A Brief History of Fighting Ships David Davis

This is a book that does pretty much what it says on the cover. The ships are mentioned, sometimes in surprising detail and with the emphasis on first to third rates, along with the seamen's life and living conditions of the period. Major sea battles of the Revolutionary, and Napoleonic wars are also outlined, and comments made on the state of the relevant forces, and contemporary political views. In effect it is a potted history, but excellent as an introduction to the period or for background reference when starting with historical naval fiction.

I happened upon mine on ebay; it would seem to be out of print, although second hand copies are certainly available.

UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Brief-History-Fighting-Ships-Histories/dp/1841194697/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274949613&sr=1-12

USA: http://www.amazon.com/Brief-History-Fighting-Ships/dp/078670988X

This book is sometimes shown as by David Tudor Davies and is presumably a PB version of Fighting Ships: Ships of the Line, 1793-1815 which came out in 1996.

The Pepys historian and author J. D. Davies is also known as David Davies so, although the work is not listed on his website, this may be by the same person.

I've added it to the web site

Thanks for the update, Astrodene.

by the way, how many posts have you made now?

This one is number 1000!