Explore our Collection

Language
Format
Type

showing 56 library results for '1721'

Revenge in the name of honour : the Royal Navy's quest for vengeance in the single ship actions of the war of 1812 /Nicholas James Kaizer. "On 19 August 1812, lookouts of the British frigate HMS Guerriere spotted the American frigate, USS Constitution. Captain James Dacres, Guerriere's commander, was eager for a fight and confident of victory. He had the weight of Britain's naval reputation and confidence behind him. Yet when the guns fell silent Guerriere was a shattered hulk and Dacres had struck to Constitution. By the year's end, three British frigates and two sloops had been defeated in single ship actions against American opponents, throwing the British naval sphere into a crisis. These losses could not have been more shocking to the Royal Navy and the British world. In a strange reversal, the outnumbered British Army along the Canadian border had triumphed but the tiny United States Navy had humiliated the world's largest and most prestigious navy. Further dramatic sea battles between the two powers followed into early 1815, and the British tried to reconcile the perceived stain to the Royal Navy's honour. Many within and outside of the Royal Navy called for vindication. The single ship actions of the War of 1812 have frequently been dismissed by historians of the war, or of naval history in general. The fights of late 1813 and 1814 are often omitted from works of history altogether, as many (correctly) argue that they had no strategic impact on the wider course of the war. Yet to contemporaries, naval and civilian alike, these single ship actions could not have been more important. This volume explores the single ship naval actions during the War of 1812: how they were fought, their strategic context, and their impact on the officers and men who fought them, and the wider British psyche. Trafalgar happened only seven years earlier, and the fighting ethos of the Royal Navy was still hardened by Nelsonic naval culture. Whereas contemporary civilians and modern historians understood the losses as the inevitable result of fighting the vastly superior American 'super' frigates, the officers of the navy struggled to accept that they could not cope with the new American warships. The losses precipitated changes to Admiralty policy and drove an urge for vengeance by the officers of the Royal Navy. This volume explores the drama and impact of the British single ship losses and victories to examine Britain's naval experience in the moments that captivated the British and American world in the last Anglo-American War."--Provided by the publisher. 2020. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 355.49"1812"(42:73)
Anson : Royal Navy commander and statesman, 1697-1762 /Anthony Bruce "George Anson, Baron Anson (1697-1762), circumnavigator and First Lord of the Admiralty, entered the Royal Navy in 1712 and progressed rapidly, achieving his first command in 1722. He benefited from the patronage of his uncle Thomas Parker, later the Earl of Macclesfield, who served as Lord Chief Justice and Lord Chancellor until his impeachment for fraud in 1725. Anson first saw action at the Battle of Cape Passaro (1718) under Admiral Sir George Byng but most of his early career was spent as captain of the station ship based at Charleston, South Carolina. In 1737 he was appointed captain of the 60-gun Centurion and sent on patrol to West Africa and the Caribbean. It was in this ship that he circumnavigated the globe (1740-1744) during the war with Spain. Ordered to attack the Pacific coast of Spanish South America, the expedition almost ended in disaster when half of Anson's squadron disappeared as it encountered 'huge deep, hollow seas' during the passage around Cape Horn. Despite further heavy losses, Anson was able to carry out a limited number of raids against coastal targets, but his capture of the Spanish treasure galleon Nuestra Seänora de Covadonga off the Philippines was a real victory that secured his reputation (and wealth). On his return Anson, welcomed as a national hero, soon revealed his political ambitions: he joined the opposition Whigs, was elected MP for Hedon and appointed to the Admiralty Board. Although he entered the Board while still a captain, he secured rapid promotion to Rear-Admiral, Vice-Admiral and then Admiral of the Fleet. Anson returned to sea in command of the Western Squadron in 1746-1747 and his notable victory against the French at the Battle of Cape Finisterre was a rare example of a British naval success after seven years of war. Anson, who was then raised to the peerage, returned to the Admiralty Board, working with the Duke of Bedford as First Lord and with Lord Sandwich on a series of naval reforms, which included ending political interference in courts-martial, introducing compulsory retirement, innovations in ship design and the formation of the Royal Marines under Admiralty control. In 1751, Anson succeeded Lord Sandwich as First Lord of the Admiralty and served until his death in 1762 (except for one brief interruption in 1756-1757 following the loss of Minorca). The reform programme continued, but his main priority on returning to office (and the Cabinet) in the Pitt-Newcastle coalition was the Seven Years War: its strategic direction, planning operations and preparing naval forces. Although he died shortly before the conflict ended, Pitt later said of Anson: 'to his wisdom, to his experience the nation owes the glorious success of the last war.' Horace Walpole inevitably took a more critical view: 'Lord Anson was reserved and proud, and so ignorant of the world, that Sir Charles Williams said he had been round it, but never in it.' Anson's earlier biographers have focused on the story of the circumnavigation, which has largely defined his reputation, as well as his victories at sea. However, other aspects of his career, particularly his roles as a naval reformer and wartime strategist, deserve to be given greater weight in reassessing his position as a leading figure in British naval history. As one commentator has pointed out, 'there is an increasing cultural valuation of administrative skills that allows an Anson to be remembered in the same arena with, but still distinctly from, a Nelson. Whereas Horatio Nelson is certainly the most well-known and enduring example of a naval hero, others followed different paths to success during their lifetimes.'"--Provided by the publisher. 2023. • BOOK • 1 copy available. 941.07092