A selection of naval books of the 16th - 17th Century Navy, from £4.99. Naval books by leading publishers. Historical books covering the history of the Royal Navy in the 16th and 17th centuries.

16th - 17th Century Navy

Armada! by Robert Milne-Tyte

The defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588 was the greatest feat of English arms since the Battle of Agincourt a century and a half earlier. The poorly planned expedition with its huge galleons was ordered to join with the Spanish army in the Netherlands for an invasion of Queen Elizabeth I's Protestant England. But the Spaniards found that the English had radically changed the rules of sea warfare, with a new breed of warship employing newly-devised techniques of gunnery which thwarted the Armada as it fought its way up the Channel.

This book records in detail Spain's extensive preparations for the invasion and the counter-moves of the English; the Armada's battles,  and the fearful aftermath with barely half the Spanish fleet managing to struggle home.

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Nelson's War by Peter Padfield

Between 1793 and 1805 Britain fought a series of naval battles against the new French Republic. This period of almost unrelieved blockade and battle culminating in Trafalgar, which gained for Britain what later historians were to call 'The Empire of the Seas', can now be viewed as one of the great turning points in history. Horatio Nelson, slight in physique, audacious and commanding in character, and truly a legend in his own lifetime, dominated the period.

Peter Padfield throws new and controversial light on the battle tactics of the famous actions at Camperdown, the Nile, Copenhagen and Trafalgar to show just how unconventional they were.

The Frigates by James Henderson

Light, swift, daring: frigates were the cruisers of Nelson's navy, commanded by bold, young, courageous officers, ranging the oceans of the world alone or in packs, seeking the enemy - and usually finding him. Although the swashbuckling spirit of these incredible sea adventures has been captured in the best naval fiction, the story of the frigates of 1793-1815 has never been told as a continuous narrative.

James Henderson's vivid writing has the reader pacing the quaterdeck with the first lieutenant, or muzzle-loading on the smoky gundeck of a 44 - and his descriptions of frigate and naval technicalities make it easy for the reader to asses such famous actions as the encounter, by challenge, between HMS Shannon and (of equal power) USS Chesapeake, which was captured by boarding after fifteen furious minutes.

Nelson: The Essential Hero by Ernle Bradford

Horatio Nelson is one of the most inspiring and perplexing characters in history. He carried inside him a mixture of sheer professionalism and genius, of vanity and courage, of dedication to sacrifice despite his human weaknesses. This brilliant biography by Ernle Bradford, himself a naval man who, under sail, has navigated most of the seas that Nelson knew, reads like a thriller.

Naval warfare of the period and Nelson's battles in particular are shown in vivid detail; the author describes the strategies, the tactics, the ponderous ship-to-ship bombardments, the terrifying injuries caused by flying splinters as well as Nelson's policy of annihilation of the opposing fleet, making the point that Nelson regarded the escape of a single enemy ship as a failure.

This fascinating study will always rank high among the many biographies of Britain's essential hero.

Horatio Nelson by Tom Pocock

Horatio Nelson: the national hero who secured a century of maritime supremacy for his country and became the focus of British identity and aspirations. Generous and brave, sometimes vain and occasionally weak, he is still the butt of half-admiring jokes: bawdy when his name is coupled with that of Emma Hamilton; respectful in relation to his great naval achievements.

Tom Pocock's Horatio Nelson is the first biography of the admiral to include a significant and hitherto unpublished account of Nelson's plans for a new career in politics. It is the first full biography to unveil detailed descriptions of his adventures on an expedition to the Arctic as a boy, his exploits in the Nicaraguan jungle as a young captain, his love for an older officer's pretty and sophisticated young wife in the West Indies and his defence in court of one of his men on a murder charge and of an old friend charged with treason and plotting the murder of the King. Including an appendix of existing Nelsonian sites in addition to many photographs and quotations from letters unpublished until now, this biography also grants us an intimate glimpse, seen through the eyes of Nelson's young niece, of life with Nelson and the Hamilton's at Merton Place, the home they shared.

The most revealing study yet written, this biography juxtaposes details of Nelson's daily life, friendships and opinions with the great events which make him one of the best loved and most memorable figures in British history.

Book serial number BK38. Price £20.00. Hard back with 364 pages.

POST.    UK £5                          EUROPE £10                 REST OF WORLD £14

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Pandora 1779 by Tony Fernandes. (B)