Captured at sea : merchant ships captured in the south west seas of Britain in the time of Napoleon 1803-1815 /Colin R. Rees & Professor Peter Clark.

"During the Napoleonic Wars of 1803-1815 many British merchant ships were captured and their crews were imprisoned in France. The book gives a brief background of Napoleon and his war with Britain, and also the activity of the other ocuntries which upset much of British shipping at that time. The book has concentrated on the ships sailing in and out of ports in the South West seas of Britain, carrying essential cargo to British ports. Naturally, the French wanted to capture these British merchant ships. The authors who greatly assisted in finding the name of many captured ships and their captains through The Cambrian. This newspaper, which started in 1803 in Swansea and had a shipping column each Friday received knowledge of captured ships and some of those which managed to escape. There are first-hand records, written by some of these sailors, which have graphic descriptions of their hazardous voyage at sea, and their capture and imprisonment. Intensive research has revealed many details of the French prisons and their location where the men were marched to in remote parts of France, and how the men survived there. As a result of many ships being captured by the French, with extravagant loss of men's lives and vessels, the British Government made it law for ships to sail in convoys. At the same time French prisoners and later the American prisoners of war (after the War of Independence) were being sent to the Dartmoor Priston in Britain. Thers is a detailed account of that prison in this book."--Provided by the publisher.