Steam, Politics and Patronage: The Transformation of the Royal Navy, 1815-54

Steam, Politics and Patronage is an important new interpretation of that complete transformation of the Royal Navy which took place in the years between the Napoleonic and Russian wars, and it sets out to show how the Admiralty, far from being obstructive to the introduction of steam power grasped those opportunities which came with the industrial revolution. Faced with the combined threat, real or imaginary, of France and Russia, the Navy pressed ahead with inovations as fast as technical developments and financial stringency allowed.

The birth of the steam warship is a complex subject and involves naval, political. social. industrial. financial amd merchant shipping developments, and to help in drawing together these different threada the authors have drawn particularly from the papers of Captain Henry Wells Giffard whose career illustrates perfectly many aspects of the subject covered in the book. His papers also give a fascinating insight into the workings of the Admiralty and brings to life the ships and people who are the protagonists of this story.