The Community Library

[The Mad Hatter]

Fellow Shipmates -

As much as I enjoy the gaming part of this hobby, I find significant enjoyment in the reading, research, and learning aspects of it as well. Over the years I've collected a pretty large history library (fills one entire wall in my game room), with a very small fraction of it covering age of sail.

I thought it might be good for us to have a listing of books that individuals own. I see this as helpful for many reasons, perhaps you want to know if something is contained in a book before you buy it? Perhaps you want to know if an expensive book is worth the money (I know many in my collection are quite expensive)? Perhaps you want to know someones perception on a "best book" for a specific topic? It'll take me a while to be able to provide true book reviews on all of these, as I like to have given them a thorough read over and comparison against other books of similar types before I truly feel equipped to post a review, so in the meantime this may be helpful.

With that in mind, I took the time to catalogue my collection this morning and thought it would be a good start. If you think this is valuable, I'd encourage you to add to it (don't worry about posting duplicate books that someone else owns, most times multiple opinions on a book is a good thing).

The Mad Hatter's Library:

Trafalgar, The Nelson Touch - David Howarth
British Frigate vs French Frigate - Mark Lardas
The Age of the Ship of the Line - Jonathan Dull
Sloops and Brigs - James Henderson
Nelson's Ships, A History of the Vessels in Which He Served - Peter Goodwin
Fighting at Sea in the Eighteenth Century, The Art of Sailing Warfare - Sam Willis
The Line Upon a Wind, The Great War at Sea 1793-1815 - Noel Mostert
Nelson's Trafalgar - Roy Adkins
The Trafalgar Companion - Mark Adkin
Nelson's Navy, The Ships, Men and Organization 1793-1815 - Brian Lavery
Frigates of the Napoleonic Wars - Robert Gardiner
British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793-1817, Design, Construction, Careers and Fates - RIF Winfield
Naval Warfare in the Age of Sail, The Evolution of Fighting Tactics, 1650-1815 - Brian Tunstall
Warships of the Napoleonic Era, Design, Development and Deployment - Robert Gardiner
The Frigate Surprise - Brian Lavery and Geoff Hunt
Naval Warfare in the Age of Sail, War at Sea 1756-1815 - Bernard Ireland
The Command of the Ocean, A Naval History of Britain, 1649-1815 - N.A.M. Rodger
The Line of Battle, The Sailing Warship 1650-1840 - Conways History of the ship, Editor Robert Gardiner
The Great Lakes Warships 1812-1815 - Mark Lardas
The 74 Gun Bellona, The Anatomy of a Ship - Brian Lavery
Lords of the East, The East India Company and Its Ships 1600-1874 - Jean Sutton
A Naval History of Great Britain: During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, Vol 4: 1805-1807 - James M William

In addition, I have a good collection of Anglo Dutch naval wars books.

Fireship, The Terror Weapon in the Ago of Sail - Peter Kirsch
British Warships in the Age if Sail, Design, Construction, Careers and Fates, 1603-1714 - Rif Winfield
Pepy's Navy, Ships, Men and Warfare - J D Davies
The Navy of the Restoration, From the Death of Cromwell to the Treaty of Breda; Its Work, Growth and Influence - Arthur W Tedder
The Dutch in the Medway - PG Rogers
The Four Days Battle if 1666 - Frank L Fox
The Second Anglo-Dutch War 1665-1667 - Gijs Rommelse
The Anglo-Dutch Wars of the Seventeenth Century - JR Jones
The Anglo-Dutch Naval Wars 1652-1674 - Roger Hainsworth and Christine Churches
The Dutch Seaborne Empire 1600-1800 - CR Boxer
Piracy and Privateering in the Golden Age of the Netherlands - Virginia W Lunsford
Great Ships, The Battlefleet of King Charles II - Frank Fox
Warships of the Anglo-Dutch Wars 1652-74 - Angus Konstam

Specific to the Napoleonic Age of Sail books, if I had to pick the top three gems in my collection - I'd have to say they are: Frigates of the Napoleonic Wars by Robert Gardiner, British Warships in the Age of Sail 1793-1817, Design, Construction, Careers and Fates by RIF Winfield, and Fighting at Sea in the Eighteenth Century, The Art of Sailing Warfare - Sam Willis. So why these three (there are a ton of good books in my library)?

Frigates of the Napleonic Wars is a must have if you're into frigates. It covers EVERYTHING -from construction, design, and armaments to their missions and roles within the overall fleet (one of the few books that has actual performance data from captains notes based on testing various vessels) . If you see yourself drawn to frigates in Sail of Glory, you owe it to yourself to track this book down (not a cheap book new or used).

British Warships in the Age of Sail - this will give you a complete look at every class of vessel built, ships in that class, armaments, engagements, and ultimate fates. It covers everything from first rates, all the way down to brigs, sloops, and gunboats. Incredible compilation of data for anyone interested in technical info or what each ship did during its "life". The only two drawbacks are it really only contains British ships (although it does cover captured vessels) and again, its not a cheap book when you can find it. Don't let either of these deter you from owning it though, still a top book in my library in terms of reference value.

Fighting at Sea in the Eighteenth Century - probably my FAVORITE book in my library. You want to know HOW a captain determined if that sail on the horizon was friend or enemy, or the actual TACTICS they would use to lure an enemy ship in then quickly overcome it? If so, this is the book for you. Covers pretty much everything, from how they did command and communication, how contact was made and broken, this book is my number one must own book if you want to truly understand naval warfare of the period. And unlike the other two, this book is easily affordable ($30 on Amazon). It's also not a long read, only 170 pages not including the index.

Hopefully this helps at least one person out there. Would love to see other peoples library's and what they consider their crown jewels of the collection!

[KeithS]

Just bought Fighting at Sea in the Eighteenth Century based on your recommendation and I must say it is an enjoyable read, as well as an enlightening one. I was a little apprehensive given that it was based on the authors PhD thesis, and having read a few of them I know they can be a little dry. However this book is very well written in a fairly informal style. Thanks for the advice.

[Nightmoss]

Thanks for this information, Ryan. I've copied this for saving on my computer. As time and money allow I will certainly look into getting some of these for my library; probably starting with your top three.

Due to my interest in the Spanish navy, Eric (7eat51) recommended this title. "Trafalgar and the Spanish Navy: The Spanish Experience of Sea Power", by John D. Harbron. What I've read of it so far is informative and provides a view that is not so Anglo-centric.

Cheers!