From ‘Sharpe’s Trafalgar’:

(by Bernard Cornwell)
‘..Sharpe just gazed at the fleet in awe, doubting he would ever see a sight like this again,. This was the majesty of Britain, her deep-sea fleet, a procession of majestic gun batteries, vast, ponderous and terrible. They moved as slowly a fully laden waggons, their bluff bows subduing the seas and the beauty of their black and yellow flanks hiding the guns in their dark bellies. Their sterns were gilded and their figureheads a riot of of shields, tridents, naked breasts and defiance. Their sails, yellow, cream and white, made a cloud bank, and their names were a roll call of triumphs: Conqueror and Agamemnon, Dreadnought and Revenge, Leviathan and Thunderer, Mars, Ajax and Colossus. These were the ships that had cowed the Danes, broken the Dutch, decimated the French and chased the Spanish from the seas. These ships ruled the waves, but now one last enemy fleet challenged them and they sailed to give it battle..’

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20 Responses to From ‘Sharpe’s Trafalgar’:

  1. tranquil says:

    Wonderful stuff!

    Reminds me of the book “The Master Mariner” by Nicholas Montserrat that I read some time ago. Very similar style of writing – it really “draws you in” to the story.

    • KG says:

      I enjoyed “the Master Mariner” very much, Tranquil.
      Cornwell’s research is meticulous and his account is very accurate, as well as being well-written. :grin:

  2. Ronbo says:

    My favorite sea stories as a boy were the Hornblower novels…Oddly because my mother was a member of the book of the month club in the 1950s. The way the club worked was that if you didn’t select a book, they would pick one for you send it. Mom would pay the bill and give the Hornblower books to me, as she was interested in romance stories. The next month the cycle was repeated and soon I had complete collection. :mrgreen:

    • KG says:

      There was a fine TV series about Hornblower, Ronbo. Great stories. :grin:

      • Ronbo says:

        I think it was on YOUTUBE I saw that Hornblower series you refer to….Indeed, it was excellent :!: Iron men on wooden ships :!: It was tricky enough just to sail one of those Men of War, but to engage in battle :?: Yet the Royal Navy did that very thing for centuries on every ocean on the globe.

        …and whether the RN intended it or not, they well trained the U. S. Navy for its many victories at sea in the 20th century. The U.S. Navy modeled itself on the Royal Navy and the U.S. Marines on the Royal Marines.

        • KG says:

          :lol: I believe the first time the RN met its match in gunnery skills was when they faced American ships.

        • Flashman says:

          The court martial and execution of Admiral Byng in 1757(?) on grounds of not trying hard enough is said to have set in place a new and very aggressive culture among RN officers.

          • Darin says:

            “I believe the first time the RN met its match in gunnery skills was when they faced American ships.”

            We also benefited from an endless sea of timber and a population where nearly everyone was a carpenter :grin:

    • Flashman says:

      Hornblower’s character was based on this chap: https://ageofsail.wordpress.com/2009/01/31/admiral-sir-george-cockburn/

  3. mawm says:

    Can you imagine the line of battle with all these glorious ships fully canvased, pennants and colours flying, guns blazing – surely a spectacular sight.

    Sadly nowdays they’d have health and safety and union reps on the gun decks let alone restrictive ROE. “Sorry guys, you can’t fire the guns without eye protection, and when you do you have to stand behind this line….and BTW you are not allowed to work while you are on tea break…..anyway you are not allowed to fire until fired upon.”

  4. KG says:

    “Can you imagine the line of battle with all these glorious ships fully canvased, pennants and colours flying, guns blazing..”
    I sure can, Mawm. It must have been a magnificent sight.

    • Ronbo says:

      I would liked to have been witness to the Royal Navy’s entrance into New York Harbor in 1776 – one minute nothing – then suddenly a harbor full of thousands of white sails and on hundreds of warships with the guns run out and 15,000 of the best troops in the world rapidly heading on shore.

      This in the 18th century :!: Britain was the world superpower and old King George III was highly pissed at a self equipped ragtag militia that called itself with delusion of grandeur the “Continental Army” under Washington, who was to write, after his defeats in several battles on Long Island and lucky escape to New Jersey with maybe 10% of his army, that the “The game was nearly up.”

      • Darin says:

        Ron,I see the British empire of that time as the final runout of a prototype being replaced by the newer model.

        The British army had become a bloated beast of conscripts,equipped with by then inferior weapons and led by an officer corp populated by narcissistic pricks whose own mistreatment of the colonials fueled the fires of revolution.

        The Shot heard round the world didn’t just announce the rollout of a new prototype,it announced the beginning of the end for the previous model.After the Revolution the Empire was faced with the cost of modernization,every colony if they were to declare independence would start a war of attrition and also attract the attention of traditional foes looking for payback.It was only a matter of time.

        IMO if the industrial revolution had not begun the British empire would have melted away much more rapidly.

        • Flashman says:

          In the 1770’s the British army was remarkably small in total numbers – a regiment was often able to field under 300 effectives. What we would call the “peace dividend” following the Seven Years War was in full strength and the army and navy reduced to low circumstances: which is one reason why the government was so keen that colonists help pay for their own frontier defense in the wake of Pontiac’s War. But of course the skinflint plutocrats in faraway places like Boston objected – as they had during Braddock’s campaign to subdue the French in the Ohio valley. Why should they be taxed to protect ex-indentured laborers clearing corn patches in the back woods from Indians?

          Throughout the American land war there were never sufficient troops available: recruitment always lagged behind the need. Conscription was never resorted to and in fact never happened until WW1.

          • KG says:

            Something I love about CR’s commenters–I learn new things every day. :grin:

            • The Gantt Guy says:

              I was just thinking that exact same thing.
              http://falfn.com/CrusaderRabbit/wp-content/plugins/wp-monalisa/icons/wpml_good.gif

              • Darin says:

                “Conscription was never resorted to and in fact never happened until WW1.”

                Conscription,impressment,draft don’t really see much difference there.Passing out drunk in the gutter and waking up in the Army still means you have a force of men who really don’t want to be there.So much so the old saying here- “thumb and finger against it” originated with Impressment referring to the practice of some men cutting their own thumb and fore finger off of their right hand to avoid it.

  5. mawm says:

    There is another Bernard Cornwall book, ‘The Fort’, about the Penobscot expedition, the largest American naval expedition of the American Revolutionary war and their biggest naval defeat until Pearl Harbour. Our American bloggers might enjoy the read even although the Brits won this one …. and were lucky to do so purely because of American command ineptness and superior British military training and command.

  6. The Gantt Guy says:

    Cornwell’s series The Starbuck Chronicles are an excellent read – about a Northerner fighting for the South in the Civil War.