On the morning of October 21st, 1805, writes Christopher Lloyd, Nelson’s crushing defeat of the combined naval forces of France and Spain won for Britain an unchallenged mastery of the seas that was to last for over a hundred years.
In the mid-nineteenth century, writes Christopher Lloyd, a young naval surgeon from Orkney played an important part in West African exploration.
Christopher Lloyd describes how Hawke’s victory over the Brest Fleet, on November 20th 1759, destroyed the last possibility of the French gaining the supremacy at sea necessary for their projected invasion of Britain.
Christopher Lloyd traces the development of naval missile technology alongside the often adverse reactions these “infernal machines” provoked.
When the iron industry depended on wood, not coal, Sussex and Kent were the centres of English gunfounders, writes Christopher Lloyd.
Impressment for Naval Service of seamen in British ports dates back to the reign of Edward I; Christopher Lloyd describes the practice and how it ceased in the mid-nineteenth century.
Christopher Lloyd profiles a highly successful businessman of modest and abstemious habits, John Julius Angerstein, who formed a magnificent collection, the nucleus of London’s National Gallery, at his house in Pall Mall.
James Anthony Gardner’s recollections of his service with the Royal Navy from 1782 to 1814, writes Christopher Lloyd, give a stimulating picture of life below decks.
Christopher Lloyd describes how, trying to fight his way from Egypt to Constantinople, Bonaparte was checked by Sidney Smith’s defence.
The English south coast lay at the mercy of smugglers, writes Christopher Lloyd, until a full-scale blockade from 1817 gradually brought them under control.
