TRAFALGAR: The biography of a battle.
By Roy Adkins.
Just finished it. An absolutely great read. So well written I could hardly put it down. It gives a brilliant picture of life aboard a fighting ship of the 18thC, right down to the day to day lives of the fighting men. The prelude to the battle, the victory and the aftermath is fascinating. One item that sticks in my memory was the fact that when ships were closed right up in battle and battering each other with broadside after broadside, gunports often caught fire and it was not unknown for British tars to throw buckets of water onto burning gunports of enemy ships as the fear of the fire catching, or explosion was so great. Another insight into the battle was when Nelson sent his famous signal to the fleet, it did not go down very well with the average seaman - they needed little reminding about doing their duty!. The descriptions of the awfulness of battle could almost be smelt. Get it and enjoy it.
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