| Description |
1 online resource (xxviii, 490 pages) : illustrations, maps |
| Contents |
Ordeal with Anson, 1740-44 -- A Lincolnshire lad, 1755-59 -- Man and boy, 1756-59 -- Heart of oak, 1759-61 -- To the eastern seas, 1760-70 -- Farther still and farther, 1768-88 -- Hands across the Atlantic, 1775-83 -- Black gold, 1750-90 -- Coming home, 1771-83 -- Fruits of peace, 1783-92 -- "A terror to seamen", 1788-92 -- Interlude : the deep -- "These valuable but helpless people", 1792-97 -- Family and friends, 1793-98 -- A rising tide, 1794-97 -- Revolution at Spithead, 1797 -- "The machinations of evil incendiaries", 1797 -- Hellfire and redemption, 1797-1801 -- Tom Bowling, 1801-03 -- Apotheosis, 1805 -- Winning ways, 1806-09 -- Old friends, old foes, 1803-14 -- Passages to Waterloo, 1809-15 -- Over the side, 1816-36 -- Storytellers, 1810-40 -- Safe moor'd, 1820-40 -- Pax Britannica, 1819-40 -- Epilogue |
| Summary |
British maritime history in the age of sail is full of the deeds of officers like Nelson but has given little voice to plain, "illiterate" seamen. Now Stephen Taylor draws on published and unpublished memoirs, letters, and naval records, including court-martials and petitions, to present these men in their own words. In this account, ordinary seamen are far from the hapless sufferers of the press gangs. Proud and spirited, learned in their own fashion, with robust opinions and the courage to challenge overweening authority, they stand out from their less adventurous compatriots. Taylor demonstrates how the sailor was the engine of British prosperity and expansion up to the Industrial Revolution. From exploring the South Seas with Cook to establishing the East India Company as a global corporation, from the sea battles that made Britain a superpower to the crisis of the 1797 mutinies, these "sons of the waves" held the nation's destiny in their calloused hands |
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index |
| Notes |
Print version record |
| Subject |
Sailors -- Great Britain
|
|
Sailors.
|
| SUBJECT |
Great Britain -- History, Naval.
http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh85056843
|
| Subject |
Great Britain.
|
| Genre/Form |
Naval history.
|
| Form |
Electronic book
|
| ISBN |
9780300252613 |
|
0300252617 |
|
