In the Hour of Victory: The Royal Navy at War in the Age of Nelson

In 1821, the year of Napoleon's death, the Lords of the Admiralty ordered the dispatches of the seven major fleet battles of the Napoleonic Wars to be gathered together and presented to the nation. Discovered nearly 200 years later by naval historian Sam Willis, the letters are transcribed here: vivid, first hand accounts written by admirals, captains, surgeons and boatswains serving at The Glorious First of June, St Vincent, Camperdown, the Nile, Copenhagen, Trafalgar and San Domingo.