Master and Commander
Collected Works
Men O' War
by Paul Chamberlain, UK
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Men O' War: Life in Nelson’s NavyPeter Goodwin
Peter Goodwin was one of the historical advisors for the film Master and Commander, being the Keeper and Curator of HMS Victory and well placed to advise on matters pertaining to ship design and life in the navy of the period. Men O’War: Life in Nelson’s Navy is an account of the real world behind the fiction. The author begins with a very general history of the Royal Navy during the period, and proceeds to describe ships and weaponry, seamen and marines, warrant officers, the Commissioned Officers, life at sea, victualling and health at sea, intelligence, espionage and signalling. The information imparted on the ships, equipment and men is based upon recent research and the author’s own practical experience. While the text covers each topic briefly, much information is included in the form of tables for ease of reference. For example, there is an interesting table of the crew living locations within different ship types – information not featured in other works. The data tables are very comprehensive; that on guns lists the length, weight, weight of charge, range and number of crew for each size of weapon. There is even a list of items with which each gun was equipped. Also included are the personal weapons with which the seamen fought, from pistols and cutlasses to swords and hatchets. In the section on Seamen and Marines, the author has written a very clear and concise text on the various means by which seamen were recruited. The social background of the commissioned officers is examined, with a particularly interesting chapter on naval colleges, volunteers, career advancement and the roles and responsibilities of each rank. While the text is very concise for each subject, this does make for ‘bite-size’ pieces of information, thus providing a very easy to use reference book, which is well illustrated throughout.
Peter Goodwin claims that much of our perception of the Napoleonic Royal Navy stems from the naval reformers of the 1830s, who wanted to justify their ideas against the ‘bad old days’. He examines the mythology of the navy such as the role of the powder monkeys, arguing that a line of seamen passing powder from the magazine to the guns was the norm, not young boys running up and down the ship. The music of the period is discussed, with very few tunes and songs of the period actually surviving. Most of the well-known sea shanties derive from the merchant fleet of the mid-19th century. Men O’War: Life in Nelson’s Navy is a comprehensive reference source for the study of the Royal Navy of the Napoleonic Wars, at the same time examining our knowledge in the light of modern research. A very useful and recommended source of information on the subject. Master and Commander: Collected Works Book Reviews Back to Table of Contents -- First Empire # 77 Back to First Empire List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2004 by First Empire. This article appears in MagWeb.com (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other articles from military history and related magazines are available at http://www.magweb.com |
One section that impressed me was that
on life at sea, in which the author uses tables
to explain the ship’s day; a very simple and
clear way of explaining this topic. Fascinating
detail illustrates the author’s expert knowledge
of the subject, such as the table of additional
duties for a 32-pounder gun crew,
listing their roles as boarders, manning pumps
and fire parties.