Image and reality in eighteenth-century naval tactics

Mariners Mirror

Volumn 89, Issue 3, 2003, Pages 280-296

  Rodger, N A M ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF EXETER   (United Kingdom)

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EID: 61049116417     PISSN: 00253359     EISSN: 2049680X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/00253359.2003.10659294     Document Type: Article

References (48)

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2. Report of a Committee appointed by the Admiralty to examine and consider the evidence relating to the tactics employed by Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar. Report of a Committee appointed by the Admiralty to examine and consider the evidence relating to the tactics employed by Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar (Cd.1720 of
3. 1990. Naval Warfare in the Age of Sail:The Evolution of Fighting Tactics 1650–1815 Naval Warfare in the Age of Sail:The Evolution of Fighting Tactics 1650–1815 Brian Tunstall, ed. Nicholas Tracy
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6. Maltby, William. 1983. “ ‘Politics, Professionalism, and the Evolution of Sailing-Ship Tactics, 1650–1714’ ”. In Tools of War:Instruments, Ideas and Institutions of Warfare, 1445–1871 Edited by:Lynn, John A., (Urbana, Illinois, 1990), 53–73. Colin S. Gray, The Leverage of Sea Power:The Strategic Advantage of Navies in War (New York, 1992), 157. Azar Gat, The Origins of Military Thought, from the Enlightenment to Clausewitz (Oxford, 1989), 26–7, 141–3. Jan Glete, Navies and Nations:Warships, Navies and State Building in Europe and America, 1500–1860 (Stockholm, 2 vols, 1993), vol. I, 174–6. Philip Jenkins, The Making of a Ruling Class:The Glamorgan Gentry 1640–1790 (Cambridge, 64. M. A. J. Palmer, ‘The “Military Revolution” Afloat:The Era of the Anglo-Dutch Wars and the Transition to Modern Warfare at Sea’, War in History, vol. IV (1997), 123–49; and ‘”The Soul's Right Hand”:Command and Control in the Age of Fighting Sail, 1652–1827’, Journal of Military History, vol. LXI (1997), 679–706. N. A. M. Rodger, ‘Navies and the Enlightenment’, forthcoming
7. Depeyre, Michel. 1990. Tactiques et stratégies navales de la France et du Royaume-Uni de 1690 à 1815 (Paris, 1998). See also many of the individual contributions to Hervé Coutau-Bégarie, L'évolution de la pensée navale (Paris, ff, 7 vols to date)
8. Depeyre. Tactiques et stratégies navales 263–88
9. Tracy, Nicholas. 1996. Nelson's Battles:The Art of Victory in the Age of Sail London 64–5, quoting Vernon's 1754 pamphlet An Enquiry into the Conduct of Captain Savage Mostyn.
10. 1941. La Campagne des Indes:Lettres medites du Bailli de Suffren Mantes Régine Pernoud, 28
11. Memoirs of Admiral the Right Hon. the Earl of St. Vincent Jedediah Stevens Tucker, (London, 1844, 2 vols), vol. II, 282–3
12. Perrin, W. G., and Lloyd, Christopher. The Keith Papers (Navy Records Society [hereafter NRS] vols 62,90 and 96,1927–55), vol. I, 198. Creswell, British Admirals, 206, n. 1
13. Harland, John. 1984. Seamanship in the Age of Sail London 181–6
14. Bonner-Smith, D., ed. 1759. The Barrington Papers See Hawke's Additional Instruction of July, designed to prevent the line opening in tacking:(NRS, vols 77 and 81, 1937–41), vol. I, 259
15. 1930. Admiraal De Ruyter:De Zeeslag op SchooneveldJuni 1673 The Hague One of the few historians to consider these difficulties is J. C. M. Warnsinck, 137–9
16. Corbett, Julian S., 1905. Fighting Instructions 1530–1816 (NRS, vol. 29, 239. Perrin and Lloyd, Keith Papers, I, 198–9
17. Barrington Papers One of Commodore Howe's Additional Signals of March 1762:Bonner-Smith, I, 328
18. Creswell. British Admirals, 208 n. 1
19. Barrington Papers Howe's 1762 signals assume the line will be reformed thus:Bonner-Smith, I, 337
20. Tunstall. Naval Warfare 50–4. R. E. J. Weber, De Seinboeken voor Nederlandse Oorlogsvloten en Konvooien tot 1690 (Amsterdam, 1982), 124–55
21. Creswell. 1991. British Admirals 220–1. M. A. J. Palmer, ‘Sir John's Victory:The Battle of Cape St. Vincent reconsidered’, MM, vol. LXXVII 31–46
22. Palmer. 1998. “ ‘Sir John's Victory’, 39–41. Colin White ”. In 1797 Nelson's Year of Destiny:Cape St. Vincent and Santa Cruz de Tenerife Stroud 52–8
23. Sturges Jackson, T., Logs of the Great Sea Fights, 1794–1805 * (NRS, vols 16 and 18, 1899–1900), vol. I, 145
24. Pope, Dudley. 1972. The Great Gamble London 406–13
25. Logs of the Great Sea Fights E.g. Jackson, I, 144, 152
26. Tunstall. Naval Warfare 127–8, 201–2. Depeyre, Tactiques et stratégies navales, 126–33. Tracy, Nelson's Battles, 72
27. 2 July 1779. 2 July, National Maritime Museum:MID/1/140/3, Captain P. Patton to C. Middleton
28. Corbett, Julian S., 1838. Signals and Instructions, 1776–1794 (NRS, vol. 35, 1909), passim; and Fighting Instructions, 223–79. Tracy, Nelson's Battles, 72–6, 84–6. Tunstall, Naval Warfare, 129–31, 194–201. Sir John Barrow, The Life of Richard Earl Howe, K. G. (London, 118–9. Roger Knight, ‘Richard, Earl Howe, 1726–1799’, in Peter Le Fevre and Richard Harding, Precursors of Nelson:British Admirals of the Eighteenth Century (London, 2000), 279–99, at 280–1 and 289–90. Jackson, Logs of the Great Sea Fights, I, x
29. Corbett. Signals and Instructions Edited by:Clark, W. B., Morgan, W. J., and Crawford, M. J., 319. Howe had had ample time to ponder this wording, which was only slightly changed from his orders of June 1777:Naval Documents of the American Revolution (Washington, 1964ff, 10 vols to date), vol. IX, 63
30. Jackson. Logs of the Great Sea Fights I, xi and 93. Corbett, Fighting Instructions, 255–6; and Signals and Instructions, 64–5, 70–1
31. Corbett. Fighting Instructions 260–1. Creswell, British Admirals, 187–9
32. Popham, Hugh. 1991. A Damned Cunning Fellow:The Eventful Life of Rear-Admiral Sir Home Popham…1762–1820 (Tywardreath, Cornwall, 125–32
33. Newnham Collingwood, G. L., 1829. A Selection from the Public and Private Correspondence of Vice-Admiral Lord Collingwood:Interspersed with Memoirs of his Life Edited by:Nicolas, N. H., Sir. * 4th edn (London, 125. The Despatches and Letters of Vice Admiral Lord Viscount Nelson (London, 1844–5, 7 vols), vol. VII, 146
34. Hattendorf, John B., “ ‘Sir George Rooke and Sir Cloudesley Shovell c1650–1709 and 1650–1707’ ”. In Precursors of Nelson Le Fevre and Harding, 42–77, at 64. I have corrected the misprint of ‘flesh’ for ‘fleets’
35. 31 July 1778. 31 July, British Library (hereafter BL):Add. MSS 9344, fo. 36, to G. Jackson
36. Creswell. British Admirals 63–79
37. Willcox, William B., 1944. “ ‘Admiral Rodney Warns of Invasion’ ”. In American Neptune Edited by:Hannay, David. IV 193–8, quoted at 197. Letters written by Sir Samuel Hood…1781–3 (NRS, vol. 3, 1895), 21
38. Barnes, G. R., and Owen, J. H., 1969. The Private Papers of John, Earl of Sandwich (NRS, vols 69, 71, 75 and 78, 1932–8), III, 158–60. Tunstall, Naval Warfare, 165–7. Alan G. Jamieson, ‘War in the Leeward Islands:1775–1783’ (Oxford D.Phil, thesis, 1981), 207–15. Corbett, Signals and Instructions, 230. Creswell, British A dmirals, 143–51. David Spinney, Rodney (London, 320–32
39. Jamieson. “ ‘War in the Leeward Islands’, 289–98. Other authorities assess the admiral differently:Spinney ”. In Rodney gives his hero the benefit of every doubt; Kenneth Breen, ‘George Bridges Rodney, Lord Rodney, 1718?-1792’, in Le Fevre and Harding, Precursors of Nelson, 224–46, is more guarded
40. Corbett. Fighting Instructions 205–18
41. Tunstall. Naval Warfare 79–82, 92–100. Palmer, ‘”The Soul's Right Hand”’, 683–8
42. Harding, Richard. “ ‘Edward Vernon, 1684–1757’, in Le Fevre and Harding ”. In Precursors of Nelson 151–75, at 166–7
43. 5 June 1747. 5 June, BL:Add. MSS 35387, fo. 36, E. Yorke to J. Yorke
44. Corbett. 1965. Fighting Instructions 219–225. Ruddock F. Mackay, Admiral Hawke (Oxford, 57–8,150, 180–3, 198–201, 214–6, 351–2
45. Tunstall. Naval Warfare 195. Palmer, ‘“The Soul's Right Hand”’, 693–5. Knight, ‘Richard, Earl Howe’, 287–91
46. Hughes, Edward. 1957. The Private Correspondence of Admiral Lord Collingwood Edited by:Stevens, B. F., (NRS, vol. 98, 46. Barrow, Life of Richard, Earl Howe, 117. Tucker, Memoirs of…St. Vincent, I, 77–9. Facsimiles of Manuscripts in European Archives Relating to America, 1773–1783 (London, 1889–98, 25 vols), vol. V, 515; J. Elliot to W. Eden, 18 August 1778. Knight, ‘Richard, Earl Howe’, 283–4, 289–91
47. Nicolas. Nelson Despatches VII, 241
48. Ibid 146. Nicolas lists all Nelson's signals at Trafalgar