I just have to say that I adore your enthusiasm about Nelson and Georgian Age of Sail in general! It's so cool! Thank you for writing this blog! Can you recommend any books, besides the obvious?
*blushes furiously* Ahhh thank you, anon! The Age of Sail is so fascinating, and Nelson is so ridiculously awesome (emphasis on the ridiculous), it’s impossible not to get enthusiastic about it all! :DD
For book recs, well, it really depends what part of the Age of Sail you’re interested in! But here are the ones I’d recommend to everybody.
Nelson’s Navy, by Brian Lavery. The indispensable reference book for most aspects of the navy between 1793-1815. Lavery’s an eminent naval historian who knows his stuff, so it’s worth checking out his whole backlist.
The Wooden World: An Anatomy of the Georgian Navy, by N.A.M. Rodger, one of the definitive studies of life in the Age of Sail. Rodger also has a two volume Naval History of Britain series. The second volume, The Command of the Ocean, covers the Georgian period.
Roy and Lesley Adkins have published several great books on the subject, packed full of info, and very readable. Their Jack Tar is a fabulous book about the lives of the ordinary seamen of Nelson’s navy, very much recommended. There’s also their The War For All the Oceans: From Nelson at the Nile to Napoleon at Waterloo and Trafalgar: Biography of a Battle.
If you want to get technical, Seamanship in the Age of Sail by John Harland is the book. It’s also very rare and expensive - I got my copy for £65, and that was a steal!
William James wrote a six-volume Naval History of Great Britain in the 1820s. It’s a stunning work, painstakingly researched, and more accessible than you’d expect. It’s fascinating to dip in and out of - James arranges his history by year, and by type of action: fleet, single-ship duels, boat actions, etc. And you can get it online! :D
As a general rule, historians like David Cordingly, Andrew Lambert, Sam Willis, and Tim Clayton are worth checking out, and they write on a variety of naval subjects, from biographies to certain battles/wars/ships. Seaforth Publishing are a division/imprint/whatever of military publishers Pen and Sword, and publish loads of naval history books, so worth checking out.
And because nothing beats a good, old-fashioned memoir, here’s the ones I have:
Autobiography of a Seaman, by Thomas Cochrane. I’ve only read bits of this one, but even those were very entertaining!
A Voice from the Main Deck, by Samuel Leech, who was a ship’s boy in both the British and American navies. Fascinating, even if Sam himself is insufferable!
The Narrative of William Spavens. The backstory behind this one is quite poignant: Spavens was a Chatham pensioner who was compelled to write his memoirs as a way to make ends meet.
The Adventures of John Wetherell. I’ve actually just started reading this one, but so far so good! He hates his captain and writes terrible poetry, what’s not to like? XD
A Mariner of England, by William Richardson. The point of view of a pressed man who eventually ended up as a gunner.
John Sugden has written a recent biography of Nelson in two massive volumes: A Dream of Glory and The Sword of Albion. Phenomenal work, and totally terrifying! I use them as reference books, for dipping in and out of; I haven’t dared try to read them cover to cover yet!
The Pursuit of Victory: The Life and Achievement of Horatio Nelson, by Roger Knight is a much more manageable size than the Sugden, and full of interest.
Nelson: A Personal History, by Christopher Hibbert is just what it sounds like, and full of delightful anecdotes.
Basically anything by the late, great Colin White, who was the Nelson expert until he passed away in 2008. I haven’t actually got round to reading his Nelson: The Admiral, but that one in particular seems to be about him as a leader.
For Nelson in his own words, the various volumes of The Dispatches and Letters of Lord Nelson can often be picked up quite cheap, there’s Nelson: The New Letters edited by Colin White, and the two volumes of The Letters of Lord Nelson to Lady Hamilton (if you have a Kindle, you can get these for free!).
Also, if for some ungodly reason you haven’t already read it, the Authentic Narrative of the Death of Lord Nelson by my bb Dr. William Beatty, Victory’s surgeon, was, and still is, one of the key eyewitness accounts of Trafalgar and Nelson’s death. And it will make you cry ALL THE TEARS.
Whew! That’s a start, anyway! Hopefully there’s a few less obvious ones in there for you. :D I’m also prone to flail a lot over naval surgeons, women at sea, the War of 1812, Philip Broke, and James Cook, so if you’re interested in any of those things, I have recs for them as well!
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