The Eyes of the Fleet: A Popular History of Frigates and Frigate Captains 1793-1815 - Hardcover

Price, Anthony

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393038467 ISBN 13: 9780393038460

Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc, 1996

Synopsis

Frigates were the fastest warships in the British fleet in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the key to Britain's long dominance over the world's other navies. These scouting cruisers were, according to Nelson, "the eyes of the Fleet." But they were much more than that: true fighting ships, lightly built and heavily armed, ready for every task short of joining the set-piece battles involving the heavier ships-of-the-line.
From the bloody 1797 mutiny of the HMS Hermione crew, who murdered Captain Hugh Pigot and tossed him overboard after eight months of brutality, to the 1813 battle between the British frigate Shannon and the American Chesapeake in which the Chesapeake's Captain James Lawrence uttered the famous phrase, "Don't give up the ship!" The Eyes of the Fleet gives us the absorbing story of the men who worked the frigates during their heyday, and recounts with thrilling detail some of the most influential and exciting battles in naval history.

About this title

Synopsis:

The frigate, in its classical wooden sailing-ship form, was a fast scouting cruiser - "the eyes of the fleet", in Nelson's words. But the frigate was something much more that a mere scout - it was a true fighting ship, lightly built but heavily-gunned for its size, designed for every naval task short of taking part in the great set-pieces between battleships. The author examines the frigate's evolution, the men who sailed in them and the most famous single-ship actions.

About this edition

• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0393038467
• ISBN 13: 9780393038460
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 298