The books listed below are divided into useful categories. I have added comments in parentheses to books I find particularly useful or interesting. All are annotated as follows:
* Popular history, which may contain valuable background but which is meant to entertain people unfamiliar with the period, or which deals with only a small feature of the era.
** A good source for its particular topic, but which deals with too narrow a subject matter to be of interest to the general reader.
*** An excellent source of secondary materials, or a somewhat limited source of primary matter.
**** A wide-ranging primary source, or a first-rate source of primary material.
In general, keep in mind that the older a source, the greater the tendency of the authors to fall prey to the nationalistic bias. The great historian James wrote while the material was still fresh in the survivors' minds, and thus had unparalleled sources of information, but he and other 19th Century historians considered that it was their task to glorify their nation by exaggerating victories and explaining away defeats, and this bias has to be accounted for.
Also, by way of a plug, many of the best books mentioned here are available from the Naval institute Press, Annapolis, Maryland, 21402. Write for their catalog. it's worth it.
GENERAL HISTORY
Abbot, THE NAVAL HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, Dodd, Mead & Co., 1886.
Anderson, R.C., NAVALWARS IN THE BALTIC, Princeton,1932. *** (Good information on an obscure topic.)
Anderson, R.C., NAVAL WARS IN THE LEVANT, Princeton, 1932. *** (ditto)
Allen, Gardner W., NAVAL HISTORY OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 2 vols, Russel & Russel, New York, 1962. ***
Allen, Joseph, BATTLES OF THE BRITISH NAVY, Bohn, London, 1852.
Bathe, de Cervin, Taillemite, THE GREAT AGE OF SAIL, Viking, New York, 1967. (information sketchy, but great period art)
Brown, THE FLOATING BULWARK, St. Martin's Press, New York, 1963.
Clowes, THE ROYAL NAVY, 9 vols, Low, Marston & Co., 1896. **** (very useful)
Coggins, Jack, SHIPS AND SEAMEN OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, Stackpole, Harrisburgh, 1969. ****
Corbett, FIGHTING INSTRUCTIONS, Naval Records Society, 1905.
Corbett, SIGNALS AND INSTRUCTIONS, Naval Records Society, 1909.
Creswell, BRITISH ADMIRALS OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY, Archon, 1972. (Misleading title. Actually a very good tactical history.)
Gruppe, Henry E., THE FRIGATES, Time-Life, 1979. **
Guttridge and Smith, THE COMMODORES, Harper & Row, 1969 **** (first- rate revisionist history of the U.S. sailing navy).
Hough, Richard, A HISTORY OF FIGHTING SHIPS, Octopus Books, London, 1975. (useful pictures).
Howarth, David, THE SOVEREIGN OF THE SEAS, Atheneum, New York, 1974.
Jackson, T. Sturges, Rear Admiral Ret., LOGS OF THE GREAT SEA FIGHTS, Navy RecordsSociety, London. **** (Traces the course of battles with reference to the logs of each individual ship. Mammoth and interesting.)
James, William, A NAVAL HISTORY OF GREAT BRITAIN, 5 vols, London, 1822. (The standard reference, marred in places by hysterical nationalism.)
Kemp, Peter, Ed., THE OXFORD COMPANION TO SHIPS AND THE SEA, Oxford, 1976. **** (A standard dictionary of ships, history, and terminology.)
Laing, AMERICAN SAIL, Dutton, New York, 1961. *
Laughton, STUDIES IN NAVAL HISTORY, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, 1887.
MacGregor, FAST SAILING SHIPS, Edita, Newfoundland, N.J., 1973. **
Maclay, E.S., A HISTORY OF AMERICAN PRIVATEERS, D. Appleton, NewYork,1906. *** (Anecdotal, fun, and fascinating.)
Maclay, E.S., HISTORY OF THE NAVY, 3 vols, New York, 1893. *** (A history of the U.S. Navy full of anecdotes and good storytelling.)
Marcus, G.J., THE AGE OF NELSON, Viking, New York, 1971. *** (A strategic overview of the Napoleonic conflict at sea.)
Marcus, G.)., HEART OF OAK, Oxford Press, London, 1975. **** (A short but very complete history of the Royal Navy as an institution and fighting machine.)
Millar, AMERICAN SHIPS OF THE COLONIAL AND REVOLUTIONARY PERIODS, Norton & Co., New York, 1979. **
Prett, Fletcher, PREBLE'S BOYS, William Sloan, 1850. **** (Excellent short biographies of most 1812-era captains. Packed with information.)
Preston, Lyon, and Batchelor, NAVIES OF THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, PrenticeHall, 1975. ***
Robinson, S.S., Admiral, A HISTORY OF NAVAL TACTICS, Naval Institute Press, 1942. *** (Solid scholarship.)
Roosevelt, Theodore, THE NAVAL WAR OF 1812, Putnam, New York, 1900. **** (The best on the subject. Never surpassed. Read in conjunction with COMMODORES for a full view.)
Warner, Oliver, THE BRITISH NAVY, Thames and Hudson, London, 1975.
Whipple, FIGHTING SAIL, Time-Life, 1979. **
Wilbur, PICTURE BOOK OF THE REVOLUTION'S PRIVATEERS, Stackpole Books, 1973. **** (Packed with wonderful information and detail.)
SHIPBUILDING AND NAVAL ARCHITECTURE
Chapelle, Howard, THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN SAILI NG SHIPS, Bonanza Books, New York, 1935.
Chapman, ARCHITECTURA NAVALIS MERCATORIA, Praeger, New York. **** (A facsimile of an 18th-Century shipbuilding manual! Wonderful!)
Howard, Frank, Dr., SAILING SHIPS OF WAR 1400-1800, Mayflower Books, 1979.
Longridge, C. Nepean, THE ANATOMY OF NELSON'S SHIPS, Naval Institute Press, 1981. **** (Everything you ever wanted to know )
Steel, STEEL'S ART OF RIGGING 1818, Steel, Goddard & Co., London, 1818. (Need to know how many legs and thimble splices to put in your main-brace span? Steel will tell you.)
INDIVIDUAL BATIFLES, BIOGRAPHIES
Fitzpatrick & Saphire, NAVAL MAVERICK: URIAH PHILLIPS LEVY, Doubleday, 1963. ** (Fascinating biography of the 1812-era naval officer, duellist, and speculator, who abolished flogging in the U.S. Navy.)
Howarth, David, TRAFALGAR: THE NELSON TOUCH, Galahad, New York, 1969.
Howarth, David, THE VOYAGE OF THE ARMADA: THE SPANISH STORY, Viking, New York, 1981. *** (The best thing written on the Armada to date. Unexcelled source on Spanish ships and tactics.)
Padfield, NELSON'S WAR, Grenada, London, 1976.
Pope, Dudley, THE BLACK SHIP, London, 1%3. (Compelling history of the HERMIONE mutiny.)
Pope, Dudley, THE GREAT GAMBLE: NELSON AT COPENHAGEN, Simon & Schuster, 1972. *** (Good detail on the Danes.)
Warner, Oliver, THE GLORIOUS FIRST OF JUNE, Batsford, London, 1961.
PERSONAL ACCOUNTS
Barnes, Ed., FANNING'S NARRATIVE, De Vinne Press, New York. ** (Fanning was a midshipman on the BONHOMME RICHARD during its famous cruise. Fascinating first-hand description.)
Dana, Richard Henry, TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST, Spencer, 1937. ** (A little out of period, but stilI a classic.)
Innis, Ed., THE DIARY OF SIMEON PERKINS, Champlain Society, Toronto, 1948. (Diary of a Canadian privateer.)
Napier, NEW ENGLAND BLOCKADED IN 1814, The Journal of Henry Edward Napier, Salem, 1939. ** (A British officer's journal.)
Robinson, William, JACK NASTYFACE, MEMOIRS OF AN ENGLISH SEAMAN, Cheapside, London, 1836. *** (The true and unpleasant tale...)
LIFE ABOARD SHIP
(see also section on Personal Accounts)
Masefield, John, SEA LIFE IN NELSON'S TIME, United States Naval Institute, 1971.
Pope, Dudley, LIFE IN NELSON'S NAVY, Naval Institute Press, 1981. ****
Valle, James E., ROCKS & SHOALS, ORDER AND DISCIPLINE IN THE OLD NAVY, Naval Institute Press, 1980. *** (Revisionist history of life under the Articles of War in the U.S. Navy. Solid.)
SAILING MANUALS
Adams, John, NAVAL REGULATIONS 1802, Naval Institute Press, Annapolis, 1970. (A facsimile reissue of John Adams' official regulations for the U.S. Navy.)
Hourigan, Lt. P.W., USN, MANUAL SEAMANSHIP FOR OFFICER OF THE DECK, SHIP UNDER SAIL ALONE, Naval Institute Press, 1903. **** (Reprint of an official U.S. publication on how to sail a training ship. Wonderful.)
Nare, NARE'S SEAMANSHIP 1862, Gresham Books. **** (British midshipmen would use this book to study for their lieutenants' exams.)
Regan, EAGLE SEAMANSHIP, A MANUAL FOR SQUARE-RIGGER SAILING, Naval Institute Press, 1979. **** (A manual for sailing the coast guard barque EAGLE.)
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