The Trafalgar Companion: A Guide to History's Most Famous Sea Battle and the Life of Admiral Lord Nelson: The Complete Guide to History's Most Famous Sea Battle and the Life of Admiral Lord Nelson [Englisch] [Gebundene Ausgabe]

The Trafalgar Companion is probably the best reference book on the Royal Navy in the time of the Napoleonic Wars. It has about 550 pages of small type and is jam packed with information. However, it is much more than its title suggests.

This book could probably be divided into three main parts: the life of Nelson, the Trafalgar campaign, and the background of the Royal Navy. There are nine sections, each with subsections and most with an epilogue. The epilogues comprise the first part, as they describe some aspect of Nelson's life or career. If one wanted to read only about Nelson, one could jump to the end of each chapter and read a very good biography of Nelson. The epilogues include his early life and career, the battles of St Vincent, the Nile, Copenhagen; his stay at Naples, Emma, and a few others. The reader really comes to know a great deal about Nelson. The second section, the background of the Royal Navy, gives the reader about 150 pages on topics such as ship construction and classification, seamanship, navigation, officers, seamen, marines, uniforms, gunnery, tactics, and many others. This section alone is invaluable to understanding the Royal Navy. The third section is about the Trafalgar campaign. The subsections include British and French naval strategy, the fleets, command, opening moves, the battle itself (about 60 pages), and the aftermath of the battle.

So, what makes this such a great book? The topics have all been discussed in tons of other books. Well, first, this book is like an encyclopedia--it brings everything together under one roof. If you want Nelson, you got 'im. If you're reading Hornblower, Ramage, Kydd, or Aubrey and you need some background info on some topic, it's here. However, this book is more than an encyclopedia. If you have several hours to spend on a great story--the battle itself--you've got a great read in front of you. Second, in addition to the text, this book is filled with hundreds of illustrations, diagrams, lists, quotes, maps, paintings, and drawings. For example, the section on fleet comparison devotes a page to each ship from both fleets. The pages include a drawing of a ship, its rating, number and type of guns, number and type of crew (i.e. naval, infantry, marine), a biography of its commander, what the ship did during and after the battle, and, for the British, a list of all its officer--all the way down to the purser! In the section on guns, gunnery, and tactics, there are eight fabulous color illustrations, each covering two pages. The first is a cross section of the Victory with all the rooms labeled. The ship looks like a mini city. Then there are top-view illustrations of each deck. Not only are the guns and other parts of the ship labeled, but also where crew members would have been assigned. I didn't know that a marine was assigned to each gun on the ship. In some cases even known personalities can be placed in certain areas on deck. There is even a page showing the number and arrangement of lanterns to indicate signals in the presence of the enemy! I particularly like the 19 maps in the battle section. The reader can follow the movements and firing of the ships throughout the battle. There are so many topics and all are treated exhaustively.

I could go on and on giving examples of the breadth and depth of this book. Besides the information, the color illustrations and quality of paper make this book visually pleasing. I HIGHLY recommend it to anyone interested in the Royal Navy in the Napoleonic Wars. It's worth every penny you'll pay for it-you won't need anything else.

The Trafalgar Companion by Mark Adkin looked very much like his Waterloo Companion that he wrote earlier. The book covers three subject matters. First is the Trafalgar campaign and battle. Second is the biographical overview of Horatio Lord Nelson and finally the third coverage deals with anatomy of navies and ships of this period although the Royal Navy get most of the coverage. Each three subjects are spread apart into sections and interlocked with the overall coverage of the topic. There are also many side bars notes that inserts interesting trivial if not important information regarding the subject matter at hand.

The book proves to be well written, well researched and easy to read. There are over 200 illustrations that covers everything from battle scenes, diagrams, tactical maps, drawings, ship equipments and so on. There are several pages of a great cross section from the top down on HMS Victory (deck by deck) which showed the ship in battle readiness and show the positions of each crew member by position and officers. There's also a full page coverage on each British, French and Spanish ships involved in the battle as well as history of some of its officers. I can write considerably more on all the great stuff that this book contains.

It pretty obvious that the author went all out to provide one of the most complete coverage of Trafalgar campaign and battle within a single volume. Each of the subject matter appears to be well written and researched. Nelson's biography may not be as detail or indepth as some of the full scale biographies but the coverage proves to be impressive and insightful. All of Nelson's previous battles are in the this book and well covered. While not as detail as Brian Lavery's book, Nelson's Navy, the study of the Royal Navy in this book should satisfied almost anyone. The coverage of the campaign and battle of Trafalgar proves to be complete and highly detailed, helped by charts and maps that gives a clear understanding of the subject at hand.

There is also a short but detail coverage of post-Trafalgar period, fate of the ships, officers and burial of Nelson. Interesting tidbits that can only enchance the reading experience.

In conclusion, while there are books out there who may do a better job covering just the battle or just Nelson or just the details of wooden navy, I believed no book does a superior job in putting all three together and making it work. The 555 pages of this book is crammed with information that can only benefit the reader to the utmost. Its well worth the price you pay.

Hats off to Mark Adkin for this masterful encyclopedia/history of the British navy (and to a lesser but still significant degree, the Spanish and French navies)of the Napoleonic era and the pivotal Battle of Trafalgar. As one with an interest in the life and career of Horatio Nelson and also as one who has read all the Aubrey/Maturin novels in series several times, I can say that this was the book for which I had been waiting all those years. If you have similar interests and still do not have this book, you need to buy it immediately. It will be worth much more to you than whatever you end up paying for it. Outstanding graphics, impressive detail, wonderful human interest narratives. If you own Dean King's Harbors and High Seas: an Atlas and Geographical Guide to the Aubrey-Maturin Novels of Patrick O'Brian, Adkin's book is the perfect complement.