helpful. If the topic becomes a hobby, you will want more technical drawings of the ships and it will be time to pay more for a book with a more specific subject. As an introduction, this book is first-rate.

Finally, a clear explanation for the fiction series

This book is full of clear illustrations and explanations of the main aspects of naval life and operations. I'm working my way through the O'Brian series and this book is quite helpful when I can't remember a brig from a sloop or whether the topsails are above or below the topgallants. My brother is reading the Hornblower series and he'll get a birthday present of this book. I especially like the references to the multiple fictional series that appear throughout the sidebars and main text.Don't look for long, drawn-out technical specifications in this book. It covers a wide variety of topics at just enough detail to appreciate the historical accuracy and color of the fiction.`

A Must-have for all Nelson and Navy fans

This is an excellent and well-researched book. It brilliantly recreates life aboard ship from the day to day matters of diet, dress, pay and conditions to the weightier matters or mutiny, weaponry and war. There are full accounts of famous battles with battle plans, maps, diagrams and descriptions of the different classes of ships, and full colour illustrations. Everything you ever wanted to know about naval life in Nelson's era is here and as the book puts the characters of Forester, O'Brian, Kent and others in a historical context, it's also great for fans of naval fiction. Fascinating and a jolly good read.

Excellent Companion Book for Nautical Fiction

"The Illustrated Companion to Nelson's Navy" is a wonderful repository of information about ships, life at sea, and naval warfare during the era of Jack Aubrey, Richard Bolitho, and Horation Hornblower (frequent mention of these and other fictional Royal Navy officers is made in the book, placing them in the real life context). The range of material covered is very broad, and it is attractively and concisely presented, often in a graphical or tabular form. The book is illustrated with hundreds of drawings, paintings and diagrams, many of them from contemporary sources. If you want information about ship types, naval weapons, life on board, battles, ship handling, sails and rigging, watches and bells, rates of pay, distribution of prize money, and seemingly almost anything else you can think of, this is a very handy place to find it. I strongly recommend this book for anyone interested in learning about the background to the novels of Patrick O'Brian, Alexander Kent, Dudley Pope, and C.S. Forester.