Overview

""On a September day in 1813, as the Age of Fighting Sail was coming to an end, two maritime warriors faced each other in the waters off Pemaquid Point, Maine... ""Samuel Blyth was the youthful commander of His Britannic Majesty's brig ""Boxer,"" and William Burrows, younger still, commanded the USS ""Enterprise."" Both men valued honor over life and death, and on this day their commitment would be put to the ultimate test. The battle between the ""Boxer"" and the ""Enterprise"" would be the only major sea engagement of the War of 1812 witnessed by people on land, and, though it lasted less than an hour, was a brutal contest whose outcome was uncertain. When the cannon smoke cleared, good men had been lost, and the U.S. Navy's position in the war had changed. In ""Knights of the Sea,"" David Hanna brings to vivid life a lost era-a time when sailing vessels exchanged broadsides and naval officers considered it the highest honor to harness the wind to meet their foes. This history pays tribute to the young commanders on either side, a vanishing breed who would come to be standard bearers of courage and fortitude, and would be immortalized in words by the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Includes Illustrations Throughout The battle between the ""Boxer"" and the ""Enterprise"" came to represent for those who witnessed it, lived through it, and remembered it something more than a military turning point-it became emblematic of a maritime era that would soon be gone forever.

Full Product Details

9780451235626

Table of Contents

Reviews

A wonderful read, brings the War of 1812 to life. <br> -Ken Burns <br> David Hanna's Knights of the Sea is the finest kind of narrative history - thoroughly researched, informative and a plain good read. Hanna takes a dramatic but little known incident, the battle between the small men-of-war Boxer and Enterprise, and uses that event to explore the lives of two men, the captains of the ships, and two navies, the British navy at the peak of its power and domination, and the nascent navy of the United States, just feeling its oats. Knights of the Sea will not disappoint any who love a good rousing history, or any who are drawn to the fascinating world of combat under sail. <br> -James L. Nelson, Author of George Washington's Great Gamble: And the Sea Battle that Won the American Revolution <br> Through the prism of a single battle between two sailing warships, David Hanna focuses on the stories of the opposing commanders and unearths their opinions, principles andi

David Hanna establishes his credibility both as a writer and with the quality and depth of his historical research in Knights of the Sea . His capturing of a little-known maritime battle during the War of 1812 is surprisingly relevant in modern-day exploration of military strategy. <br> -Captain Philip Kasky USN (Ret), former commander USS Suribachi

Author Information

David Hanna teaches history at Stuyvesant High School in New York.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available