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Product Description
From Amazon
Any Aubrey Maturin reader determined to learn the locations of the orlop and the mizenmast, the etiquette of epaulettes, or the range of a 32-pounder will delight in this invaluable reference companion to O'Brian's epic and series. An exploration of what daily life was like in Nelson's navy, for everyone from the captain on down to the rawest recruit. Line drawings and charts help us understand the construction and rigging of the great ships, the types and dispositions of the guns, and how they operated in battle. Contemporary drawings and cartoons illustrate aspects of naval life from the press gang to the scullery. Finally, a generous selection of full-color paintings renders the majesty and the excitement of fleet actions in the age of fighting sail.
From Library Journal
O'Brian, author of the Aubrey/Maturin sea novels (e.g., The Commodore, Norton, 1995), has compiled this 96-page collection of facts on Lord Nelson's navy. The author describes the ships, guns, crew's life, and songs of the sailors. Most of this information can be found elsewhere and none of it will be new to dedicated naval buffs. Readers of the novels of Dudley Pope, C.S. Forester, and O'Brian who are interested in the difference in armament between frigates and men-of-war or the daily rations of sailors in Nelson's time may find this of value. At $23, it would seem suitable for libraries with strong collections in naval history.?Stanley Itkin, Hillside P.L., New Hyde Park, N.Y.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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First Sentence
The vessels that made up the early Navy were of all shapes and sizes, from Henry VIII's Henry Grace a Dieu of 1,000 tons down to row-barges, passing by cogs, carracks, and ballingers, shallops and pinnaces; but by the seventeenth century the pattern that lasted up until the coming of steam was clear, and by the eighteenth it was firmly established. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
The vessels that made up the early Navy were of all shapes and sizes, from Henry VIII's Henry Grace a Dieu of 1,000 tons down to row-barges, passing by cogs, carracks, and ballingers, shallops and pinnaces; but by the seventeenth century the pattern that lasted up until the coming of steam was clear, and by the eighteenth it was firmly established. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not too bad; could be a lot better,
By A Customer
This review is from: Men Of War: Life in Nelson's Navy (Hardcover)
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).
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
An appendix packaged as a book,
By A Customer
This review is from: Men Of War: Life in Nelson's Navy (Hardcover)
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.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Navy life for armchair voyagers,
By
This review is from: Men Of War: Life in Nelson's Navy (Hardcover)
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.
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