Pirates and Privateers

The years chosen for this study of the Royal Navy comprise a period in which major changes affect almost all of Europe and Britain grows to become the most powerful navy in the world. This is an account of both world events and the impact they have on the navy and those at home and at sea. It opens in 1793, when news arrives in England of the beheading of the French monarch, Louis XVI. The first chapter sets the stage, introducing readers to the lay of the land and the readiness of the navy in the months prior to France’s declaration of war. Over the next eight years of fighting, the public bears a high price to defeat Napoleon. Not only are income taxes introduced for the first time, but freedoms are lost, and families are torn apart.

What sets this book apart from other histories of the Royal Navy is twofold. First, it contains tidbits of information not found in other such works. Second, and perhaps more importantly, it connects ordinary people in their everyday lives to a world at war and shows how this conflict alters both them and the navy. Nor is this your typical history; rather, it is a combination of fact and fiction. Each chapter begins with a fictional account steeped in historical facts from the perspective of unnamed participants. For example, chapter two recounts the tale of a Cornish miner who takes the king’s shilling rather than face unemployment. The miner is imagined, but he represents one of eighty real miners who serve aboard Sir Edward Pellew’s Nymphe when she encounters the French Cléopâtre. The next chapter, on the other hand, tells the story of a press gang and the what-ifs and regrets a victim may ponder.

A host of topics are covered within the chapters: the cost of maintaining a navy and the number of vessels in the beginning and at the end; who is aboard the ships and what do they do; the Admiralty; medical care; seamen’s pay, prize money, and the 1797 mutinies; and hazards at sea. Chapters six and seven examine specific naval strategies and battles, such as blockades, the Glorious First of June (the first fleet action of the war), the Siege of St. Jean d’Acre, amphibious operations, Barbary pirates, and the Battles of Cape St. Vincent and Aboukir Bay. The last chapter discusses the importance of gunnery practice, naval stations in the Caribbean, and the decline of British trade in the West Indies.

This book begins with a list of major events between 1793 and 1800. It ends with two bibliographies and an extensive index. At the center of the book is a section containing black-&-white artwork and a series of maps. Footnotes, rather than endnotes, make it easy for readers to check source citations, read definitions, or discover other pertinent information not contained in the main text.

The inclusion of the fictional scenes allows readers to make a personal and more immediate connection with the war and world at the end of the 18th century. This is a highly readable history of the Royal Navy that packs an abundance of information into a scant 159 pages. Readers need not be familiar with either the navy or nautical language to grasp the content, and the book serves as a good introduction to the Royal Navy at a critical time in history.

Review Copyright ©2019 Cindy Vallar

The Royal Navy in the Napoleonic Age: Senior Service, 1800-1815
by Mark Jessop
Pen & Sword, 2019, ISBN 978-1-52672-038-2, US $27.25 / UK £19.99

review by Irwin Bryan

This look at the Royal Navy, known as the Senior Service for being England’s first permanently armed force, begins towards the end of the French Revolutionary War. It covers the disarmament after the Peace of Amiens, rearmament with the resumption of hostilities, and the entire Napoleonic War. That does not mean the story is in chronological order. Various aspects of manning and building the Royal Navy, as well as the battles fought, are explored in each chapter. Still, little escapes the author’s attention, much to our delight.

What makes this history unique is the way it is told. Instead of just the traditional author narration of events and facts, where Mr. Jessop introduces us to actual people – naval officers, politicians, and Frenchmen – he also intertwines anonymous characters and ships into the narrative. This is done to show how individual men and women, often nameless in history, are swept up in the tide of war.

We witness these events through their eyes and thoughts as they experience different scenarios. This allows us to see what happens from the different perspectives of a Danish pilot, a German émigré, a nurse, a poet and his wife, a chaplain, an invalided sailor, three friends off the same ship who meet up with three sisters of a fallen comrade after Trafalgar, a laborer, and an abolitionist, among others.*

Without realizing it, we acquire a host of information in a far more memorable way than had Jessop presented the data in a more traditional manner. Among the topics he incorporates into this book are building ships and growing the Navy, tactics and training, blockading, the moral makeup of the fleet, warships lost to fire and wrecking, combat, fraud and embezzlement by navy vendors and builders, the growth and increase of dockyard establishments, major battles, and single ships trying to capture each other, such as the great frigate contests or duels between smaller vessels, like Frolic and Wasp.

How the war affects the people of the British Isles is also explored. Everything from fear of and preparation for a French invasion, the impact of the blockade to merchants and the economy, Orders in Council, and privateers preying on shipping, to the attention folks pay to the heroes of the day. Even the slave trade is touched upon, mostly through the story of abolitionists’ outcries on its evils. This ultimately leads to the end of British participation in slavery and the stationing of their warships off the African coast to end these deprivations by other nations’ merchants.

The War of 1812 is also covered. The causes for America declaring war, especially the impressment of her sailors, are presented. The stunning losses of British frigates defeated by the Americans leads to coverage of the plight of French and American sailors captured during the fray. Yankees also face the possibility of being forced to fight for their enemy or being considered a traitor and punished. The horrors of the prisons and prison hulks (former ships of the line stripped of their masts and boarded over on top) demonstrate why few ever left. Starvation, sickness, daily deaths, paroled officers, and prisoner exchanges are discussed.

In addition to the eminently readable text and all it contains, a chronology of major events comes before the first chapter. A detailed bibliography, with a separate listing of journals and articles, is found before the hundreds of notes that carefully document where the book’s facts are found. A section of plates includes maps, battle diagrams, and pictures of ships and people mentioned in the book.

This is truly one of the most enjoyable history books I ever remember reading! The way the gems of wisdom contained in each chapter are presented is refreshing. If you want to learn more about the naval side of the Napoleonic Wars, Great Britain’s Senior Service, or are just looking for an informative read, you will be hard-pressed to make a better selection.

*Reviewer’s Note: Although unnamed, the Reverend William Hamilton Drummond is the poet we meet with his wife. The poetry lines we read are from his 124-page "The Battle of Trafalgar, A Heroic Poem," which he published in 1806.

Review Copyright ©2022 Irwin Bryan

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