Hearts of Oak Trilogy Series

Vol. 1

J.M.W. Turner's The Fighting Temeraire Tugged to her Last Berth to be Broken Up (1838) was his masterpiece. Sam Willis tells the real-life story behind this remarkable painting. The 98-gun Temeraire warship broke through the French and Spanish line directly astern of Nelson's flagship Victory during the Battle of Trafalgar (1805), saving Nelson at a crucial moment in the battle, and, in the words of John Ruskin, fought until her sides ran 'wet with the long runlets of English blood...those pale masts that stayed themselves up against the war-ruin, shaking out their ensigns through the thunder, till sail and ensign dropped.' It is a story that unites the art of war as practised by Nelson with the art of war as depicted by Turner and, as such, it ranges across an extensive period of Britain's cultural and military history in ways that other stories do not.
The result is a detailed picture of British maritime power at two of its most significant peaks in the age of sail: the climaxes of both the Seven Years' War (1756-63) and the Napoleonic Wars (1798-1815). It covers every aspect of life in the sailing navy, with particular emphasis on amphibious warfare, disease, victualling, blockade, mutiny and, of course, fleet battle, for it was at Trafalgar that the Temeraire really won her fame. An evocative and magnificent narrative history by a master historian.

The Admiral Benbow

by Sam Willis

Published 30 September 2010

Admiral John Benbow was an English naval hero, a fighting sailor of ruthless methods but indomitable courage. Benbow was a man to be reckoned with. In 1702, however, when Benbow engaged a French squadron off the Spanish main, other ships in his squadron failed to support him. His leg shattered by a cannon-ball, Benbow fought on - but to no avail: the French escaped and the stricken Benbow succumbed to his wounds. When the story of his 'Last Fight' reached England, there was an outcry. Two of the captains who had abandoned him were court-martialled and shot; 'Brave Benbow' was elevated from national hero to national legend, his valour immortalized in broadsheet and folksong: ships were named after him; Tennyson later feted him in verse; in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, the tavern where Jim Hawkins and his mother live is called 'The Admiral Benbow'. For the very first time, Sam Willis tells the extraordinary story of Admiral Benbow through an age of dramatic change, from his birth under Cromwell's Commonwealth; to service under the restored Stuart monarchy; to the Glorious Revolution of 1688; to the French wars of Louis XIV; and finally to the bitter betrayal of 1702.
The Admiral Benbow covers all aspects of seventeenth century naval life in richly vivid detail, from strategy and tactics to health and discipline. But Benbow also worked in the Royal Dockyards, lived in Samuel Evelyn's House, knew Peter the Great, helped to found the first naval hospital, and helped to build the first offshore lighthouse. The second volume in the Hearts of Oak trilogy, from one of Britain's most exciting young historians, The Admiral Benbow is a gripping and detailed account of the making of a naval legend.

The Glorious First of June

by Sam Willis

Published 29 September 2011

On 1 June 1794, after a week of skirmishing, the French and British fleets came to close quarters in the northwest Atlantic, some 400 miles off the coast of Brittany. No battle had ever been fought so far from land. The French, in ships painted blood-red and bearing banners proclaiming 'la Republique ou la mort!' were escorting a American grain convoy to Brest to feed a starving population; the British, under the command of Lord Howe, a radical innovator and tactical genius, were bent on destroying the battle fleet of the nascent French Republic. Both sides would claim victory in the ensuing battle; and both had reason to do so. For the French, 'le combat de prairial' was a strategic success since the convoy and its precious cargo made it safely through. But this outcome came at a heavy material cost. In numerical terms 'the Glorious First of June' was the greatest British naval victory over her oldest enemy for more than 100 years: 6 French ships were captured and another sunk; 4,200 French sailors were killed and 3,300 wounded - 10% of their entire maritime workforce. These were physical blows from which the French navy would never truly recover.
In The Glorious First of June Sam Willis not only tells, with thrilling immediacy and masterly clarity, the gripping story of an epic and complex battle, he also explains its critical importance for the development of British naval tactics and the concomitant growth of British sea-power. For it was in this battle that Lord Howe experimented successfully with the sophisticated line-breaking manoeuvres which, finessed and perfected by Horatio Nelson, would bring Britain to the apogee of its maritime supremacy with the defeat of Napoleon just 11 years later. With The Fighting Temeraire and The Admiral Benbow, The Glorious First of June forms part of 'The Hearts of Oak trilogy' of scholarly but accessible histories that, between them, encapsulate Britain's maritime achievement during the age of sail.