Warships of the Napoleonic Era: Design, Development and Deployment

 
From the publishers:
Between 1793 and 1815 two decades of unrelenting naval warfare raised the sailing man of war to the zenith of its effectiveness as a weapon of war. Every significant seapower was involved in this conflict, and at some point virtually all of them were arrayed against Great Britain. A large number of enemy warships were captured in battle, making them of interest to British artists, engravers and printmakers. The admirality ordered accurate draughts to be made of many of these prizes and as a result, the ships of all navies of this era can be illustrated by an unprecedented variety of paintings, drawings, models and plans.
 
This book reproduces in extra-large format many of the best (and often least familiar) images of the ships, chosen for their accuracy, detail and sheer visual power. They are backed by text that looks at how the ships were used by the different navies, and explains the functions and development of the seemingly bewildering array of rates and types.
 
Robert Gardiner has spent his working life in maritime publishing, editing and producing works such as the twelve volume Conway's History of the Ship and the six volumes of the Chatham Pictorial Histories. He is a publications advisor to both the Society for Nautical Research and the Navy Records Society and has acted as consultant to the National Maritime Museum.