A revised & updated study of Admiral Horatio Nelson's battles, as well as his ships, armaments, tactics, signals and instructions."From St. Vincent to Trafalgar, all Nelson's battles are here. It's a handsome, well-presented book, with many illustrations and maps to further explain the information within. Moreover, beyond Nelson's victories at the Nile and Trafalgar, it also gives a great deal of background detail about the British Navy of Nelson's day. For...

This authoritative history chronicles the Royal Navy's decisive yet little-known victory over the French during the Seven Years' War.In the mid-18th century, with virtually no regular troops at home, Britain was especially vulnerable to the immanent threat of French invasion. In a cunning naval offensive, the British fleet under Admiral Edward Hawke intercepted French ships on their way to rendezvous with invasion troopships gathered at the mouth of the Loire. Unfa...

Anthony Lockwoods story is at the heart of the Georgian Navy though the man himself has never taken centre stage in its history. His naval career described by himself as twenty five years incessant peregrination followed a somewhat erratic course but almost exactly spanned the period of the French wars and the War of 1812. Lockwood was commended for bravery in action against the French; was present at the Spithead Mutiny; shipwrecked and imprisoned in France; appointed master attendant of ...

How do we know if magick is real?Wherever you find people, there are stories about magick. Some are myth or folklore, others are tales meant to thrill and intrigue us, and others still are accounts of actual magick, real spirits, and the energetic properties of our natural world. The question is whether or not any of it is true. Mind Over Magick by Tracy Nicholas tackles this complicated—and often personal—inquiry by picking apart what we know, what we don...

Shortlisted, Democracy 250 Atlantic Book Award for Historical WritingDespite the coming social reforms undertaken at home, the world of the Georgian British Empire was nothing if not class-conscious and leery of outsiders. But Anthony Lockwood, with no known certain record of his parentage and whose first appearance in history is his signing onto the USS Iphigenia in Jamaica in 1795, certainly broke through this mould. His naval record almost exactly spanned the Fr...

From his first dramatic initiatives at the Battle of St. Vincent in 1797 to his last battle at Trafalgar in 1805, Horatio Nelson was a force to be reckoned with and a hero to his countrymen. This illuminating study of the battles that played such an important role in Napoleon's defeat also takes a close look at the admiral's art of naval warfare. It shows that Nelson was quick to adapt new ideas and technical developments. This prowess, and a remarkable ability to lead and a genius for mak...

In the first major study of the Royal Canadian Navy's contribution to foreign policy, Nicholas Tracy takes a comprehensive look at the paradox that Canada faces in participating in a system of collective defence as a means of avoiding subordination to other countries.Created in 1910 to support Canadian autonomy, the Royal Canadian Navy has played an important role in defining Canada's relationship with the United Kingdom, the United States, and NATO. Initially involved with partici...

In the first major study of the Royal Canadian Navy's contribution to foreign policy, Nicholas Tracy takes a comprehensive look at the paradox that Canada faces in participating in a system of collective defence as a means of avoiding subordination to other countries.Created in 1910 to support Canadian autonomy, the Royal Canadian Navy has played an important role in defining Canada's relationship with the United Kingdom, the United States, and NATO. Initially involved with partici...

"Nobody describes a naval battle better than Taylor…a flawless demonstration of the biographer’s craft." —Jan Morris, The GuardianEdward Pellew, captain of the legendary Indefatigable, was quite simply the greatest British frigate captain in the age of sail. Left fatherless at age eight, with a penniless mother and five siblings, Pellew fought his way from the very bottom of the navy to fleet command. Victories and eye-catching feats won him a pub...

In this fascinating account of Thomas Cochrane's extraordinary life, David Cordingly (Under the Black Flag and The Billy Ruffian) unearths startling new details about the real-life "Master and Commander"-from his heroic battles against the French navy to his role in the liberation of Chile, Peru, and Brazil, and the stock exchange scandal that forced him out of England and almost ended his naval career. Drawing on previously unpublished papers, his own travels, wide readi...

The bestselling complete history of the British Navy - our national story through a different prism.The story of our navy is nothing less than the story of Britain, our culture and our empire. Much more than a parade of admirals and their battles, this is the story of how an insignificant island nation conquered the world's oceans to become its greatest trading empire. Yet, as Ben Wilson shows, there was nothing inevitable about this rise to maritime domination, no...

Most people know that Britain was invaded by the Romans, by the Vikings and by the Normans. Many will know about the Spanish Armada, launched by Philip II in 1588 to bring Protestant England to submission. But fewer people know that Philip launched a second armada in 1596 or that invasion plans were drawn up by the French in 1692, 1708, 1743, 1756, 1759, 1796 and 1801, and by the French together with the Spanish in 1779. In 1719, Spanish troops even landed in Scotland. Charles XII and Pete...