Being totally uninspired, I decided to devote my column this issue to a bit of a review.

The fortunate tome being Fighting Ships - Ships of the Line 1793 - 1815 by David Davies, published by Constable for 19.95 pounds, comprising 200pp with 8 B & W plates, 4 Maps, 8 Figures and 12 Diagrams.

To be published on the 20th May 1996, and of course available from our good selves, I would suggest that this is possibly the most useful new book to introduce the reader to the concept of Napoleonic Naval history. And perhaps veterans of the subject will also learn something new. I confess that prior to this book I knew little of Naval matters.

A good start was made with "Notes on the Text" which provides the novice with sufficient information to understand what is going on. The opening chapter gives an overview of the Napoleonic Wars and sets the scene in a Naval context. I baulked somewhat at the chapter's title, "The Original World War", surely this is an erroneous claim, what about the Seven Years War Mr. Davies? That was truly a global conflict. I don't think we fought the French in Canada & America during the period of your book. I only dwell on this as it is used as a device to entice the reader with claims that World Wars I & II, should have been II & III! A petty quibble, maybe, but it made me put the book down for a fortnight, and to be fair the quality of the rest of the book is such that gimmick such as these are not required, but I do wish authors would resist such urges. The last time I came across something like this, it was a claim that a 1,000 man strong British Infantry Battalion occupied, in two ranks, a frontage of 1,000 yards. A serious doubt was put into my mind as to the author's capabilities. (It was Waterloo: New Perspectives if you must know!).

But let us progress further. The second and third chapters cover the workings of the ships and their crews. This explained with clarity, and suitably illustrated, to the extent that even this landlubber now has a better understanding of nautical matters, especially how the guns were fired and maintained and how complex the raising and lowering of the anchor was! No you don't throw it over the side!

Fighting Ships then covers the major actions of the period from "The Glorious First of June" to "Trafalgar" in the next eight chapters. Here the actions are well described - with enthusiasm - and are well illustrated and are definitely worth the trouble of reading.

Chapter 11, the final chapter, covers in 13 pages everything post Trafalgar to 1815. I found this somewhat unsatisfactory, and though little may have happened during these years, I felt that the author cared little about events after Horatio turned up his tootsies. What about the War of 1812 that lead to the creation of the US Navy?

So, apart from the fact the this book might have been better titled Fighting Ships of Nelson's Time 1795 - 1805, I must say that this book is intelligently written and informative enough to warrant a place on even the most landlocked bookcase.

Dundee Gamers Wanted