War at Sea in the Age of Sail

Cassell History of Warfare

by Andrew D. Lambert

"Every library requires a basic source on sailing ship warfare, a need solidly met by Lambert's profusely illustrated survey of the two centuries of naval dominance...Lambert, a naval historian in Britain, efficiently economizes his text, wasting few words to narrate the geopolitical framework for the expensive construction and maintenance of fleets, of strategies...and, ultimately, of their tactics in battle....Twenty maps and perspective schematics of battles support this able introduction..."-- Booklist .

Genres: History, Military History, Nonfiction, War, Naval History, World History, Nautical

224 pages, Hardcover

First published August 31, 2000

About the author

Andrew Lambert, FRHistS, is a British naval historian, who since 2001 has been the Laughton Professor of Naval History in the Department of War Studies, King's College London

Reviews

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to the work of artists and authors, mention of naval warfare in the age of sail evokes vivid images of wooden warships crashing through stormy seas and firing broadsides at one another in smoke-filled combat. Such stories and paintings not only keep the era present in the public’s imagination, but the perpetuate its association with heroism and adventure. Yet as Andrew Lambert demonstrates, this popular imagery provides us today with only a superficial understanding of the complexities of naval warfare in that period, one that overshadows both the efforts required to wage war at sea and the ambitious goals pursued by the countries that waged it – goals that had often far-reaching consequences for world history.

Lambert begins his book with a brief overview of seapower and the role that navies played for the Western maritime nations in the 17th and 18th centuries. He bases his analysis on a key distinction between “maritime powers,” or those who depended on the sea for their survival, and “naval powers,” for whom navies were regarded mainly as a tool for extending national power. Both required the maintenance of a large navy, not just for use in war but as a deterrence for maintaining peace, with the period between 1650 and 1850 witnessing an enormous expansion in the strategic importance of such forces for both types of powers.

The pioneer in the development of naval warfare at the start of this period were the Dutch. This was a consequence of their status as a maritime power, with their prosperity dependent upon their role in maritime trade. This brought them into conflict with England, with the two sides fighting a series of wars for naval dominance in the second half of the 17th century. Though the Dutch acquitted themselves well in these wars, the threat posed by France forced them to shift their focus to land warfare, giving the English the chance to supplant them as Europe’s foremost maritime power.

With the decline of Dutch naval power, France emerged as England’s foremost challenger. Yet France challenged England not as a maritime power but as one for whom naval warfare would always be a secondary national concern. This effected both the development of French naval strategy and the vessels built to carry it out, as after a brief attempt to contest England’s growing naval supremacy in the 1670s and 1680s the French concentrated on waging a guerre de course on English trade. While this was profitable and damaging to English (and subsequently British) interests, it never threatened their control of the oceans. This conflict played out globally over the course of the 18th century, characterized not by dramatic naval battles but by the more mundane activities of blockade, patrol, and the occasional capture of an enemy’s merchant vessels. By 1815 Great Britain had established itself as the unquestioned victor, enjoying a supremacy on the seas that would persist long after the age of sail had come to an end.

Lambert’s analysis of naval warfare in the period benefits greatly from his impressive command of his subject. This is reflected both in his analysis of the operation of seapower during this period and in his coverage of the navies themselves and the wars they fought against one another. His book is impressively comprehensive for its size, recounting not just the major naval clashes but the organization of the navies and the design and construction of their ships as well. All of this is complemented by a variety of colorful illustrations, including computer-generated maps of the key battles of the era. Together it makes for a great introduction to its subject, one that shows how warfare in the age of sail was ultimately more about planning and logistics than it was about cannonades on the high seas.

[Beth Cato · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book for research purposes. It's a very nice reference book with full color pages throughout of high quality, utilizing many period paintings and schematics depicting battles and the major players in fights. It does assume some basic knowledge--some terms are never defined, and there's no glossary in the back. The marginalia is especially nice, as the facts there often accompany pictures and bring in nice details. I wish there'd been more 'how did they do this' content like depictions of battle flags and their meanings, how ships communicated when underway, how weaponry was used and stored, etc. Still, quite informative.

[Michael Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

My father was an Iowa farm boy whose family moved to San Diego (more congenial winters) and though he became a career army officer, he developed a lifelong taste for sea stories. When I was in junior high, I discovered his shelf of Hornblower novels and worked my way straight through them. I didn’t understand most of the jargon, of course, so I was often unsure exactly what was happening. That sparked my own interest in naval history, strategy, and battle tactics, which continues unabated. And I have a much better grasp these days of what’s going on when O’Brian or Stockwin describes a maneuver. Books like this one are a lifesaver for fans of naval historicals, but few are so well organized and well written. (Cassell has been publishing a better-than-average series, “The Cassell History of Warfare,” edited by John Keegan, and Lambert himself is Professor of Naval History at King’s College, so it’s reasonable to have high expectations of this volume.)

Lambert begins by setting the stage -- the role of sea power in the development of an island nation, the use of deterrence and the extension of naval power onto land, the place of increased industrialization in designing and creating the physical navy. Then he lays out the theory and function of ship design -- the different sizes of vessel and details of their designs for very specific functions, the necessity of which landlubbers often are not even aware of. Then he embarks on a chronological exploration of the Golden Age of sail, from the Anglo-Dutch wars (naval power as a tool of international commercial rivalry), through the Seven Years War, the American War (as it’s often known to the British), and the Napoleonic wars, to the advent of steam. The French navy had its day in the sun, as did Russia to a lesser degree (Peter the Great’s Baltic fleet of Venetian-style galleys wasa an odd deviation from the general course of naval history), but Britain came to the fore with the beginnings of truly global conflicts in the early 18th century. And for most of the following century, Britannia really did rule the waves. In fact, some reviewers have carped on the Anglo-centrism of this book, but it seems justified by history.

Lambert walks a well-judged line between academic and popular history; there are no footnotes, but he assumes intelligence and a certain amount of fundamental knowledge on the part of the reader. There’s an abundance of illustrations, mostly of a useful size, including period paintings and engravings, detailed diagrams of key naval engagements (some of them a bit difficult to read because of over-colorization), and a few photos of surviving ships and equipment. A not terribly expensive, slightly oversized volume that any student of naval history or fan of Jack Aubrey should consider.

[Chloe · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

Absolutely stunning book design, but the writing, alas, left me wanting. I picked up this book hoping to learn more about the details of life and death on a warship during the great age of sail, but what I got out of it was a lot of "so-and-so then went to such-place and fought the French so-and-so and retreated to other-place." I also, as an American, really struggled with a lot of the European politics covered by this book. Obviously, I read the book in part to learn more about this, but I found these portions of the book just a little too difficult to follow. It's not wholly unworthy of a read - I particularly enjoyed the first chapter on the organization of navies and shipbuilding, and the penultimate chapter detailing the bloody eleven minute battle between the USS Chesapeake and the HMS Shannon.

I was also very excited when the USS Constitution was briefly mentioned, as I've had the pleasure of visiting the ship and have friends at the USS Constitution Museum! (And speaking of the USS Constitution Museum, might I recommend their excellent and free Oregon-Trail-esque online mini game, A Sailor's Life for Me, which absolutely distracted me for about half an hour while I was mid-way through writing this review, and which provides some of the color to life aboard a warship that I found missing from this book?)

If you enjoy military history and know a lot about European powers between 1650 and 1850, or really enjoy illustrated books and paintings of ships, then this book might be right up your alley!

[Wendy Holliday · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't know why it is, but I just love the sailing age. I'm not OCD about it by any means. I certainly have a romantic notion about it.

And, maybe I just like that there are lots of pictures in this book.

[Poet Felon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too short of a book (225 pages) to cover so much history. It is more of an introduction to a book covering 1650 -1850. The maps are shniny and pretty but add no additional information and do not help in visualizing the events.

[Bob Lundquist · Rating 3 out of 5]

Since the world is mostly water, it becomes obvious that one must have the vessels to travel over the oceans to visit, explore, or exploit other lands in a timely manner. Smaller ships like the triremes of ancient times rammed each other with oared crews. Navies used similar ships over the centuries until sail power was more developed to take advantage of the fewer men it took to crew them. They especially blossomed in the Age of Discovery as sailing was the quickest and cheapest way to cross large bodies of water. As warships, sailing ships were unpredictable and simply built until the seventeenth century. The combination of wood, canvas, cannon, and seamen supported by large and rich countries came about and showed how destructive they are in support of a country’s goals at sea.

This book is a good overview of sailing warships from the middle of the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. The large view it gives shows how these ships developed over the years and connects how different countries used them over the years. The Dutch and English were the first to fight each other at the time of the English Commonwealth and into the Restoration. As the Dutch were beaten, the French took over as England’s main enemy. Then the other major European countries and the U.S. got involved. This is mainly a picture book with little text, so content is limited. Nevertheless, it displays how navies grew, the battles they fought, and how they interacted in these years with the input of a country’s financial, human, and natural resources.

[Ronald · Rating 4 out of 5]

Richly illustrated and concise. Nice read but light on the technical side of things.

[Joel Carlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many military history books triumphantly exalt how their topic was So Important To World History
This is a fine book not only for fans of sailing ships (me) but also for persons interested in colonialism and European history. If you are rusty on your European history, this book will provide some challenges but not lose you. Familiar events (the American Revolution or the Napoleonic Wars) are covered, but they are covered only as they mattered to the sea. In some cases this was profound, and in other cases entire wars are treated cursorily because of the impracticality of a sailing navy having any meaningful effect on the outcome. I wish someone with actual graduate training in history would review this, but at least Lambert mentions the occasional argument about an event before taking sides, and he lists a large number of sources (which I haven't checked!). I look forward to a maritime historian adding a review on this site.

[Ed Greenwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gives a general overview of the period with some good illustrations and certainly a taster for further reading which I intend to pursue.

Found one error on page 97 regarding Russian naval policy. "In 1723, after Peters death, the Russian navy collapsed..." Peter the Great died in 1725 so the date used was not after his death. Find it strange a serious historical text would have such errors.

[Andy C.]

WWow does this guy do a good job of biographies. War at Sea is interesting, if for no other reason that he demonstrates that all sail naval battles had one thing in common – they were generally inconclusive in the event. An insight that had escaped me till I read this book.

[Chris Seltzer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a beautifully illustrated, well researched, but very dry book.

It was a challenge to read.

Admittedly I'm not the biggest naval history fan. If you are then I imagine this will be a very enjoyable book.

[Richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

What it says. Good adjunct to Mahan's classic

[Leo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cramming so much material in so little space produced an interesting, but superficial book.