The Oxford Illustrated History of the Royal Navy

by Hill, J. R.; Ranft, Bryan

• ISBN13: 9780198605270
• ISBN10: 0198605277
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-10-17
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

For Britain, as an island nation, the Navy has always had a special significance and has remained embedded in the national consciousness, finding continuing cultural expression in art, music, and literature. This book presents a total history of the Royal Navy by drawing on the specialist knowledge of 14 expert contributors who between them cover every aspect of naval history from the Anglo-Saxon period to submarine warfare in the nuclear age. Accounts are given of major actions and campaigns - such as the defeat of the Spanish Armada, the Anglo-Dutch Wars of the seventeenth century, Trafalgar, the Battle of Jutland, the Atlantic Campaign of 1939-45, and the Falklands conflict. Emphasis is also placed on a range of other naval functions, from navigational advances, surveying, and constructional developments to disaster relief and the suppression of the slave trade. The range of personalities is equally diverse, from great national heroes like Drake and Nelson, to administrators such as Samuel Pepys, technicians (including the great hydrographer, Francis Beaufort), and men of power and influence such as Jackie Fisher, Lord Charles Beresford, and Lord Jellicoe. There is also a wealth of information on shipboard life at different periods, recruitment (including press gangs, training, education, and discipline), tactics, gunnery and armaments, amphibious operations, wages and conditions, victualling and supply, and systems of preferment. A unique feature is a series of 'Action Stations' - diagrams showing the manner in which ships of various periods went into battle. With a full complement of reference material, including a chronology and extensive list of further reading, this is anauthoritative and highly readable account of a unique fighting service and its people.

Author Biography

J. R. Hill served for over 40 years in the Royal Navy in sea and Whitehall appointments, ending his career in 1983 as Rear-Admiral. He has since been Under-Treasurer of the Middle Temple, retiring in 1994, and since 1980 has written nine books on maritime warfare, strategy, history, and arms control. He has lectured and given conference papers, worldwide, on similar subjects. He is editor of The Naval Review and was Chairman of the Society for Nautical Research from 1994 to 1999.

Table of Contents

List of Colour Pates	vii
List of Maps and Action Stations	ix
List of Contributors	x
Preface	xii
The Wall of England, To 1500	1	(23)
Susan Rose
From the King's Ships to the Royal Navy 1500--1642	24	(32)
David Loades
A Permanent National Maritime Fighting Force, 1642--1689	56	(24)
J. D. Davies
The Struggle with France, 1690--1815	80	(40)
John B. Hattendorf
The Eighteenth-Century Navy as A National Institution, 1690--1815	120	(41)
Daniel A. Baugh
The Shield of Empire, 1815--1895	161	(39)
Andrew Lambert
Wood, Sail, and Cannonballs to Steel, Steam, and Shells, 1815--1895	200	(27)
David K. Brown
Endeavour, Discovery, and Idealism 1760--1895	227	(23)
Roger Morris
Life and Education in A Technically Evolving Navy, 1815--1925	250	(30)
John Winton
The Battleship Fleet: The Test of War, 1895--1919	280	(39)
James Goldrick
Retrenchment, Rethinking, Revival, 1919--1939	319	(29)
Geoffrey Till
A Service Vindicated, 1939--1946	348	(33)
Eric J. Grove
The Realities of Medium Power 1946 to the Present	381	(28)
J. R. Hill
The Royal Navy and the Post-War Naval Revolution, 1946 to the Present	409	(25)
Norman Friedman
Postscript	434	(5)
Chronology	439	(10)
Further Reading	449	(18)
Illustration Sources	467	(2)
Index	469