Nathan Miller - Broadsides: The Age of Fighting Sail, 1775-1815

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John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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Copyright 2000 by Nathan Miller. All rights reserved

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Published simultaneously in Canada

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This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Miller, Nathan

Broadsides : the age of fighting sail, 17751815 / Nathan Miller.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-471-07835-7

1. Naval history, Modern18th century. 2. Naval history, Modern19th century.

I. Title.

D215.M55 2000

To
Cassie and Pat Furgurson
For Reasons
Known to Us All

He that commands the sea is at great liberty, and may take as much and as little of the war as he will.

Francis Bacon

Chapter 1
Attack, Take, or Destroy

Chapter 2
Uncombined Operations

Chapter 3
Revolution Becomes World War

Chapter 4
Sea FightsClassic Style

Chapter 5
The World Turned Upside Down

Chapter 6
Sea FightNew Style

Chapter 7
Heart of Oak

Chapter 8
To Glory We Steer

Chapter 9
Engage the Enemy Closer

Chapter 10
Nelsons Patent Bridge

Chapter 11
A Breeze at Spithead

Chapter 12
Proud New Frigates

Chapter 13
A Band of Brothers

Chapter 14
Naples Is a Dangerous Place

Chapter 15
Of Nelson and the North

Chapter 16
To the Shores of Tripoli

Chapter 17
He Will Not Come by Water

Chapter 18
The Long Watch

Chapter 19
England Expects

Chapter 20
The Beautiful Precision of Our Fire

Chapter 21
Free Trade and Sailors Rights

Chapter 22
Tattered Ensigns

Appendix I
The Composition of the Royal Navy, 17931816

Appendix II
Nelsons Trafalgar Memorandum

FEW ERAS OF the past hold more fascination for us than the Age of Fighting Sail, as is clear from the popularity of the novels of Patrick OBrian, C. S. Forester, and Alexander Kent, among others. Yet, in spite of popular interest in the long-vanished world of wooden men-of-war and pigtailed sailors, there is no readily available history of this period for a general audience. Ever since I began reading the Hornblower novels more than a half century ago, I have looked for such an account without success. I hope this book will fill that gap. It is intended to provide the historical background to the fictional works that have such a devoted readership.

This is a work of imagination and historywith the imagination limited by history. Fortunately, despite the hazards of time there is no shortage of documentation about the era. Logbooks, official reports, letters, and memoirs have been preservedand they have served as the foundation of my book. Inasmuch as this book is intended for the general reader, I have not weighted it with an array of footnotes. But he or she is assured that each quotation or statement of fact is based on documentary evidence. I take full responsibility for the interpretations drawn from them.

My designation of the Age of Fighting Sail as the years between 1775 and 1815 is arbitrary. Usually it is given to the period beginning with the Anglo-Dutch Wars in 1650, when sea power became a dominant factor in geopolitics, and ending with the fall of Napoleon in 1815. But I have limited the period covered here to the final forty years, which most fascinate modern readersthe naval side of the American Revolution; the twenty-two-year struggle between Britain and Revolutionary and then Napoleonic France, which began in 1793; the organization of the U.S. Navy in 1797; the forgotten undeclared naval war between the United States and France; the American struggle against the Barbary pirates; and finally the useless War of 1812 between the British and the United States. One man, Horatio Nelson, epitomizes this era, and I have used his life as a framework for the narrative but have continued it on for the decade following his death at Trafalgar in 1805.

This book is not a mere account of disconnected battles or campaigns, however. I have tried to place the battles within the strategic, political, and social contexts of the time. The question might well be asked whether the era of sailing ships and muzzle-loading guns has anything to teach us in the age of the nuclear submarine and the cruise missile. The answer is yes. Tenacity, steadfastness, and resolution in adversityqualities that were valuable for a nation two centuries agoare just as important at the start of a new century. No ship sails alone. There is a unity between the past and the vessels of the present and futureand the men and women who sail in them.

As in all my naval books, full attention has been given to ordinary seamen who served in these ships and fought the battles. For the most part, they did not keep journals or write memoirs, and this book is intended to help keep their memory alive. Although they endured conditions that are savage by todays standards, the sailors of the Age of Fighting SailFrench, British, Dutch, Portuguese, Danish, Spanish, Russian, Swedish, and Americanusually went willingly into battle, shouting defiance and proud of their moment of glory.