Customer Reviews

Storm and Conquest: The Clash of Empires in the Eastern Seas, 1809

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

 

 

Great wars tend to be defined by certain battles and theaters. We think of the US Civil War as a battle east of the Mississippi, with Gettysburg, Shiloh, etc, as characterizing the war. WW I was the trench warfare on the Western Front. The Napoleonic Wars were Waterloo, Trafalgar, and the retreat from Moscow. But in each of these, men died in bloody combat far from the major theaters--died not in insignificant fighting for little purpose, but often for vital operations. Glorietta, New Mexico, was the scene of an important fight involving a couple of thousand men rather than the tens of thousands at Gettysburg, for instance. But it stopped the Confederate forces from capturing the Colorado gold fields. East Africa and Arabia in WW I were important campaigns: the Turkish forces could have captured the Suez Canal, and British India could have been thrown into turmoil. Storm and Conquest describes the little-known campaign in the Indian Ocean in 1808-10: during the Napoleonic Wars. England needed gunpowder, and needed the high-quality saltpeter from India to make it. The French forces threatened a major disruption in the vital trade links between India and England.

Interest in this campaign has, of course, been aroused by O'Brian's novel, but Storm and Conquest helps to fill what is rather a void in historical works. You'll see quite a variety of personalities--the Pellews, Barlows, Corbet at sea and in India, Flinders as a prisoner on Mauritius, and others. The emphasis tends to be on the British side: there are descriptions of the French, but I'd guess that this would amount to less than 20% of the book. Some of the most interesting characters are French, and unfortunately they seem to get short shrift compared to the English.

The book is also rather limited in scope: 1808-10 was certainly not the first naval campaign in these waters. Brief mention is given to the battles between Suffren and Hughes in 1782. You'd have thought that history would have taught the British a lesson about the vital trade line to India, but apparently it didn't. Storm and Conquest relates how the superior French frigates wreaked havoc on the weaker English vessels. So I would have liked to have seen more context here--much more on the larger picture and the earlier history--the French and British strategic views, and also more on the French side of things. Nonetheless, this is a welcome addition, especially for those of us who also appreciate the sacrifices made in distant and forgotten theaters.

A natural audience for Stephen Taylor's "Storm and Conquest: The Clash of Empires in the Eastern Seas, 1809" would be fans of Patrick O'Brian's fine naval historical novel, "The Mauritius Campaign." Taylor history relates the story (and provides extensive background) for the actual historical events described fictionally in O'Brian's novel, leading up to the Royal Navy's conquest of French-held Mauritius (and nearby islands) in the Indian Ocean during the Napoleonic Wars.

Taylor's focus is somewhat diffuse, the actual Mauritius Campaign only forming part of the book, with much attention paid to politics and personalities in British India beforehand. And it is not only a story of war, but also struggle of the fleets of British merchant vessels against the fierce storms of the Indian Ocean, even more deadly than enemy vessels. One small quibble with the book's subtitle. Although "1809" is emphasized in that subtitle, the book actually also covers many events in 1808 and events come to a climax in 1810.

Taylor's book provides a look at several historical figures featured in Patrick O'Brian's novel, in one major case (Captain Robert Corbert) developing a quite different picture from what is found in the pages of the novel.

Enjoyed this book, as part of it is about an ancestor of mine. It was great to see how history unfolded in the Indian Ocean as the Napoleonic wars continued there, while here in the USA we were leading up to the War of 1812.

If you're a general history buff, or a fan of Napoleonic wars, the Hornblower Series or the Aubrey-Maturin series, you will like this book. It appears well researched and documented- the story line is just a bit scattered, but so is the topic. East India Company, Admiral Pellew (the real one), hurricanes, battles, life on an Indiaman ship and a better understanding of France and England in the early 1800's. (Imagine 200 soldiers and sailors living for months inside a space the size of a mid sized American house). Overall a very good read.

By Bill Marsano. Stephen Taylor has written a superb work of history that deals with two problems: the Battle that Is Too Big for Its Britches and Patrick O'Brian's Libel of Britain's 19th Century Merchant seamen. Wow! A tall order, right? Right indeed, mateys, and if history well told is what you love, a ripping yarn that's true, to boot. As to the first problem: There are manyy too-big battles in history. Gettysburg overshadows almost everything else in the Civil War; D-Day blots out the rest of the war in Europe; Iwo Jima obscures the rest of the Pacific Theater. So too does Nelson's great victory at Trafalgar--the climax of his career--lead many to believe that after that October day in 1805 Napoleon's naval menace was finished. Not so! Boney had 10 years left to him, and although he had no feel for his navy, his navy had begun to recover from the Revolution, when most of is professional officers had been driven from the service (often by the guillotine). And during the post-Trafalgar years the recovering French threatened Britain's trade with India. Sailing from island bases at Ile de France and Bourbon (a.k.a. Réunion and Mauritius), they sank or captured ships and cargoes of the British East India Company. The most important cargo was saltpeter: India's was the purest, and it was essential to making gunpowder. Nor were the French the only enemy. There was always the weather. Surviving the Indian Ocean's storms, monsoon winds and cyclones required luck, seamanship and prayer. The second problem? O'Brian's readers well know his scorn for the merchant navy of the time, with its clumsy, ill-handled ships manned by the dregs of all the oceans. In following the wakes of two fleets into the momster storms of 1809, Taylor paints a different picture--that of captains canny as well as courageous, and seamen skilled and determined. (Tjere were some pretty brave passengers, too.) This is a telling portrait because Royal Navy press gangs regularly boarded merchant ships and stripped them of their best sailors, dozens at a time, leaving the merchant captains to make do with the aforementioned dregs. There is much here also about gossip, greed, in-fighting and backstabbing amongst anyone and everyone involved with the British East India Company--a private corporation that owned most of India. It had its own army, its own pecking order, its own endless wrangling and squabbling. It was too big to fail (remember that saltpeter!), so the Royal Navy had to save its ships. (About 50 years later it had become too big too succeed, and the British Crown took it over.) Some will find this material less riveting, but it's important to a real portrait of the place, the people and the times. It can also be very entertaining indeed. Bill Marsano is a relentless reader of books on "the age of fighting sail."

STORM AND CONQUEST: THE CLASH OF EMPIRES IN THE EASTERN SEAS, 1809 by Steven Taylor.
A great history in the tradition of Mutiny on the Bounty of the very near thing struggle between Great Britain and Napoleonic France for control of the Indian Ocean and therefore India and South Africa. While the British rules the waves in the Atlantic and Mediterranian after Trafalgar in 1805, in the Indian Ocean, it was a far different story. The French controlled the Island of Mauritius and from there, her ships attacked British merchantmen thus depriving Britain of much needed saltpeter from which was made gunpowder for the guns of the Duke of Wellington's army. Without the gunpowder, Wellington could not fight and Napoleon would triumph. Therefore the ships had to get through.

Unfortunately in the year 1809, besides the Frogs, India was threatened with a mutiny of her white soldiers and hurricanes of appalling force descended upon not one but two of her merchant fleets. Great Britain was tottering on the edge of defeat and ruin in India and so in the Napoleonic Wars.

All hinged on the efforts of her navy in the Indian Ocean led by men by turns cruel, heroic and utterly brilliant sailors whose incredible courage and fighting spirit alone did much to unsettle the French not used to such things.. Will Britainia rule the waves or will we all be eating snails, being taught in a schools that being contrary for its own sake is a virtue and, when in doubt, surrender?

A rolicking exciting read and a must for fans of history and especially the fans of O'Brien and Forester? It would make for a great miniseries!!!

GOD SAVE THE KING!!!

If you get through the first 100 pages, then you are in for a real struggle to finish the book. There are so many minor boring charachters, and so many ships; that it is very hard to keep track. That being said, I slogged through the book and found some very interesting details and new information about this period and the times.