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Recommended reading for new Captains


Ned Loe

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  • 1 month later...

I know it has been mentioned but will echo the suggestion for the Julian Stockwin series. If you read and enjoyed Hornblower then I would highly recommend Stockwin's works. It covers not only the Royal Naval involvement but also the political, social, psychological and scientifical aspect of the 18th and early 19th century through a fun fictional point of view.

 

http://julianstockwin.com/

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  • 4 weeks later...

Fiction:

 

The "Charles Hayden" series by Sean Thomas Russell

 

 

"Under Enemy Colors" and 3 more

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Under-Enemy-Colours-Charles-Hayden-ebook/dp/B002RI9L5S/ref=sr_1_4

 

 

"The Life and Times of Horatio Hornblower" by C Northcote Parkinson

 

highly recommendable, a biography of Horatio Hornblower from the inventor of "Parkinson's Law   :)

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Life-Times-Horatio-Hornblower/dp/0750921099/ref=sr_1_cc_6

 

 

The "Richard Delancey" series by C Northcote Parkinson

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Guernseyman-Richard-Delancey-Novels/dp/1590130014/ref=sr_1_8

Edited by Jan van Santen
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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi

 

I don't know if it fits this topic but I have collected references of a bunch of academic history books from college libraries. Bear in mind that some of them are more into the economic, social side of naval history with not much attention to individual ships or naval battles, others are just context or international politics related with the timeframe of the game. I tried to put only books published since year 2000 to make it easier if someone is interested in reading one of them.

(Some books in French and Spanish)

 

 

Sorry for my basic written English.

 

General topics

 

-Davis, Lance Edwin. Naval Blockades in peace and war: an economic historic since 1750. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge: 2006

-Guillerm, Alain. Fortifications et marine en Occident: la pierre et le vent. Nouvelle Ed., Paris:1994

-Hardling, Richard. Naval history 1680-1850. Ashgate, England:2006

-Lavery, Brian.  The ship of the line. Volume I, the development of the battlefield 1650-1850. Conway Maritime Press, London: 1995

 

Spain related:

 

-Habron, Jhon D. Trafalgar and the Spanish navy: the spanish experience of sea power. Conway Maritime Press, London: 1988

-Guimerá Ravina, Agustin. Guerra naval en la revolución y el imperio: bloqueos y operaciones anfibias,1793-1815. Marcial Pons, Madrid: 2008

-Codina Bonet, Ramón. Don Antonio, almirante de la Armada y corsario del rey. Ministerio de defensa, Madrid:2010

-Mitiuckov,Nicolay W. La escuadra rusa adquirida por Fernando VII en 1817.Damaré, Pontevedra: 2009

-Ruiz Garcia, Vicente. Las naves de las cortes (1808-1812): El ultimo servicio de la marina de la Ilustración.Silex, Madrid:2013

-Ortiz Sotelo, Jorge.  La Real Armada en el Pacifico Sur: el Apostadero Naval del Callao: 1746-1824.Iberoamericana, Madrid:2015

-Juan-Garcia Aguado, Jose M. Jose Romero Fernandez de Landa: un ingeniero de marina en el siglo XVIII. Universidade da Coruña,  La Coruña: 1998

 

Brittain related

 

-Parkinson, C Northcote. Britannia rules: The classic age of naval history,1793-1815.Slutton Publishing,London:1997

-Graham, Gerald S. Sea Power and British North America 1783-1820:  a study in British Colonial Policy.  Greenwood Press, New York: 1968

-Winfield, Rif.  British warships in the age of sail,1603-1714: design, construction, careers and fates. Seaforth, London: 2009

-Smylie, Michael. Traditional fishing boats of Britain and Ireland: design, history and evolution.Amberley, Gloucestershire: 2011

 

La France

 

- Llinares, Sylviane. Marine Propulsion et technique: evolution du système technologique du navire de guerre français. Librarie de l'Inde Editeur, Paris: 1994

-Plouviez, David. La Marine française et ses réseaux économiques au XVIIIe siècle. Les Indes Savantes Paris: 2014

-Dufraisse, Roger. La france napoléonienne: aspects extérieurs, 1799-1815.Seuil, Paris: 1999

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  • 1 year later...
Two logbooks of the 2015 voyage of the 12 pdr frigate l'Hermione.
That of the commander (Lieutenant Commander of the French Navy) and that of the lieutenant of navigation (lieutenant of the French merchant navy).
In French only.
 
 

image.jpeg

image.jpeg

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  • 1 month later...

My latest batch of books arrived, among them Billy Ruffian, The Bellerophon and the downfall of napoleon by david cordingly

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Billy-Ruffian-David-Cordingly-x/dp/0747565449

It focuses on the ship itself and its adventures.

His biography of cochrane is considered one of the best ones, so i'd expect him to be factual enough in that book as well.

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I just finished this book and thought it was great. It is basically the real history of the events that surround the TV show Black Sails, plus a whole lot more.

51KI-rOAzaL._SX330_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

The author is amazingly thorough and got most of his information from official records of the time. I was amazed at the detail of the stories. Despite that, it was really an easy read as well and really enjoyable. If you are interested in the pirates of the Caribbean at the time, you must read this book.

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On 3/17/2016 at 2:36 PM, Mongoose McMoose said:

Add "A Sea of Words" which is the companion book to the Aubrey/Maturin series, so you can understand all the vague references.

And the geographical companion, Harbors and High Seas.  Indispensable.

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  • 1 month later...

Just read Anatomy of a Naval Disaster: The 1746 French Expedition to North America, great book!

Quote

Pritchard describes the domestic and international political circumstances in France that gave rise to the expedition, outlining strategy and politics in the context of colonial defence and continental ambition. He reconstructs the events that contributed to the failure of the expedition - human and institutional weakness, weather, spoiled provisions, disease, and the death of the commanding admiral. Anatomy of a Naval Disaster exposes the ambitions and frailties of men, the arbitrariness of success, and the limits of power in the eighteenth century.

It´s a very detailed account of the events of the d'Enville expedition with pretty much every data you can possibly want (ships lists and rolls, death rates on specific ships etc), but it´s not 'dry', it captures the human drama of the expedition very well, both for the officers and the sailors; d'Enville  - most probably - got killed by his own doctor, his successor tried to commit suicide, the horror of the journey back to France etc.

And our La Renommée plays quite a prominent role, too, as she was the workhorse of the expedition :)

 

Edited by Malachi
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  • 1 year later...
On 3/29/2015 at 8:57 PM, Wym said:


Julian Stockwin's series

Thomas Kydd series[edit]

  •  
  • Kydd (2001)
  • Artemis (2002)
  • Seaflower (2003)
  • Mutiny (2004)
  • Quarterdeck (2005)
  • Tenacious (2005)
  • Command (2006)
  • The Admiral's Daughter (2007)
  • Treachery (2008) (US title "The Privateer's Revenge")
  • Invasion (2009)
  • Victory (2010)
  • Conquest (2011)
  • Betrayal (2012)
  • Caribbee (2013)
  • Pasha (2014)
  • Tyger (2015 forthcoming)

 

This series has meanwhile reached 21 books, everyone of them great reads, on par with Hornblower/Aubrey.Maturin series.

He manages to find historic episodes around which he arranges his fictions which the other series left out.

Particularly interesting is that Thomas Kydd, the hero of the series, starts as pressed seaman and while working his way up in career and society, always finds himself confronted with  his background.

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On ‎3‎/‎29‎/‎2015 at 3:57 PM, Wym said:

Dewey Lambdin......Alan Lewrie naval adventure series, spanning the American Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars,an interesting read these.......full of sex and naval adventure[/size]

This is the best naval Adventure series in my opinion.  He actually goes into very good detail on the mechanics of sailing and, of course, there is the sex and adventure...

 

"1780: Seventeen-year-old Alan Lewrie is a brash, rebellious young libertine. So much so that his callous father believes a bit of navy discipline will turn the boy around. Fresh aboard the tall-masted Ariadne, Midshipman Lewrie heads for the war-torn Americas, finding--rather unexpectedly--that he is a born sailor, equally at home with the randy pleasures of the port and the raging battles on the high seas."

 

Who could resist?

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Just now, Norfolk nChance said:

@Angus MacDuff

Will look for that book, brilliant thanks.

 

 

 

I do like Historical fiction set around accurate real-world events. Not Navy but Flashman is always a fun way to learn history…

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flashman_Papers

 

 

 

NnC

 

Been there and love that author.  As a Scot, his "MacAuslin in the Rough" had me in stitches.  Lambdin is an American writer (ex-US navy) and does give us some insights from there.  He takes us to Yorktown (and puts the blame for the loss of the colony squarely on the RN), New Orleans and the US phony war with France, amongst other locations.

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https://www.amazon.de/Frigate-Commander-Tom-Wareham/dp/1848848595
 

Quote

 

Frigate Commander is based on the private journal of Lieutenant - and then Captain - Graham Moore, a naval officer serving during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars. Moore's journal gives a unique and detailed account of what life was like for a serving naval officer. In particular it reveals the problems an officer had in managing the crew of a frigate, maintaining discipline and turning his ship into an efficient man of war.

 

 

 

 

Best naval history book I've read for a long time. By the way, Moore´s the guy who captured the last big spanish treasure convoy, commanding Indefatigable.

Edited by Malachi
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