Customer Reviews

Men-of-War

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book covers some of the ground of Brian Lavery's 'Nelson's Navy'. Lavery's book is much more comprehensive and much larger. O'Brian's book has some color plates, but it was really written to take advantage of his name. I'd buy Lavery's book first, or "The Young Sea Officer's Sheet Anchor, or a Key to the Leading of Rigging and to Practical Seamanship" by Darcy Lever (a contemporary book).

I cannot claim to any nautical experience, however, I do claim to be one of Patrick O'Brian's all time fans. This book has helped me understand what the ____ some of the late 18th and early 19th century nautical terms and concepts mean. So, to keep this concise, if you love Patrick O'Brian's seafaring novels (start with Master and Commander if you are uninitiated to this amazing series), but are not a sailer yourself- then this is the book for you. It is fairly short, but interesting. You will be briefed on life in the navy, parts of the ships, names and functions of sails, combat, and many other topics that can confuse.

I also know that this book would serve as an excellent source for a H.S. to college level paper/presentation on life in Nelson's navy. The length and writting style make it highly readable. Also recomended are Dean King's lexicons on Patrick O'Brian's books ("A Sea of Words"). They include several sections on the history of the era, and are very interesting, as well as including an extensive dictionary of terms, old words, places and events.

If you already know a great deal about Nelson's Navy, then this might be a little too basic.

While written in Mr. O'Brian's usual lucid style and accompanied by useful line drawings and full-color plates of paintings, the "book" is so thinly written that really only qualifies as an appendix to one of the Aubrey Maturin books. As an appendix packaged as a book, it offers only 91 pages of small paper size and large type. Perhaps it was meant to be a miniature "coffee table" item--to be bought as a present for others. Having now read nine of the Aubrey Maturin series and enjoyed them all, I have to say that this offering represents my only Patrick O'Brian experience in which I didn't get my money's worth.

This is a book of history-lite. Now that is not necessarily a bad thing in my view; far too many history books (& this comes from a History Major) are written by and for hyper-specialists. This book, however, hands you a lot of information quickly and in a relatively painless manner about the Royal Navy at the time of the Napoleonic Wars.

The book is divided more or less into topics, although some material "sloshes" over from chapter to chapter. The style is neither drily academic nor chatty -- it is not an ABC book, however, with definitions of every term. O'Brien assumes that you already know a little something about nautical terms and the warfare of the era.

If you are a historian, this is not such a good book -- you will not find enough footnotes or bibliographical material to follow through for further research. If you are merely into battles, again this book will be a disappointment; much like the Aubrey-Maturin books, this work is as much concerned (if not moreso) with minor details of daily life and the ins and outs of naval bureaucracy as it is about battle.

If you want to know something about the topic, this is a decent introduction.

First off, I must say that I am a very big fan of Patrick O'Brians Aubrey/Maturin novels. It is because of them that I searched for this book. I am, as O'Brian's sailors would have it, "a daisy cutting landlubber" & the maritime terms in his books leave me lost. I hoped "Men-of-War" would help rectify this, so that I could tell a poop from a head, & a ship from a brig, but I'm still sadly confused!

Even tho "Men-of-War" is well illustrated, the captions discuss things that I still can't find in the pictures! There are diagrams of sails & decks, then the text mentions other sails (such as "studding sails") or locations on the decks that do not appear in the diagrams! Confused? You bet! About the only fact I learned from this book is that the sails could be rotated; in every other aspect I am still as "at sea" as I was before reading this.

Also, this book is very very thin. It simply isn't worth the price! (Luckily I got mine from the library!) I remain a fan of O'Brians novels, but will not look to him to clarify facts in the future...

Being a known Jane Austen buff, a colleague told me I ought to have a look at Patrick O'Brian's novels which cover the same period. It has often been remarked upon that Jane Austen ignored the wars taking place during her time. In fact, she did not. Key characters such as Captain Wentworth (Persuasion) and Fanny Price's brother William (Mansfield Park), were career shipmen whose merits are well-enunciated in her novels. Two of Miss (how everyone likes to call her "Miss"!) Austen's brothers were also career navymen. The Navy was all around her and she knew it but had no need, despite that famously interpreted reference to "rears and vices," to discuss Navy life or strategy.

Nevertheless, this reader is curious to know how these men lived away from the ordered, civilised life of those "three or four families" in that country village of which Austen writes and to which these men inevitably returned to marry. Here in MEN-OF-WAR: Life in Nelson's Navy, we learn about the ships, the gunnery, the lifestyle and the protocol of the 18th century British Navy which successfully defended England from an invasion led by Napoleon.

The information in this book is concise and easily comprehensible, thanks to an economical and cheerful writing style. Information is brilliantly illustrated by color photos of paintings, drawings, cartoons and models of sailing vessels.

On a final note, there is now a wave (pun intended) of interest in Patrick O'Brian as a result of the detailed film MASTERS AND COMMANDERS. The Navy lifestyle illustrated in this book is depicted in the film, to the advantage of both.

Wow, I wish this book were in print when I was busy devouring the Hornblower series and the whole panoply of books I read that dealt with the sailing war ships of the 18th and 19th centuries. This handy little book written by a well-respected author of such nautical fiction lays it all out here for those who want to be able actually 'see' what the ships he has been reading about were really like. O'Brian does a brilliant job of simply and succinctly describing the conditions and routines of the men who manned these man o' wars. As an added bonus the full color reproductions of paintings, drawings and diagrams are absolutely SUPER. If I were you, I would not hesitate to purchase this book. You will not be sorry, of that I am quite sure.

After reading Patrick O'Brian's book,my only complaint is I wish it were longer.This is a reference companion to his Aubrey/Maturin Novels and I feel compelled to read them all.I feel this book does exactly what it intends, take someone as green as I and get them excited about reading his books and doing some further research.Patrick o'Brian's love for the Royal Navy is contagious.

This is a concise, informative history lesson on the state of affairs aboard a "Man-of-War" during the time of the Aubrey/Maturin series.

By concise, I mean VERY. I read this book in an afternoon. That's not a complaint, but you should know what you are in for. I consider this a companion piece to my collection of Aubrey/Maturin books, not a stand-alone novel or history book.

It's handy to have as the illustrations explain basic things such as the layout of the ships, weapons and even how the career of a seaman could progress. If you were wondering what a "mizen" is or what the heck "shrouds" are for, this will fill in the blanks nicely. It's written with O'Brian's usual enthusiasm and expertise.

I bought this for under $5 and consider it a worthy purchase.

I ordered and read this book before I ordered Patrick O'Brian's complete Aubrey/Maturin novels. I knew I was going to have a vocabulary problem where Royal Navy Officers Ranks/ Rigging on Frigates and crew designations to say nothing of their "slang" was concerned. So with the book in one hand and a 1916 Canadian/English dictionary in the other I added 3 more pages of definitions to the original book as in "orlop" lowest deck of the ship, "sakers" artillery smaller than a demiculverin and on. The illustrations, magnificent paintings and photographs were essential to the visual understanding of the text and are awe inspiring to say the least. I had only 2 problems with the book: The basics of sea faring of the reader was taken for granted and once I got used to reading around the food droppings, stuck page and smears from the previous owners slops it was an excellent read.