Just Finished Reading: A Brief History of Fighting Ships – Ships of the Line and Napoleonic sea battles 1793 – 1815 by David Davies

I see to have developed quite an interest in naval history of late. I can probably date it back to reading the Roman naval trilogy by John Stack and, a little later, Bernard Cornwell’s description of Trafalgar. So it should come as no great surprise that I snapped up this book the moment I saw it and that I enjoyed it a great deal.

Davies is certainly a man who knows his stuff. Not only is he a sailor himself but he is also an ex-military engineer with a passion for all things Napoleonic and it shows in his writing. He is a man with an excellent grasp of his subject and possessed of the wit and skill to make even the apparently mundane details of the battleships-of-the-line (shortened to ‘battleships’ when they ceased to fight in rigid line formation) seem more than merely interesting. Here’s a few of the things I learnt:

At the time the two sides of the ship where Larboard and Starboard – Port only came into use from the middle of the 19^th century.

It took 80 acres of (preferably English) oak trees to build a single 74 gun ship.

Ships were built of oak, rather than the much more rot resistant teak, because of one very good reason. The majority of casualties in a sea battle were caused by flying splinters. Wounds made from teak splinters invariably turned sceptic whilst those from oak did not.

Rather surprisingly the smaller frigates where almost never fired upon by the battleships unless fired upon first. As a broadside from a capital ship could reduce the much smaller frigate to match wood in seconds such an engagement was considered unsporting.

Whilst the first quarter or so of the book dealt with the details of ship construction, weapons and so on the rest covered some of the crucial engagements of the period. Starting with the somewhat less than ‘Glorious’ First of June (1794) engagement of French forces protecting a much need grain shipment from America (then very much in favour of Revolutionary France), to more famous – and militarily significant – encounters at Cape St Vincent, Camperdown, The Nile, Copenhagen and (of course) Trafalgar in 1805. Each battle is brought to life with detailed maps showing the movements of the fleets involved and the tactical changes which eventually brought victory after victory against Spanish, Dutch and French opponents. At the heart of these developments were classic British heroes such as Admiral Lord Nelson who inspired a generation of intelligent and daring captains.

Written with verve and style this was a fascinating read which really put you at the heart of some of the most important battles of that time, battles which helped to defeat Napoleon on the European mainland and made the Royal Navy the world’s premier floating fighting force. A must read for anyone with an interest in the period or in naval affairs.