Customer Reviews

Naval Warfare in the Age of Sail

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

 

 

This is an extremely well illustrated and beautiful volume, accompanied by interesting text--shedding light on the ships, battles, and men of the "age of sail". Bernald Ireland has written widely on this period. If you enjoy C.S. Forrester, James Nelson, Marryat, Pope, O'Brien, etc. but are basically a landlubber, you need this book. The illustrations are fascinating and the boxed inserts on notable admirals, ships, battles are a nice touch.

Ireland's history is excellent. It covers all of the major points, and gives good insight into topics that rarely make a basic history. His commentary on the major battles, tactics, and personalities is excellent. His background chapter on the Royal Navy provides important instruction on sailing and naval vocabulary. However, wonderful art and illustrations really make the book special. All too often, excellent histories are undone because readers can't picture the events. Ireland solves that problem for us. Every page includes relevant illustrations. We see the ships; we see the men; our minds can build an accurate and detailed picture of the events. Given that, the absence of maps in strange and dissappointing. But that's about the only criticism I can level at this otherwise outstanding volume.

I found this book appealing for the many color images presented of period paintings. The diagrams depicting the trim of the yards and sails during certain evolutions (e.g. tacking and boxhauling) also were informative.

Unfortunately, there are several inverted images. Examples include: p. 11 "Plymouth Dockyard" (Pocock); p. 135 "Admiral John Jervis" (John Hoppner); p. 196 "Forcing the Passage of the Sound 1807" (Robert Dodd); and p. 123 "Brunswick v. Vengeur 1794" (John Harvey).

I was also disappointed that the editors chose to split the image of "Howe on deck of Queen Charlotte" on pp. 132-3 across the page - Howe is bisected by the spine!

There were also some surprising technical errors. Unless many other sources are mistaken, Ireland's statement on p. 113 that a Sixth Rate was a commander's billet is problematic; all vessels that were "rated" were post ships and, thus, a post captain's command.

Although Hibernia (p. 185) certainly was enlarged relative to Ville de Paris 110, Hibernia was 'rated' at 110 guns, not 120 (citing Brian Lavery's "The Ship of the Line" and the Naval Chronicle. Of course, the relationship between rating and the actual number of guns was not precise. It is also interesting to compare the bows of Hibernia (p. 185) and Caledonia (p. 193); it appears that Caledonia does not exhibit the round bow, though in her draft (R. Gardiner - "Warships of the Napoleonic Wars," Naval Institute Press) the round bow is clearly indicated.

I found the book appealing from a visual perspective; if one is interested in finding quantitative detail regarding the ships of this period, other sources might be found more useful.

Ireland gives detailed verbal descriptions of naval battles that I was actually able to understand, no mean feat. He also posits reasons why some commanders made particular decisions in these battles. I also appreciated his biographical descriptions of figures in naval history.

The wealth of wonderful pictures and his ability to express tactics make this a fine book. If you pair it with Lambert's "War at Sea in the Age of Sail", for its grasp of history and strategy, you will end up with a nice understanding of the early British Navy.