Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Hornblower's Navy Life at Sea in the Age of Nelson by Stephen Pope Hornblower's Navy: Life at Sea in the Age of Nelson by Stephen Pope. Hornblower�s Navy: Life at Sea in the Age of Nelson. By Cheryl Bolen. Hornblower�s Navy: Life at Sea in the Age of Nelson Steve Pope Welcome Rain, New York, 1998 $22.95, 111 pages. For its information, brevity, and wonderful illustrations, Hornblower�s Navy is highly recommended. It may offer just 111 pages, but these are oversized pages, as large as those in a college yearbook, and hardly a single page is free from pictures, many of them in full color. By naming the book after C.S. Forester�s fictional character, Pope was avoided too close an association with any real naval hero of the era, such as Lord Nelson, and was free to give a broader view of the navy from every perspective. Because of its easy-to-read style and abundance of illustrations, this book reminds one of a children�s primer, albeit a very slick primer. The five chapters are on the Royal Navy, fighting ships and weapons, men of the Navy, life and death on the ocean, and the Navy at war. The various types of ships and officers are explained and illustrated, and a glossary of naval terms is included. Horatio Lord Nelson. The 100-Gun Ship Victory (Anatomy of the Ship Series) by John McKay Hardcover - 120 pages Naval Institute Press; ISBN: 1557504180 The Anatomy of Nelson's Ships by C. Nepean Longridge Hardcover - 60 pages (June 1980) United States Naval Inst.; ISBN: 0870210777 The Campaign of Trafalgar 1803-1805 (Chatham Pictories Histories) Robert Gardiner(Editor), et al Hardcover Decision at Trafalgar (Heart of Oak Sea Classics Series) by Dudley Pope Paperback - 320 pages 1st Heart edition Owl Books; ISBN: 0805061363 For God and Glory: Lord Nelson and His Way of War by Joel S. A. Hayward Hardcover from United States Naval Inst. Tag Archives: Horatio Hornblower. Periodically, we’ve noted instances where actual events enter naval fiction set during the Age of Sail will little more than the names of people and ships changed. Sometimes the actual events are toned down for the novel because of the implausibility of the real event, such as Cochrane taking El Gamo or Nelson using one Spanish first rate as a bridge to board and take a second first rate. Another incident ties together Midshipman Horatio Hornblower, Lieutenant Lord Ramage, and Commodore Horatio Nelson. Fog and the Spanish Fleet. In the short story, Hornblower, the Duchess, and the Devil , which is included in C. S. Forester’s Mr. Midhipman Hornblower, Hornblower, commanding a prize en route to England, finds himself enshrouded in fog, a fog which also includes the Spanish fleet and is subsequently captured and imprisoned at the fortress at Ferrol. In Dudley Pope’s Ramage, Lieutenant Lord Ramage, commanding the cutter HMS Kathleen , finds himself in the same unpleasant circumstances. He however, evades imprisonment, gains key intelligence on the Spanish fleet then in port in Cartagena, and is able to warn Admiral Sir John Jervis of their intentions. The real story is just as strange. Continue reading → How Much Was Enough On A Man O’ War? Yet something had to be done. The Lydia had supplied him with two hundred able-bodied seamen (his placard said nothing of the fact that they had been compulsorily transferred without a chance of setting foot on English soil after a commission of two years’ duration) but to complete his crew he needed another fifty seamen and two hundred landsmen and boys. The guardship had found him none at all. Failure to complete his crew might mean loss of his command, and from that would result unemployment and half-pay — eight shillings a day — for the rest of his life. One of the underlying themes of most novels set during the Age of Sail is the difficulty of manning a ship of the era. Those familiar with C. S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower will recall the sleepless nights Captain Hornblower spent worrying about his ability to man HMS Sutherland (quoted above) because he knew if he could not man her, Admiralty would give her to someone who could. Continue reading → The Alan Lewrie Novels: A Perspective. I’ve recently finished working my way through Dewey Lambdin’s series of novels following the career of his character Alan Lewrie. I stumbled onto the first by accident, was captured in the first paragraph, back in November and to a certain extent that novel, The King’s Coat, crystallized some ideas that had been floating around in my head about providing a researched resource covering life at sea, particularly life in the British navy, in the 18th and early 19th centuries. It seems that I have nearly a year to wait until the next installment arrives, so I’ll close this chapter with my perspective on the novel and the character. A Great Hornblower Fansite. If you are interested in all things Hornblower, ScaryFangirl.com is the place for you. Plot lines of movies and television shows, genealogy, synopsis of novels, and discussion boards are all there, albeit with a heavy dose of estrogen (not that there is anything wrong with that). HMS Glatton Takes On All Comers. Captain Henry Trollope with the moratlly wounded Marine Captain Henry Ludlow Strangeways on the deck of HMS Glatton. Alexander Kent, on the other hand, perhaps feeling that the actual event was too improbable, actually downplays Nelson’s use of one Spanish ship of the line as a bridge to board and take a second, larger Spanish ship of the line and has Richard Bolitho use a friendly brig as a bridge to board and take a French frigate. Every once in a while, though, the novel’s protagonist makes out worse than the actual character. Casting the Lead. “Mr. Bush, do you see the battery?” “Yes, sir.” “You will the longboat. Mr. Rayner will take the launch, and you will land and storm the battery.” “Aye, aye, sir.” “I will give you the word when to hoist out.” “Aye, aye, sir.” “Quarter less eight,” droned the leadsman — Hornblower had listened to each cast subconsciously; now that the water was shoaling he was compelled to give half his attention up to the leadsman’s cries while still scrutinizing the battery. A bare quarter of a mile from it now; it was time to strike. For a sailor, knowing the depth of the water under the keel was probably more important than knowing a precise northing and easting. You can fix being lost. Not so much with being sunk. Cap de Creus, Spain. Cap de Creus, Spain. Easternmost point of Catalonia. Fans of C. S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower will instantly recognize this a dominant feature in Hornblower’s patrol area off Catalonia in HMS Sutherland (see Ship of the Line). It is off this point that Hornblower, by masterful seamanship, was able to tow a ship of the line carrying the flag of the Rear Admiral Leighton which had been dismasted in a sudden storm. Roses, Spain. This is what remains of the fortress overlooking the harbor at Roses, Spain on the Costa Brava. It is from the ramparts of this fort that a captive Horatio Hornblower (see Flying Colors) watched a British squadron destroy the four ships of the line his Sutherland had damaged as well as firing the captured Sutherland . This fort had changed hands several times over the centuries. When the French abandoned Catalonia for good in 1814 they destroyed the fortress. Ferrol. Ferrol, Galicia, has been linked to the sea for its entire history. The remnants of the Spanish Armada took shelter here and it remains the major Spanish naval base on the Atlantic coast. Ferrol, of course, is also well known to fans of C. S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower novels. The fortress at Ferrol, in the foreground, is where Midshipman Hornblower was imprisoned for two years and where, despite his lack of an ear for pronunciation, he learned Spanish that aided him in later adventures. Vado Bay. Most readers of naval fiction of the Age of Sail are fairly familiar with the broad outlines of the Napoleonic Wars. In reality, Britain had been at war with Revolutionary France for nearly seven years when the 18 Brumaire Coup brought Napoleon to power. Tag Archives: Nelson’s Navy. According to Brian Lavery in Nelson’s Navy, there were over a thousand instances of mutiny between 1793 and 1815. These involved the spectrum from one man to multiple men and instances where the mutineers got their demands as well as those who were court-martialed. Mutiny was not an activity to be lightly undertaken. The captain of a ship was the representative of the Sovereign and for all intents and purposes held the power of life and death over his crew. Once a mutiny did break out, even if tightly disciplined and for all the right reason, the odds were overwhelming that, at a minimum, the ringleaders were going to be festooning yardarms throughout the fleet when it ended. One of the reasons the Spithead Mutiny was more protracted than need be was the insistence by the mutineers upon a Royal Pardon for all involved. They had good reason. Introducing the Carronade: The Range Myth. In Nelson’s Navy, Brian Lavery makes an interesting observation. Contra what we read in naval fiction set during the Age of Sail, or even what some contemporaneous writers assert, the range of the carronade was not significantly inferior to the long guns it replaced. Experiments conducted by the Admiralty in 1813 determined that at point-blank range, that is, an elevation of zero degrees, a long 24-pounder had a range of 200 yards. A 32-pounder carronade, under the same conditions had a range of 340 yards. When the 24-pounder fired at its maximum elevation, 9 degrees, it could reach 2213 yards. The carronade firing a it’s max elevation of 11 degrees could reach 1930 yards. To a certain extent that isn’t surprising. The carronade, as we’ve noted were bored with a much tighter windage than long guns making the propellant more efficient. The carronade fired a hollow shot which reduced the notional weight of a 32-pounder into the 20-something pound range. Powder was probably apportioned based on the notional weight of a 32-pound shot and not on its actual weight which means the 24- pounder was using 8 pounds of powder while the 32-pounders was using slightly more than 10 pounds. As we’ve noted, though, the whole issue of range is simply a smoke screen. Naval artillery during the Age of Sail simply did not have the fire control equipment and range tables to fire competently beyond point blank range. The crews of ships had neither the training nor, in the overwhelming number of cases, the interest or inclination to employ the guns as other than sort range weapons. Tag Archives: Horatio Hornblower. As we’ve noted before, one of the advantages of writing fiction set during the Age of Sail is that the real events are often so much more exciting than any mere novelist could conceive of. Take for instance the case of HMS The Fort Diamond (pictured above), probably the only geographical feature to ever be classified as a warship, which directly (in the case of Dudley Pope’s Lord Ramage novel, Ramage’s Diamond) and indirectly (C. S. Forrester’s Horatio Hornblower novel Lieutenant Hornblower) makes an appearance in nautical fiction. The real story is more amazing. “…seasick at Spithead” Spithead was the great anchorage of the Royal Navy located adjacent to the port city of Portsmouth. Spithead continues to be the scene of naval reviews such as Trafalgar 200 International Fleet Review. This image provides a view of Spithead to the right foreground an is oriented up The Solent towards Southampton. Spithead provided a very sheltered anchorage, heavily defended by land fortifications, that had the advantage of allowing ships to exit under most wind conditions. Spithead was also the site of one of the two great mutinies of the Royal Navy in 1797, unlike the later one at the Nore, the Spithead mutiny was settled peacefully and resulted in substantial reforms in the Royal Navy. For fans of C. S. Forester and Horatio Hornblower, Spithead is where Midshipman Hornblower began his naval career on the HMS Justinian and became famed as the midshipman who was seasick at Spithead. If you are interested in what Portsmouth, Spithead, and The Solent look like from a glider be sure to drop by this site. Admiral Sir Edward Pellew. The Age of Sail produced some interesting characters and exceptional leaders. Sometimes they are all rolled into one, as in the case of Lord Cochrane. What makes the British Navy notable, in my view anyway, is the degree to which it was a meritocracy operating within an aristocratic society. While it is true that those with connections did benefit from their social status it was equally true that advancement in the Royal Navy was open to men of modest birth but exceptional ability. One such is Sir Edward Pellew Continue reading → Wikipedia Project. Wikipedia has a very in depth biography of C. S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower but the entries for Dudley Pope’s Nicholas Ramage, Alexander Kent’s Richard Bolitho, and Dewey Lambdin’s Alan Lewrie are much less developed. I took an initial cut at improving the Lewrie entry today and will continue. Help is always appreciated.