Fleet Battle And Blockade: The French Revolutionary War 1793-1797

Forgetting the set backs of the American Revolutionary War, in 1793 the Royal Navy embarked on an almost unprecedented era of victories at sea, producing a considerable appetite for pictures of every incident, great or small. A thriving trade in prints and engravings grew up, supplemented by watercolors and oils by celebrated artists. Besidesthese ‘public’ works, many officers--and indeed members of the lower deck--kept personal journals and sketchbooks, illustrated with surprisingly accomplished drawings and watercolors, often depicting the everyday aspects of wartime life at sea that were ignored inthe more celebratory artistic media. These sources form a rich vein that have been barely touched in previous publications, but which this book uses to full effect.Despite numerous defeats, the French navy continued to dispute command of the sea in the period 1793-1797, and the early years of the war abound with fleet engagements, including dramatic victories against the Spanish at St. Vincent and the Dutch at Camperdown, betweenwhich the navy endured the shocking events of the Great Mutiny, potentially the most dangerous moment of the whole war.