Customer Reviews

Decision at Trafalgar: The Story of the Greatest British Naval Battle of the Age of Nelson (Heart of Oak Sea Classics)

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This is the best written and best researched treatment of the Battle of Trafalgar and Nelson's death that I have ever read -- and I read a LOT of naval history! Most discussions of Trafalgar concentrate on Nelson's slow death on the orlop deck, while the really decisive actions of the battle rage out of view. In this book Pope gives readers a thorough and vivid discussion of exactly what happened between the whole engaging fleets, AFTER Nelson was hit and taken below. The victory was Nelson's, from his strategy and leadership, but many other men on both sides fought to reach that crucial military decision. Dudley Pope brings this to life. If you've ever wondered why Nelson's last order, knowing he was mortally wounded, was for his flag captain to anchor the British fleet, read on! I also highly recommend Pope's other works, including his fictional Lord Ramage series, which gets visibly better from book to book.

This book is simply perfect. Not only does it recount the true events surrounding the Battle of Trafalgar off the coast of Spain, it is an excellent introductory book to the genre. As a fan of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin tales and CS Forester's Hornblower, this new collection of nautical books is a must read.

Dudley Pope's narrative flows smoothly making this one of those books you can't put down until you're finished. The nautical terms of the 1790's ~ 1800's are explained to satisfy both the novice and the well read. Whether this is your first Age of Sail book or just another in a long list, this is a must read that you will cherish.

Trafalgar was an amazing, dramatic event. The grandeur of the ships and the legendary characters involved are well described in this book, and you can tell that Dudley Pope was a man who was fascinated with the age of fighting sail. He was also a very good writer and he described it well.
Pope started out by describing the voyage of the HMS Pickle, the 4 gun schooner which carried news of Nelson's victory as well as his death back to England immediately after the battle. This small part of the great story of Trafalgar might be ignored or briefly mentioned by another author, but Pope related it as the dramatic story that it was. He described the heavy weather which battered the tiny, unescorted ship through hostile waters during her 1000 mile voyage home, causing her to leak badly. He described the overland voyage to London by the young Lieutenant Laponetiere, who arrived at the Admiralty, utterly exhausted, late at night to deliver his stunning news to an elderly, overworked clerk. And all this is just the first chapter.
Subsequent chapters describe the British, French and Spanish navies of the time, the strategies of Napoleon and Pitt, Nelson's life and the relationship he had with his Captains, the life of the common sailor, and even the conditions in Cadiz in 1805. Pope's writing is full of color and detail, and this book moves quickly.
Pope managed to describe the action of the battle very clearly with the use of diagrams of the battle as a whole and of individual matchups between opponents. He made the complex action understandable, and described the dramatic death of Nelson without getting bogged down in melodrama.
The aftermath of the battle, as well as it's importance to the Napoleonic wars and the future of the Royal Navy, are insightfully described towards the end of the book.

Without a doubt, one of the more entertaining and informative retelling of the Battle of Trafalgar. The author put all his talents of a fictional writer and applied it nicely in this well searched and written account of the Trafalgar campaign and battle. I am familiar with the author's work on Copenhegan which was also nicely done.

You can probably compared this book with David Howarth's work although Decision at Trafalgar provides far more details and more insights into the entire campaign and battle then Howarth. The book read well and even a casual reader can get into the narrative. One of the better books on the subject, belong on a bookshelves of anyone who got an interest in naval warfare during the Napoleonic era.

As both a Patric O'Brien fan and a lover of history works, I very much appreciate the novelistic approach that Mr. Pope takes with the book, which adds much character to the writingas well as a flavor of the life and times. Some detail is sacrificed, but the book is easily readible and the account of the ship actions themselves with included diagrams helps make this complex engagement easy to comprehend.

I did not love this book as much as the other reviewers. I guess as an American I am just not that interested in the Battle of Trafalgar. In any case, I found the descriptions of the battle hard to follow even with the diagrams. The author, Pope, assumes a background in British naval history that probably all British school children get, but as an American I do not believe Trafalgar was ever mentioned in school. Key pieces of information are left out of the book. For example, I could not find anywhere in this book mention of the year in which the battle took place. I believe it was 1805.

Furthermore the descriptions of the battle are distressingly vulgar and gruesome. I know that cannon poundings in the age of sail were like that, but Pope seems to take delight in detailing the slaughter. I came away from this book depressed about our human nature and our energetic willingness to destroy each other.

Some admirable features of the book are Pope's even handedness in not telling the story just from the British point of view and that Pope did a good job of setting the context and outcomes of the battle. Nevertheless even here the author assumes a lot background knowledge that at least for me were not immediately available.