Noel Mostert - 17 July

1. The Redoutable faces Victory and Tmraire , 5 October 1805 (P. C. Causse, National Maritime Museum, London)

2. A view of Nelsons attack on the Combined Fleet, Trafalgar, 21 October 1805 ( National Maritime Museum, London)

3. The impressment of an American seaman (Stanley M. Arthurs, courtesy of the Centre for Newfoundland Studies, Memorial University of Newfoundland)

4. A scene on the main deck (G. De Berenger, courtesy of the Mariners Museum, Newport News, Virginia)

5. The Siege of Toulon , 1793 ( National Maritime Museum, London)

6. Napoleon Buonaparte (Jacques Louis David, courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Washington)

7. Horatio Nelson (John Hoppner, National Maritime Museum, London)

8. Lord Hood (engraving by Samuel Freeman from a drawing by Lemuel Francis Abbott, National Maritime Museum, London)

9. Sir Sidney Smith in prison (engraving by Maria Cosway from a drawing by Philippe-Auguste Hennequin, National Maritime Museum, London)

10. Sir Hyde Parker, Captain of the Phoenix (George Romney, National Maritime Museum, London)

11. Lord Keith (engraving by William Holl from a painting by John Hoppner, National Maritime Museum, London)

12. Sir Thomas Troubridge (engraving by William Holl from a painting by Sir William Beechey, National Maritime Museum, London)

13. A view of Porto Ferrago ( National Maritime Museum, London)

14. Sir Thomas M. Hardy (engraving by Henry Robinson from a painting by Richard Evans, National Maritime Museum, London)

15. John, Earl of St Vincent (engraving by Antoine Cardon from a painting by Sir William Beechey, National Maritime Museum, London)

16. Lady Hamilton (engraving by Henry Meyer, National Maritime Museum, London)

17. Horatia Nelson ( National Maritime Museum, London)

18. Sir Sidney Smith defending the breach of Acre ( National Maritime Museum, London)

19. Attack on Copenhagen (courtesy of the Military History Encyclopedia on the Web, http://www.historyofwar.org)

20. Captain Ellisons action off Guernsey (J. T. Lee, National Maritime Museum, London)

21. View of the British Fleet under the command of Admiral Duncan, breaking through the Dutch line off Camperdown, near the Texel, 11 October 1797 ( National Maritime Museum, London)

22, 23. The American frigate Chesapeake under attack from HMS Shannon , 1 June 1813 (lithographs by J. G. Schetly, courtesy of the Nova Scotia Archives and Record Management Documentary Art Collection)

24. Lord Cochrane (engraving by Charles Turner from a portrait by Peter Edward Stroehling, Queens Printer and Controller of HMSO, 2007. UK Government Art Collection)

25. Commodore Stephen Decatur (George R. Hall, National Maritime Museum, London)

26. Admiral Lord Viscount Exmouth (engraving by Mr Roberts from a portrait by Sir T. Lawrence, National Maritime Museum, London)

27. The Naval Battle of Cape St Vincent (Reginald Piggott)

28. Admiral Lord Nelson (Simon de Koster, National Maritime Museum, London)

29. Vice Admiral Villeneuve (Muse de la Marine, Paris)

30. Admiral Gravina

31. British sailors boarding a Spanish man-of-war (J. A. Atkinson, National Maritime Museum, London)

32. The capture of four French gun vessels by a boat party commanded by Lieutenant Blyth, R. N. ( National Maritime Museum, London)

33. Sacketts Harbour on Lake Ontario (engraving from a painting by Juvenal, National Maritime Museum)

34. Lake Frontier Campaigns of 181214 (Reginald Piggott)

35. The Sailors Return ( National Maritime Museum, London)

36. Manning the Navy : the Press-Gang on Tower Hill (engraving by John Barlow from a drawing by Samuel Collings, National Maritime Museum, London)

Every effort has been made to trace and contact copyright holders. The publishers will be pleased to correct any mistakes or omissions in future editions.

M Y preparation for this book has taken me through many different libraries. As ever, with any historical reading and research, I am deeply grateful to the staff at the British Library and the Public Record Office. I am most especially thankful as well to the Garrison Library of Gibraltar and its inestimable librarian, Lorna Swift, a grandly impressive lady who has saved and revived what appeared to be a precious and little known Mediterranean treasure. After standing closed and inaccessible for many years the librarys nominal owner, the British Army, sent one of its most experienced librarians to reopen this splendid institution. Founded by a military governor of Gibraltar in the late eighteenth century, the Garrison Library offers in its grand halls a magnificent assembly of volumes and records covering the political and military world through from the eighteenth century to the mid-twentieth.

I wish to offer as well my grateful thanks and appreciation to editor in chief Starling Lawrence at W. W. Norton and editorial assistant Molly May. I am grateful as well to my London agent, David Godwin, and Will Sulkin at Jonathan Cape for helping to bring this book to its close. And, personally, in Canada, most especially, my gratitude to Dusty and Samuel Solomon of Montreal for moral support; as ever it has been during sixty years of valued friendship. And, equaling for the same, to Boyce and Shirley Richardson at Ottawa.

T HREE -thirty of a fine imminent dawn on 18 June 1793, out into the south-western stretch of the Channel, off Start Point on the Devonshire coast, and Captain Edward Pellew, commanding the 36-gun frigate Nymphe , received report of a sail bearing north-east, some twenty miles ahead.