Library Results | Royal Museums Greenwich

The Naval War of 1812 : a documentary history /William S. Dudley, editor, Michael J. Crawford, associate editor. 1985-2002. • BOOK • 7 copies available. 973.5/25

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)

Lion in the Bay : the British invasion of the Chesapeake, 1813-14 /Stanley L. Quick with Chipp Reid. "The story of Fort McHenry's defense during the War of 1812 is well known, but Lion in the Bay is an intimate look at the events leading up to the battle that inspired our national anthem. As the War of 1812 raged on the high seas and along the Canadian border, the British decided to strike at the heart of the United States, the relatively undefended area of the Chesapeake Bay. The Chesapeake was a fertile farm region, a place of renowned shipbuilding, and an area politically divided over the war. Plus, if the British succeeded in taking the bay, the nation's capital was not far away. Admiral George Cockburn led the British into the bay following a failed attempt to take Norfolk, Virginia. Originally intended to relieve pressure on other fronts, the Chesapeake theater became a British campaign of retribution for the burning of York (present day Toronto) by the Americans in 1812. As a result, the Chesapeake region, once an economic engine for America, was transformed into a region of terrorized citizens, destroyed farms, and fears of slave insurrection. In August 1814, President James Madison refused to bolster the defenses on the waterway that led to Washington, and the British took advantage. Cockburn again led a naval force into the bay, this time running into opposition from Commo. Joshua Barney and his Chesapeake Bay Flotilla. Barney put up a heroic, though doomed fight before the British sailed up the Patuxent River and landed at Benedict, Maryland, where over 4,000 troops disembarked to begin their advance toward Washington, D.C. After defeating the Americans at the Battle of Bladensburg, the British moved into Washington, burning the city, before returning to their boats and setting out for Baltimore. There, the British armada encountered a stalwart group of American defenders at Fort McHenry. Despite a massive bombardment, Baltimore's defenses held, forcing the British to abandon their campaign to close the Chesapeake. More than just an in-depth look at one front of the War of 1812, Lion in the Bay is a story of resilience and triumph in the wake of catastrophe."--Provided by the publisher. 2015 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 355.49"1813/1814"(42:73)

Small boats and daring men : maritime raiding, irregular warfare, and the early American Navy /Benjamin Armstrong. "Two centuries before the daring exploits of Navy SEALs and Marine Raiders captured the public imagination, the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps were already engaged in similarly perilous missions: raiding pirate camps, attacking enemy ships in the dark of night, and striking enemy facilities and resources on shore. Even John Paul Jones, father of the American navy, saw such irregular operations as critical to naval warfare. With Jones's own experience as a starting point, Benjamin Armstrong sets out to take irregular naval warfare out of the shadow of the blue-water battles that dominate naval history. This book, the first historical study of its kind, makes a compelling case for raiding and irregular naval warfare as key elements in the story of American sea power. Beginning with the Continental Navy, Small Boats and Daring Men traces maritime missions through the wars of the early republic, from the coast of modern-day Libya to the rivers and inlets of the Chesapeake Bay. At the same time, Armstrong examines the era's conflicts with nonstate enemies and threats to American peacetime interests along Pacific and Caribbean shores. Armstrong brings a uniquely informed perspective to his subject; and his work-with reference to original naval operational reports, sailors' memoirs and diaries, and officers' correspondence-is at once an exciting narrative of danger and combat at sea and a thoroughgoing analysis of how these events fit into concepts of American sea power. Offering a critical new look at the naval history of the Early American era, this book also raises fundamental questions for naval strategy in the twenty-first century."--Provided by publisher. 2019 • BOOK • 1 copy available. 355.353(73)

A voyage to Terra Australis undertaken for the purpose of completing the discovery of that vast country and prosecuted in the years 1801, 1802 and 1803 in His Majesty's ship the Investigator / by Matthew Flinders. Flinders, Matthew 1814. • RARE-FOLIO • 8 copies available. 623.82Cumberland

The diary of Joseph Farington / edited by Kenneth Garlick and Angus Macintyre "Joseph Farington (1747-1821) was a professional topographical artist and lived most of his life in London. Through his extensive involvement in the affairs of the Royal Academy, his wide circle of friends, and his membership in several clubs and societies, he touched the life of his time at many points. This diary, which he kept from 1793 until his death, provides a meticulous record of his actions and observations and is an invaluable source for the history of English art and artists. It also constitutes an absorbing record of this period's social, political, and literary developments."--Provided by the publisher. 1978-84 • BOOK • 17 copies available. 92FARINGTON, Joseph

Explore our Collection