Navy Lists from Age of Sail

Volume 2 (1776-1783) and 3 (1756-1763)

Reviewed by Jon Williams

By C.A. Sapherson and J.R. Lenton. Available from Raider Games, c/o J.R. Lenton, 119 Elmete Way, Leeds, LS82ND, U. K. The US price of $9.95 per volume includes airmail postage to the USA.

This is the good stuff. These booklets, white offset stapled between blue covers, try to list the name, number of guns, location, date of commission, etc., for all the ships of the European powers during the periods covered, plus the US for the American Revolution.

It's a wild grab-bag of data, and (as might be expected) is most complete on the British, listing the Royal Navy down to yachts, hospital ships, and "armed storeships on the East Indian station". The data for the French is almost as good, and unlike Vol 1 (1793-1801), reviewed in COURIER v. VI, No. 5, the lists include frigates and small ships for other powers - even including the "galiots" of the tiny Prussian Navy.

The books also include lists of flag officers, very good orders-of -battle for fleet actions during the period, and as a bonus a number of orders-ofbattle for battles that could have happened but that never occurred.

Besides the above mentioned, naval lists are provided for the Danes, Spaniards, Swedes, Dutch, Russians, Venetians, and the Honorable East India Company Bombay Marine! The minor navies aren't presented as completely as the British and French, but the authors do a good job of dealing with obscure data, and are refreshingly honest about admitting gaps in their knowledge.

The American Revolutionary forces are presented in a way that makes fairly clear the distinction between the Continental Navy, state navies (here called "Colony Cruisers"), and privateers. The list of privateers and state ships is admittedly incomplete - the large Connecticut Navy is all but ignored - but this is useful for all that.

Would it be quibbling to wish for lists and orders-of-battle covering the naval wars between Russia, Turkey, Sweden, and Denmark during the period 1797-1791? Admittedly, this is out of the period covered by these volumes, but the authors seem to have the data available and the war was an interesting one and contained lots of actions that featured Swedish crown princes, Turkish pashas, and a Russian admiral by the name of John Paul Jones! Perhaps this will appear in a future volume - I hope so.

Also available in this series is VOLUME FOUR (1740-1748), and VOLUME FIVE, which covers 100 small-scale engagements for the period 1793-1801 - perfect data for an afternoon's gaming, or for P&G roleplayers. I have not examined these volumes, but am looking forward. Highly recommended.

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