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The French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars were the first truly global conflicts. The Royal Navy was a key player in the wider wars and, for Britain, the key factor in her eventual emergence as the only naval power capable of sustained global hegemony. The most iconic battles of any era were fought at sea during these years - from the Battle of the Nile in 1798 to Nelson's momentous victory at Trafalgar in October 1805. In this period, the Navy had reached a peak of efficiency and was unrival...

Nelson's victory at Trafalgar on 21 October 1805 was a pivotal event in European history. But Trafalgar was not simply an isolated battle fought and won in an afternoon - the naval campaign had in fact begun more than four years before. This extraordinary period, following Napoleon's threat to invade England in 1801, came to be known as The Great Terror, and Britain was on the alert. As the Grande Armee faced a Dad's army of English volunteers across the Channel, a secret war of espionage and su...

This is an account of the evolution of naval fighters for fleet air defence and the parallel evolution of the ships operating and controlling them, concentrating on the three main exponents of carrier warfare, the Royal Navy, the US Navy, and the Imperial Japanese Navy. It describes the earliest efforts from the 1920s but it was not until radar allowed the direction of fighters that organised air defence became possible. Thus major naval-air battles of the Second World War - like Midway, the 'Pe...

"This is the most authoritative and highly literate account of these pernicious people that I have ever read." -- Patrick O'Brian Pirates are so much a part of legend that it is easy to forget they actually existed. UNDER THE BLACK FLAG tells their story in a rollicking account of the golden age of piracy that is packed with history, anecdote, and above all adventure. Here are the true stories of such bloodthirsty legends as Blackbeard and Captain Kidd, Anne Bonny, and the fearsome Mary Read. A...

During World War II navies developed low visibility, horizontal and vertical surface camouflage for their ships. The camouflage served to reduce the visibility of the ships by blending them in with the sea. It also made the identity of the ship confusing by applying more obtrusive patterns. In this the third volume by maritime artist Malcolm Wright, both the official and unofficial paint schemes that adorned the cruisers and minelayers of the Royal Navy and Commonwealth are depicted in detail. W...

In the worst peacetime disaster experienced by the Russian Navy, on 12 August 2000 the state-of-the-art nuclear-powered Kursk submarine sank with the loss of 118 officers and crew. The sinking was a humanitarian, environmental, and military catastrophe for Russia, and a powerful political reversal for President Putin But what really happened? Peter Truscott, former Foreign Affairs and Defence spokesperson in the European Parliament and Vice-President of the Security Committee, aims to provide th...

This text explores the conflict that began in 1756 and ended in 1763, generally known as the Seven Years War, which the author believes laid the foundations of the British Empire and set the scene for Britain's global dominance that lasted nearly two centuries.

The years leading to World War I were the 'Age of the Dreadnought'. The monumental battleship design, first introduced by Admiral Fisher to the Royal Navy in 1906, was quickly adopted around the world and led to a new era of naval warfare and policy. In this book, Roger Parkinson provides a re-writing of the naval history of Britain and the other leading naval powers from the 1880s to the early years of World War I. The years before 1914 were characterised by intensifying Anglo-German naval comp...

For centuries, rumors have circulated in England that Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell did not die of natural causes. Now, in a fascinating book that reads like a historical whodunit, we have a motive, a means, a murderer (complete with his own deathbed confession), and a supporting cast that includes John Milton and Andrew Marvell. Almost from the moment of Cromwell's death in 1658, writers and biographers have dismissed suspicions of foul play as little more than the result of a powerful person'...

From the early nineteenth century onwards, millions of people left their homes to cross the seas. Some, like the convicts transported from England to Australia, had no choice; others like the indentured Indian and Chinese laborers had almost no alternative; but the vast majority of emigrants were driven to escape war, famine or grinding poverty. Whatever their circumstances and wherever their destination, the one experience they all shared in common was the sea voyage.This history traces the sto...

On the eve of World War II, the Squalus, America's newest submarine, plunged to the bottom of the North Atlantic. Miraculously, thirty-three crew members still survived in the stricken vessel. While their loved ones waited in unbearable tension onshore, their ultimate fate would depend upon one man, US Navy officer Charles 'Swede' Momsen - an extraordinary combination of visionary, scientist and man of action. In this thrilling true story, prize-winning author Peter Maas vividly re-creates a mom...

Part of the ALL-NEW LADYBIRD EXPERT SERIES'Packs plenty of heft into its slender page count' HISTORY REVEALED- Why was the Battle of Trafalgar such an important British victory in the Napoleonic Wars? - How did the British fleet show their strength against the French and Spanish? - How did Nelson excel in his final battle?FOLLOW the daring strategy and brilliant leadership of Horatio Nelson in Britain's stunning triumph against Napoleon's forces. From the might of Britain's war machine to the...