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Nelson's Trafalgar: The Battle That Changed the World

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The british subtitled this book, "The biography of a battle" - which seems to much more accurately describes exactly what this book is - it treats the whole battle as a biography, allowing all the information to speak to build up a comprehensive picture of just what this battle meant - both in the lead up, and in the aftermath.

I would highly recommend this book to others who have not read much about sea battles of this period before. Adkins is enormously readable, his prose flows and is neatly interspersed with quotes of contemporarys both describing the battle, and everyday life where appropriate

The first part of the book is very much about the basics. There is a short introduction to Nelson's colourful life and career, a lot about the life and times of a seaman, and much useful information about life onboard ship in this period. Just what it was like to serve in the Nvy of George III. It was easy to understand the hardships and deprivation when reading this - the shortage of good food - which was generally maggoty or mouldy, or both. The smells from the lack of good sanitation, the terrible water which was unfiltered and stored in uncleaned barrels so that it soon became noxious and full of algae.

It was a hard life for anyone, and even Nelson did not touch land once for at least 2 years. The difference in life for officers and enlisted men was significant though. Conditions, food, clothing, position on board all played a significant role.

So the first part of this book sets the stage for the battle - it also dwells in excellent detail on the political situation, the pending Napoleonic invasion of Britain, the reaction, the blockades by British ships of French and Spanish ports, the lead up battles, such as that of the Nile, and so on.

The battle itself lasted but sixhours, and is discussed almost cannon blow by cannon blow. It is a confusing battle but Adkins is very clear with his detail and makes it enormously interesting. The aftermath of the battle, the messengers attempts to get to London, and the 'fruits' of trafalgar make up the last chapters.

It is a thoughtful book, written, I believe, with an eye on the novice reader. I did not find it talked-down to the reader though. Rather it used the social and military information as complimentary to the build up of the battle, as a reminder to the context it was fought in.

There are extremely useful illustrations and some maps in this to help the reader, they are easily referenced too

Overall I loved this book and will be recommending it to others. Given that we have just passed the 200th anniversary of it, it was published at a significant time and makes excellent reading.

This is in the balance an excellent work of naval history and truly readable. It is a well-paced account of the pivotal naval battle of the Napoleonic Wars, where a British fleet commanded by Lord Horatio Nelson engaged the combined fleet of the Spanish and French near Cadiz. The British decisively defeated the Combined Fleet, effectively ending Napoleon's naval ambitions and any question of a cross-channel invasion of England. Trafalgar was the last great naval battle between fleets of sailing ships, and led the way to the British domination of the seas during the 19th century.

The book is a page-turning, captivating account of the actual mechanics of a sea battle with sailing ships. Adkins has considerable skill in making dramatic even the preparations before the battle - for instance noting the chilling but necessary sand strewn on decks for aiding footing in slippery blood. The combat itself he describes with a cinematic vitality, his details of the five hours of combat endured by sailors on both sides evokes a truly hellish stew of violent chaos, splinters, and smoke. A glimpse of this reality was recently portrayed in the movie Master and Commander, where two contemporary ships blast away at point blank range with shattering violence.

The book makes considerable use of first person accounts, but these are predominantly British, as is the perspective of the book. In describing the aspects of the sailing ships the English perspective is given, usually with an added comment that French and Spanish conditions were similar. The decisive difference was in the clearly superior skill and training of the British sailors and gunners. And that made the difference in the battle.

Which leads me to what I think is the books one flaw - the emphasis on Nelson himself seems considerably misplaced. The title "Nelson's Trafalgar" is simply not born out by the argument of the book. There was very little strategic thinking or command tactical control of the battle - the shape of the battle took place on Nelson's plan roughly as the shape of the letter "pi", with the English fleet making up the two legs colliding at a right angle to the French and dividing the latter into thirds. This was anticipated by the French admirals, and it is also unclear that this strategy gave the British any tactical advantage since the long range gunnery of the French and Spanish was so poor. Nelson's idea was to engage the combined fleet in a "pell mell" battle - in other words to create a situation where there was no tactical fleet control of the battle. Furthermore Nelson was mortally wounded at the outbreak of the battle. In these conditions the outcome of the battle was decided by the skill of the average British gunner. Adkin's comments in this regard are nuanced but he clearly is uncritical of the glowing mythology built around Nelson's "brilliance." He is better to listen to the commander of the French fleet's comment, which he quotes: "to any other Nation the loss of a Nelson would have been irreparable, but in the British Fleet of Cadiz, every captain was a Nelson."

I'm a big fan of Roy Adkins, having read his books on archaeology--which I treasure on my bookshelves. Adkins magnificently details this historic naval battle between the French and Spanish on the one side and the British on the other. Adkins not only gives a memorable overview of the battle, but he also takes the time to explain various aspects of life at the time on board ship, as well as the reasons leading to the battle. What is also a great surprise is that there was a huge storm afterwards, in which more far people lost their lives than in the battle itself. The author then goes on to recount how the news was brought to England after the battle and how it spread to the rest of the world. This is a very stirring and often sad story, much recommended.

NELSON'S TRAFALGAR is a meticulously researched and detailed account of the last great sea battle between wooden sail ships. Mr. Adkins provides the political landscape leading up to the battle and then takes the reader through a blow-by-blow narrative of the conflict. Fortunately, many letters and reports survive describing the battle by eye witnesses and Mr. Adkins quotes extensively from them. The depictions of battle at sea in NELSON'S TRAFALGAR is not for the weak-at-heart and should dispell any notions of glorious swashbuckling, propagated by Hollywood and some works of fiction, in all but the most jaded romantic. In truth, fights between wooden ships of this era was like two large rafts with cannon firing at each other point blank. This is because the wooden hulls did little if anything to stop a cannon ball. Actually, it was even worse because the hulls would splinter when a ball passed through, turning into deadly scrapnel. The book is heavily footnoted, the notes placed at the back of the book out of the way of the narrative. There are several maps showing the position of the ships at different stages of the battle and charts of the area where the battle was fought plus a number of illustrations. A list of all the ships, their captains and the number of cannons is given. One learns much about the state of medicine in 1805 as well as how muskets and cannon were fired and about life aboard ship. It is interesting to note that roads in England at that time were mostly in a sorry state between towns, making me feel better about "primitive" 1800 America. NELSON'S TRAFALGAR contains a lot of information much suited to the naval history buff. While Mr. Adkins tries to expand the scope of the book perhaps to interest the general history reader, I think this one would be enjoyed mostly by sea dogs. It also would be an invaluable reference to anyone writing a realistic work of fiction about the wooden sail ship era.

Roy Adkins is not by trade a naval historian, but you wouldn't know it to read this book. Nelson's Trafalgar is a richly detailed, captivatingly written account of the famous battle that fits a niche in reading culture today, that of intelligent, smartly written, but digestible historical work.

Interspersing the excellent running narrative of the battle are vignettes that relate vast detail on life at sea, training, gunnery, life onboard ship, surgical teams treating casualties during battle, rations, and many other aspects of sailing life during this age. Additionally, a battle this complex is often difficult to mentally picture while reading, so Adkins includes numerous illustrations that depict the ship movements throughout the battle. The writing style is fluid and energetic, the prose never dull or dry as in so many scholarly works. Adkins makes excellent use of first person source material, quoting widely from remembrances of participants, and including as much French and Spanish refererence material as possible.(The lack of French and Spanish first hand accounts contrast the trove of material by the British. This points to the importance of this battle in British popular memory through the years and Napoleon's attempts to gloss over the battle.)

This book is one of my favorites of the year. It is rare to simply enjoy reading a book so much, especially one on a topic that has been written about endlessly. Well worth the money.

This is a well-written work about one of the great naval engagements of history. What distinguishes it from so many of the others about this battle is that it focuses upon the actual experience of battle. While Nelson's role and personality should not be underestimated, other recent books do a good job of dealing with his life. This book effectively conveys just how frightening and horrifying it must have been to have participated in a battle of this nature. Trapped within incredibly cramped work spaces, poorly fed, and subject to disease, a naval battle in 1805 was a truly hellish experience. Splinters cut men into pieces, broadsides littered the decks with body parts, blood ran off the sides of the ship. Dante could not have invented a level of Hades that approximated a ship of the line under fire in 1805. This book should be read in conjunction with John Keegan's The Price of Admiralty for a sense of perspective.

Roy Adkins' book, "Nelson's Trafalgar," is a detailed well rendered version of the great sea battle that doomed any chance for Napoleon to claim control over the seas and invade Britain.

The book is a blow by blow account of the planning for the battle and how the plans for each fleet--the English fleet and the Combined fleet of France and Spain--were implemented. Nelson's battle plan was to break the line of ships organized by the French commanding admiral, Villeneuve. The French admiral wanted to maintain his line and have a "mobile reserve" of ships at his disposal. His dispositions went awry and his battle plan never materialized.

The book presents a number of attractive features: (a) detailed battle maps from hour to hour, so that the reader can see the progression of the battle; (b) a listing of the ships of each fleet, including number of cannons and commanding officers; (c) a detailed description of weapons and ships of the two fleets, to provide important context; (d) a description of key figures on each side; (e) excerpts from personal recollections by key actors in the battle; (f) extraordinary detail of the battle itself, including small details.

The book also speaks of the aftereffects of the battle. Included is the possible murder of the failed French commander, Villeneuve, the cheapness of the English government in taking care of its brave victors (including ignoring Nelson's request that Emma Hamilton and his daughter be taken care of), the dominant role of the English navy after Trafalgar.

This is a book that readers with an interest in this dramatic battle will find valuable. The detail gives a sense of the actual events of the time.

On October 21st, 1805 the important naval battle of Trafalgar took place. During it two major events happened: the British obliterated a combined fleet of French and Spanish ships; and Lord Nelson who was in overall command was killed. the book claims that this is "The Battle That Changed The World".

As the 200th anniversary of the battle approached, many people released books telling the story of the battle and is various components. While this book is not one of the great ones telling this story, it is clearly written and does an adequate job of telling its story.

Since the book is intended for a general audience who may not know much of the period or the specifics of naval warfare, the author intersperses his telling the story of the battle with many tangents in which he tries to place his story in the context of the times. While this is a logical and reasonable approach, I felt that it actually distracted from this particular story. Perhaps this is due to the fact that I have read many naval novels set in the time period (Hornblower and Bolitho series in particular) and so was aware of the kinds of issues that Adkins brings up.

In the early chapters, Adkins sets the strategic stage with the British fearing an upcoming invasion of their island by the French and Napoleon doing his best to get an invasion underway. We are then told of the preparations in Britain to repel this invasion (this is where one of the odd things is told - many of the items being put in place were not completed until years after this battle and therefore were not really necessary any more). We are also told about the lives of British sailors and officers and their conditions at sea. Anyone of this century who reads these may find these conditions to be completely abhorrent and may wonder why the sailors did not forcibly rise against them, so Adkins shows that those conditions were at times superior to what these same people could expect on shore and were at least equal to shore conditions.

Nelson's career and life at this stage as well as some of the other main officers are also laid out in very brief pages. Those who find this tickling their interest in learning more about these characters will be forced to look elsewhere for the more detailed information available as this book just sketches things out.

The middle of the book is dedicated to the battle itself and is interspersed with maps and diagrams that aid the understanding. This was well done as there were almost 60 ships involved and several of them had either identical or very similar sounding names (Neptune, Neptune, and Neptuno, for instance) so without the diagrams one would get quite lost.

The battle lasted almost six hours and the author does a very credible job in my opinion of explaining what happened during it as well as the import of various things. Again he takes some detours as when he explains the positions and clothing of various jobs on the ships, the reasons why the surgeons operated as they did in the part of the ship that they did, and the names of each of the decks. There are also good explanations of the state of medicine at the time.

While reading the descriptions of the battle, I was struck with how bloody and gory the ships became and how shot up everyone was. The final tally of the battle was that a dozen and a half ships of the French and Spanish capitulated to the British and one French ship blew up while none of the British ships were defeated but many of the ships were completely dismasted, almost all were punctured and were taking on water, and everywhere was there death and despair. Imagine my surprise when at the end of the book the author presents statistics that point out that only 17% of the British sailors were casualties. I was sure during my reading that the casulaty figures must have been greater than 50%!!

A second major component of the story is the aftermath. As it turned out, Nelson was shot early on in the battle and died about midway through it, but he knew that a storm was coming. Well the storm did come and it turned out to be a powerful hurricane that resulted in more damage, destruction, and deaths than the battle itself! Many of the damaged ships were lost to sinking by the waves or being dashed against the rocky shoals of the coast of Spanish so that only about three or four of the captured ships made it back to British ports.

The finaly portions of the book cover the immense importance placed on the loss of Nelson and contrasting it with the fate of the others who took part in the battle on all sides. The author points out how the British King and Government purposely played up Nelson and his heroism as a substitute for taking care of the rest of the people. The final irony in the book is that we are told that Napoleon had already decided not to invade Britain at that point and was involved in the Austerlitz campaign while the battle took place. So, why is the book sub-titled "The Battle That Changed The World"? The author attempts to explain this by showing how France concentrated on the European land mass while England built a larger and larger empire. Stating that this was the direct result of this one battle is stretching it in my opinion.

I enjoyed reading this book as it was a story told well. Those amongst us who are looking for a readable introduction to Trafalgar and its import will do well by reading this book. For those of us who know something of the period and the events of it, this book yields little new information. Experts in the field will probably find the necessary superficiality of it distracting. So, read it yourself and enjoy!

Nelson's Trafalgar: The Battle That Changed The World by Roy Adkins

Bought it a couple of months ago, but never got to finish it, until now. Just in time, too, since I just saw "Pirates Of The Carribean 3", which were using the same ships mentioned in the book, so I got to appreciate what a "3-Deck Ship Of The Line" looks like.

'Background'

The book is about the Battle of Trafalgar, one of the most decisive & spectacular sea battles in the history of mankind.

To give a short summary: Napoleon wanted to invade Britain & claim it as part of the French Empire he was establishing. But doing so requires a seaborne crossing, & because of that he had to make sure that Britain's Navy is sunk, or at least heavily damaged so he can proceed w/ the invasion.

The British knew this, of course, & the legendary Lord Horatio Nelson, the then Admiral of the British Navy assigned w/ the mission to find & destroy the combined French & Spanish fleet, thought the best defense, was a good offense.

So the British fleet pursued & finally cornered the combined French & Spanish fleet on the port of Cadiz in Spain, where they established a blockade. They then just waited for the French & Spanish fleet to sail out, & engage them in a decisive battle that they hope will destroy it, & prevent Napoleon's invasion.

'Detailed Information'

One great things about this book, is that it assumes (rightfully so) that most of its readers are not that familiar w/ 18th century naval warfare. The author, Roy Adkins, is both a HISTORIAN, & ARCHAELOGIST, so the book ended up w/ lot of ACCURATE & DETAILED information not only about the battle, but also things related to naval warfare at that time.

For example, the first chapters are devoted to things like:

- How the Sailors & Officers lived at that time;

- The ships, & the weaponry;

- The strategy & tactics;

- The political background;

- The diferences between the French, Spanish & British navies;

- Nearly EVERYTHING, except the toilet. Oh, wait, they have that, too.

The preparation is so good, that by the time the first shots are just about to be fired to start the battle, you end up almost as excited as the participants in that war.

'The Battle of Trafalgar'

The battle itself is REALLY intense. You could almost visualize the ships as they started trading cannon-fire broadsides at each other, w/ cannon & musket balls flying everywhere, throwing out huge chunks of timber, & flesh & bones. You could almost see the men as they screamed & died, while others went about trying to do their assigned tasks to take out the opposing ship.

There are quite a number of illustrations throughout the book to help you understand better some of the terminologies, & also to show the disposition of the forces as the battle progressed.

In the end, Britain proved it is unchallenged in the seas, w/ none of their ships surrendering despite heavy damage, while taking out of action almost half of the entire French & Spanish fleet. The result effectively ruined Napoleon's plan to invade Great Britain, who eventually orchestrated his defeat later at Waterloo.

'Master & Commander'

I suggest that you watch that superb movie set in about the same period , "Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World", either before and/or after reading the book. The movie is superbly accurate in its depiction of 18th Century naval warfare, w/ most of its elements also detailed in the book.

The book provides much more detailed information, of course, but the movie provides a visual cue of some of the elements.

'Conclusion'

Overall, it is a book I really, truly enjoyed reading. I'm really glad I bought this one, it really has provided a wealth of information of another time, when sailing ships had supremacy of the seas.

The only negative thing I can think of about the book, is the fact that despite all the explanations, some of the ancient naval terms can be overwhelming, especially for landlubbers like me. The old English style of language of some of the accounts also tends to make some passages a bit difficult to absorb. But, these obstacles are not really insurmountable, it just needs a little bit more patience & concentration to understand & absorb.

These difficulties certainly do not rob the book of its brilliance. It's hard to beat in terms of historical detail, & intense action of naval warfare. A classic in the making, a MUST-READ book for me. A terrifically good yarn.

I hope Adkins comes up w/ more books about Lord Horatio Nelson's other famous sea battles.

BOOK HIGHLIGHTS:

- The first 95 pages gives you a complete & almost encyclopedic background of the battle.

- The next 120 pages gives you accounts of the battle from start to finish, with all the intensity & chaos of the battle between both fleets.

- Things slow down a bit during the recounting of the intense storm that came after the battle, claiming even more lives on both sides.

- Events pick up again when the race to tell the news to the British Admiralty went underway.

- The book wraps up w/ what happened to some of the participants & ships after the battle; An analysis on the battle's effects to the entire war; And also recounts the eventual promotion of Nelson to almost god-like status by the British people of being its most beloved hero of all time.

Book Review Nelson's Trafalgar
The Battle of Trafalgar which took place off of the Cape of Trafalgar near Cadiz, Spain was the last important sea battle of the Napoleonic Wars. Most of the French Fleet was destroyed and for the rest of the war Napoleons fleet which was actually larger than the British Fleet was kept bottled up in ports by blockades. This prevented a planned invasion of Great Britain and aided the British in the land war which lasted another 10 years. If this one battle had gone to French all of Europe could today be speaking French.
This book starts out with a battle at sea described in better detail than I have ever heard, giving better understanding than I have ever had. The next chapter goes back to the beginning of the battle, telling all the details. After reading this book you will understand the life of a seaman in the early 19th century. I was most amazed at the number of people in the battle. Nelson had around 20 ships to the French and Spanish 30 some ships. From the combined French and Spanish Fleet of around 30,000, 1022 Spanish sailors were killed, 3373 French sailors were killed. Out of 17,000 British sailors only 449 were killed. This was due in large part to British seamanship but also to the fact that Admiral Nelson was in command not the King and Nelson allowed his ships captains to command. Napoleon tried to micromanage his navy and admirals and captains were often waiting for orders and at this time communications were largely by word of mouth. Ships out of port were hard to find and during battle ships were obscured by smoke and light signals were impossible. This book kept my attention so well I finished it in a few days.