Books

Spencer was First Lord of the Admiralty 1794-1801, virtually throughout the wars against Revolutionary France, and his correspondence with officers and politicians is of central importance to the naval history of the times. This volume runs up to the battle of St Vincent in 1797, including the Quiberon and West Indian expeditions.

A collection formed by the Admiralty in its own defence after Byng had allowed the island to fall, but before he was tried. It contains most of the official papers of importance, but the selection naturally supports the official line.

This contains documents that date from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century. The three for the sixteenth century include English piracy against the Spaniards, a Scottish document about a ship getting under way and the taking of the Madre de Dios in 1592. Two documents from the seventeenth century are a description by Rear Admiral… Read Abstract »

Charles Middleton was one of the most interesting, influential and unlikeable characters in the British naval history. As Controller of the Navy 1778-1790, a member of the Admiralty Board 1794-95, and First Lord 1805-06, as well as the confidential naval adviser of several prime ministers, he played a decisive part in reform and centralization of… Read Abstract »

Charles Middleton was one of the most interesting, influential and unlikeable characters in the British naval history. As Controller of the Navy 1778-1790, a member of the Admiralty Board 1794-95, and First Lord 1805-06, as well as the confidential naval adviser of several prime ministers, he played a decisive part in reform and centralization of… Read Abstract »

The publication of Vol 29 led to the discovery of many additional signal-books and Fighting Instructions, and forced Corbett to modify his former views. This volume, which concentrates on the period in which British signals underwent rapid development after a long period of stagnation, was the result.

These are not for the most part shanties, but ballads about (and in many cases by) sailors and their exploits, from the fourteenth century to the nineteenth, with a learned introduction on their historical value. The tunes are named, but the music is not printed

Charles Middleton was one of the most interesting, influential and unlikeable characters in the British naval history. As Controller of the Navy 1778-1790, a member of the Admiralty Board 1794-95, and First Lord 1805-06, as well as the confidential naval adviser of several prime ministers, he played a decisive part in reform and centralization of… Read Abstract »

The editors began their introduction to this volume by remarking that it contains ‘very little history, as commonly understood’ -by which they meant the history of naval operations. Gardner’s Service career was undistinguished for reasons which can easily be inferred from his stories, but he was clearly a convivial shipmate, and as a raconteur of… Read Abstract »

The views put forward by Corbett in this collection have now been partly discredited, but the collection itself remains of fundamental importance for the study of British naval tactics. It includes both Fighting Instructions in the strict sense, and various orders and memoranda explanatory of them.

During these years Markham was a member of the Admiralty Board, for the latter period the senior naval lord, and this volume consists chiefly of private letters written to him by senior officers. The volume gives a full and candid impression of developments below the surface of public business, ashore and afloat.

This was the first of the Miscellany volumes and while it contains documents from the sixteenth century to the turn of the nineteenth century, the majority relate to the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Of the two sixteenth century documents, one relates to French warship signals and the other is a narrative of the Cadiz… Read Abstract »