Overview

Although Nelson's stunning victory at Trafalgar did not immediately win the war, it gave the Royal Navy the freedom to exploit the unprecedented seapower it had achieved. The threat from the French battlefleet was never entirely eliminated, but the rigorous policy of blockading the main bases meant that Napoleon's navy was never able to mount a significant challenge to British supremacy. Thereafter British policy was to employ its seapower, first to defend the ever-increasing trade that paid for the war-effort, and second to strike back at the dominant military power of France and its satellite states whenever the opportunity arose. Often the two strategies were closely linked, as in the gradual takeover of the French Caribbean colonies and the elimination of Dutch power in the East Indies. The Navy also fought all around the periphery of Europe, and although not every amphibious operation was as successful as the 1807 assault on Copenhagen, the naval aspect was usually executed with skill and aplomb. Even Wellington admitted that the Navy's support won him the Peninsular War. The period 1806-1814 witnessed continual naval warfare - against the Danes, the Russians, the Turks, and ultimately the Americans, as well as the French and their Dutch and Italian allies - and the ultimate defeat of Napoleon; this volume describes the naval aspect of that defeat in vivid detail, and as with the rest of the series, the visual emphasis is on the contemporary and original, with the inclusion of many previously unpublished images. The features include: a stunning collection of 300 or more contemporary images; many illustrations previously unpublished; chronologically structured by campaign and battle; introductory essays and thematic text boxes by well-known authorities; and an open-ended series designed to build into a visual library of naval history.

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9781845600129

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Richard Woodman has recently retired after a career at sea as an officer, firstly with the Blue Funnel and Glen Lines, and latterly with Trinity House, the prestigious and time-honoured service responsible for lighthouses, seamarks and navigational aids around the coasts of the British Isles. He became its Deputy Marine Superintendent in 1991 and in 1992 was promoted Captain. He began writing at sea, and has some two dozen novels to his credit, including the fourteen titles in the Nathaniel Drinkwater series, for which he has immersed himself in the history and culture of the 1793-1815 period in which they are set. He is also the author of numerous non-fiction works, including a prize-winning history of Trinity

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