Every Man Will Do His Duty: An Anthology of Firsthand Accounts from the Age of Nelson [Englisch] [Gebundene Ausgabe]

For anyone who is interested in naval warfare in the age of sail in general, or in the Napoleonic period, this book is a must. It is simply superb.

This anthology of first hand accounts covers events in both the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, including the War of 1812, in which the Royal Navy getting some very nasty surprises, and even nastier defeats, at the hands of the small, but expert United States Navy.

Some of the subjects covered are the Battle of Cape St. Vincent in 1797, the sea fight between HMS Macedonian and the USS United States in 1812, the cruise into the Pacific of the USS Essex, and such esoteric subject as 'the noted pimp of Lisbon' and Bermuda in time of peace.

This book is an enjoyable read, an outstanding primary source, and one of the best books available on this often neglected subject.

I bought this book because I started down the slippery slope which begins with Patrick O'Brian's *Master* *and* *Commander* and ends with a wall covered with naval prints and trips to Nelson-phile conventions.

This book is an anthology of first hand accounts of naval life in the age of sail. The stories are dramatic and gripping, though I wished the they were longer. The editors have helpfully added some diagrams and maps, though I would have prefered even more.

It is very interesting to see the overlap with the O'Brian books. As O'Brian points out in one of his forwards, at least sometimes he did not need to invent the plot, but merely re-arrange and sort out the pacing.

This splendidly enjoyable anthology - an ideal bedside book - includes some twenty-two first-hand narratives, from British and American sources, of naval life and death in the French Revolutionary War, the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. Though some are extracts from memoirs written many years after the events described, others stem from closer to the action and so have an immediacy and freshness that sweeps away the two intervening centuries so that the reader all but feels the presence of the story-teller. Accounts by officers, some to achieve yet higher rank, such as Cochrane and Porter, alternate with less-polished descriptions from the lower deck, some frank in the extreme, particularly as to scrapes ashore. Of particular interest is Surgeon William Beatty's account of Trafalgar and of the death of Nelson, which is often referred to in other texts but is quoted here in full - even today, it is impossible to read it without emotion. Every aspect of the naval officer's and seaman's life, whether afloat or ashore, is covered here, but a consistent theme throughout is the cheerful courage, camaraderie, humanity and sense of honour in the face of unrelenting hardship and adversity that characterised all levels in the service. Devotees of the naval fiction of Forrester, Kent, Pope and O'Brian may on occasion wonder whether the reality can have been as consistently violent and hazardous as their novels portray but this volume confirms that if they err, it is on the side of moderation. William Henry Dillon's view of the Glorious First of June from the gun-deck of HMS Defence and Samuel Leech's account of the HMS Macedonian vs. USS United States duel are as grim and blood-spattered as anything in such fiction. Cochrane's swashbuckling depredations of enemy shipping in the Mediterranean in HMS Speedy would deemed too unlikely for any novel and George Vernon Jackson's extended escape efforts in Napoleonic France rival those of Colditz detainees in a later conflict by their resourcefulness and persistence. Throughout all these accounts however one is struck by the humanity and decency that characterised relations between enemy forces outside actual combat in the age before militant nationalism added a new bitterness to warfare. William Robinson's account of the aftermath of Trafalgar proves that Nelson's prayer that magnanimity in victory might characterise the Royal Navy struck a chord with officers and men alike, Jackson's account is full of kindnesses received from ordinary French people while "on the run" and Porter's account of the courtesies that preceded and followed the USS Essex's murderous show-down with HMS Phoebe off Valpariso show that honour was not merely a word, but a way of life, to the officers of the time. In summary this anthology is a delight to be savoured over a long period, a well to be dipped into with pleasure for many years to come.