Drawing on many contemporary sources and eyewitness accounts, this book examines the lives of the ordinary sailors of the Royal Navy during the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars (1793-1815), detailing their attitudes, duties, comforts, hardships, vices and virtues. The popular image of the British sailor of this time is of a press-ganged wretch living off weevil-infested food, motivated only by prize money and facing constant hazards aboard a floating hell, where discipline was maintained by the lash. The extent to which this enduring image accords with reality is revealed here.
Group
Books (first-hand)
Author
Fremont-Barnes, G./Noon, S. (Illustr.)
Title
Nelson's Sailors
Details
English text, paperback, many bw-images, some pages with colour illustrations. 64 pages.
