A book recommendation - Fighting at Sea in the Eighteenth Century

[Killick]

Sounds good will have to get a copy, soon

[Bligh]

Arrived today, and glancing through it I already know three new facts, and have another one explained far better than ever before. Also a great sketch of what the clearing of the cabin screens really means on the gundeck.
It seems to live up to your recommendations chaps. The next naval novel I read, and it will be by my elbow as a reference.

Rob.

[The Mad Hatter]

Some of the facts I found fascinating were, the small ship details that captains used in identifying a French vs English ship at distance. How a captain would stand on certain decks of his ship and look at enemy vessels to see if he could see the horizon or not, to better understand the height of an enemy ship and if she could easily be boarded. How frigates, used for scouting, actually used their sails in an up down fashion to identify sporting enemy ships and how many. How captains would watch enemy crews work insailing their ship to get a sense of how "skilled" the crews were. How a captain could look for certain characteristics in how enemy ships sailed to identify their sailing capabilities once combat started. The whole thing on using sails as a signaling method was in general interesting..... there are more good nuggets of info in this book than any other.