This entertaining collection of essays takes a biographical approach to early American naval history. The period from 1775 to 1850 was a trying time for the infant navy, a time when much was demanded of individual officers. New in paperback, this book focuses not only on battles and ships but on the colorful men, such as Oliver Hazard Perry and Stephen Decatur, who helped shape the U.S. Navy in the age of sail. By viewing the era through the lives of the participants, readers will gain a deeper understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of America’s new navy and the roots of its traditions.
This entertaining collection of essays takes a biographical approach to early American naval history. The period from 1775 to 1850 was a trying time for the infant navy, a time when much was demanded of individual officers. New in paperback, this book focuses not only on battles and ships but on the colorful men, such as Oliver Hazard Perry and Stephen Decatur, who helped shape the U.S. Navy in the age of sail. By viewing the era through the lives of the participants, readers will gain a deeper understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of America's new navy and the roots of its traditions.
In this grand history of naval warfare, Palmer observes five centuries of dramatic encounters under sail and steam. From reliance on signal flags in the seventeenth century to satellite communications in the twenty-first, admirals looked to the next advance in technology as the one that would allow them to control their forces. But while abilities to communicate improved, Palmer shows how other technologies simultaneously shrank admirals' windows of decision. The result was simple, if not obvious: naval commanders have never had sufficient means or time to direct subordinates in battle.
Our understanding of warfare at sea in the eighteenth century has always been divorced from the practical realities of fighting at sea under sail; our knowledge of tactics is largely based upon the ideas of contemporary theorists rather than practitioners] who knew little of the realities of sailing warfare, and our knowledge of command is similarly flawed. In this book the author presents new evidence from contemporary sources that overturns many old assumptions and introduces a host of new ideas. In a series of thematic chapters, following the rough chronology of a sea fight from initial contact to damage repair, the author offers a dramatic interpretation of fighting at sea in the eighteenth century, and explains in greater depth than ever before how and why sea battles (including Trafalgar) were won and lost in the great Age of Sail. He explains in detail how two ships or fleets identified each other to be enemies; how and why they manoeuvred for battle; how a commander communicated his ideas, and how and why his subordinates acted in the way that they did. SAM WILLIS has lectured at Bristol University and at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. He is also the author of Fighting Ships, 1750-1850(Quercus).
Covering the classic era of sailing ship warfare from the mid-eighteenth century to the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Naval Warfare in the Age of Sail reveals how warships were built, sailed, and fought in the era made popular today by the novels of Patrick O'Brian and C. S. Forester. The often dense technical detail of these works is explained here for the general reader through text and illustrations that bring the period vividly to life. Through his discussions of single-ship actions, fleet operations, famous commanders, and the day-to-day routines of the men who worked the ships, Bernard Ireland investigates how the navy of King George III came to dominate the high seas, ushering in a century of British maritime supremacy. Acclaimed naval artist Tony Gibbons illustrates every type of sailing warship from ships of the line, frigates, and sloops to privateers' schooners, bomb ketches, and xebecs.
If you are thinking of fitting an autopilot or windvane steering system to your boat but are baffled as to which is the most suitable, then this is the book for you. Peter Forthmann, a long-term expert on this subject, explains the difference between tiller, wheel and inboard autopilots, as well as the 12 windvane steering options available, and considers their suitability for various types of boat and sea conditions. Which self-steering systems are more suitable for cruising and which for racing? What are their limitations in terms of sea conditions and power consumption? What is yaw damping? Why are windvane steering systems unsuitable for ULDBs? How do you steer a catamaran without running into power consumption problems? Why is good sail trim so important for good self-steering? What self-steering provisions should you make when building a boat? Is DIY windvane gear construction still a feasible option? All these questions and many more are answered in this very comprehensive book, which concludes with a comparison of all the alternatives available and a list of manufacturers of practically every self-steering system made anywhere in the world. Peter Christian Forthmann has a unique knowledge of self-steering. Born in 1947, he learned to sail as soon as he learned to walk, growing up by the water in Hamburg. An engineer and a highly practical man, Peter Forthmann's creative contribution to the evolution of windvane steering systems is virtually unparalleled. lt is thanks in no small part to him that these systems are still thriving in the age of bits and bytes.
Ordered to join the Pacific Squadron in 1854, the sloop of war Decatur sailed from Norfolk, Virginia, through the Strait of Magellan to Valparaiso, Honolulu, and Puget Sound, then on to San Francisco, Panama, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, while serving in the Pacific until 1859, the eve of the Civil War. Historian Lorraine McConaghy presents the ship, its officers, and its crew in a vigorous, keenly rendered case study that illuminates the forces shaping America's antebellum navy and foreign policy in the Pacific, from Vancouver Island to Tierra del Fuego. One of only five ships in the squadron, the Decatur participated in numerous imperial adventures in the Far West, enforcing treaties, fighting Indians, suppressing vigilantes, and protecting commerce. With its graceful lines and towering white canvas sails, the ship patrolled the sandy border between ocean and land. Warship under Sail focuses on four episodes in the Decatur's Pacific Squadron mission: the harrowing journey from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean through the Strait of Magellan; a Seattle war story that contested American treaties and settlements; participation with other squadron ships on a U.S. State Department mission to Nicaragua; and more than a year spent anchored off Panama as a hospital ship. In a period of five years, more than 300 men lived aboard ship, leaving a rich record of logbooks, medical and punishment records, correspondence, personal journals, and drawings. Lorraine McConaghy has mined these records to offer a compelling social history of a warship under sail. Her research adds immeasurably to our understanding of the lives of ordinary men at sea and American expansionism in the antebellum Pacific West.
The first comprehensive account of the US Coast Guard from its birth to its emergence from the Civil War. It shows how the service combined a spirit of enterprise with acknowledgment of individual freedoms to establish respect for the new constitution and the rule of law.
From the time of the Restoration of Charles II, when he returned to England from Breda and was presented with the yacht Mary by the burgomaster of Amsterdam, Royal yachts began to be defined as such in England and built with that special purpose in mind. They were built luxuriously and used for royal visits to the fleet, for diplomacy and for racing and cruising for pleasure. Charles II took more of an interest in the sea than any other English monarch. He built a fleet of royal yachts, fine examples of ship design and decorative art, and he can be said to have been the father of yachting and of royal yachts. His successors were less keen on the sea but traveled to Europe on missions of peace and war; and royal yachts took part in regime change several times. In 1689 Queen Mary was bought over to join her husband William of Orange and complete the ‘Glorious Revolution’. In 1714 George I arrived from Hanover to establish a new dynasty. And in 1814, in a reverse process, King Louis XVIII was taken back to France to restore the monarchy after the defeat of Napoleon. This important new book is the first to describe the building and decoration of the yachts in such detail, using many newly discovered sources; and it is the first to describe their uses and exploits, often taking their royal passengers into controversy or danger. Besides the yachts themselves, it reveals much about the character of the kings, queens and princes involved – the impetuousness of the future William IV for example, or his brother George IV’s surprising love of sailing. It describes the design, accommodation, and sailing of the yachts, as well as their captains and crews. Sailing yachts came to an end when Queen Victoria discovered that steam power was more efficient as well as more comfortable, but they revived in the form of her son Edward’s cutter Britannia, and the Duke of Edinburgh’s Bloodhound and Coweslip. Their legacy can be seen in the widespread sport of yachting today, and in the lavish superyachts of billionaires. This beautifully illustrated book, full of anecdote and containing detailed descriptions of dozens of royal yachts, will fascinate naval historians, ship modelers and, indeed, anyone who sets foot aboard the deck of a modern yacht.
