In his first nonfiction effort, novelist Price (Here Be Monsters, LJ 5/15/86) offers us a wonderful popular history of the British Navy in its golden years. In format, the text details six naval encounters of famous captains (five actual captains and C.S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower). By the end of the book, the reader is given a fine summary of the evolution of a frigate (a fast, powerful, single-deck warship), naval officer background and advancement, life aboard ship, mutiny, actual battle, and political intrigue. The volume contains portraits and paintings of famous frigate battles. Readers seeking more information on the subject should consult Michael Lewis's A Social History of the Navy, 1793-1815 (1954) and Byron Lavery's The Line of Battle: The Sailing Warship, 1650-1840 (Naval Inst., 1992). This small, well-written volume would make a fine addition to public library collections.?Richard S. Nowicki, Emerson Vocational H.S., Buffalo, N.Y.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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4 Reviews

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3.8 out of 5 stars (4 customer reviews)

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1.0 out of 5 stars Not well written and hard to read., Nov 16 2006

By	Ned Middleton (British professional underwater photo-journalist & author) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

The very least I would expect from the author of this, his twentieth book (the previous 19 being all fiction) is an understanding of grammar and punctuation - something which is sadly lacking in this work.

As a general rule, we do not start sentences with "And" or "But" and, although occasionally acceptable, there are too many instances here. Just as a capital letter commences any new sentence, so a capital letter is the first to appear after a colon - but not in this work. Furthermore, I found too many instances of digression when try to make a simple point.

All of which is off-putting for the serious reader.

In short, this book is hard to review because it is most difficult to read and if it can't be read - then there really is no point in it being reviewed in the first place.

Poor showing - especially after all that research.

NM

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5.0 out of 5 stars Glimpse of the Past, Jun 17 2004

By	David Stapleton (California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Not a book about the major battles of the Napoleonic era, although there is some minor coverage of them in the author's effort to present reference for his real topic. The author makes a grand effort to characterize frigate captains of the Napoleonic era by presenting pseudo biographies of a half dozen men from the era. All of the names come from the roles of the British navy - Pigot, Cochrane, Hoste, Pellew, Hornblower (fictional). To these main few he adds generous material on other captains from the British navy as well as that of the Americans and French.

The author alternates painting detailed pictures of the selected captains' careers, as well as using broad strokes to describe the events and attitudes for the period of the 1790's - 1815. While the focus of the book is the selected captains, the author does an admirable job of describing related topics like ship development, the British method of naval advancement/promotion, political climate and crew treatment.

I was pleasantly surprised by the entertaining content and writing style. The only negative comment I have is that the book could have used a generous sprinkling of maps to help the reader better envision the situations described.

For additional reading on frigate captains try The Sea Warriors: The Fighting Captains and Their Ships in the Age of Nelson by Richard Woodman.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Explains what a frigate "Man-of-War" is really like., May 30 1998

By	74771.361@compuserve.com (Oak Park, Michigan U.S.A.) - See all my reviews

After reading a few of the books by any of the great Naval fiction/historical authors, this is the book that explains some of the terms you may not quite understand. After reading this book, keep it on hand while you read all the others. That way you can refer to chapters herein that can lend a bearing. Good Stuff !!!

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4.0 out of 5 stars Great insights for Patrick O'Brian readers.
For avid readers of Patrick O'Brian's "Aubrey - Maturin" series, this book provides intruiging insights into the real-life frigate captains whose exploits are the source... Read more

Published on Oct 30 1996