British Warships in the Age of Sail, 1793-1817

Book excerpt: At the zenith of its power in 1809 the Royal Navy comprised one half of all the warships in the world, the first (and last) time any navy achieved this dominance. Given its importance, it is not surprising that much attention has been lavished on this subject, but among the numerous books on the design, development and technical details of these ships, there is surprisingly little readily available on their careers. Now this gap is comprehensively filled by this superb reference book, outlining the service history of every ship, built, purchased or captured, that fought for the Royal Navy in the great wars of the 1793-1815 era v well over 2000 vessels. The book is organized by Rate, classification and class, with outline technical and building data, but followed by a concise summary of the careers of each ship in every class. This includes commissioning dates, refit periods, changes of captain, the stations where they served (and when), as well as details of any noteworthy actions in which they took part. It will enable anyone to follow up a casual reference to any warship, and will provide the researcher with a solid core of information on which to base further study. With nothing remotely like it in print, this is a work of the utmost importance to every naval historian and general reader interested in the navy of the Nelsonic era.