Describes the rise of Britain to naval greatness, and the central place of the Navy and naval activity in the life of the nation and government. This work describes not just battles, voyages and cruises but how the Navy was manned, how it was supplied with timber, hemp and iron, how its men were fed, and how it was financed and directed.
N.A.M. Rodger is Professor of Naval History at Exeter University and Anderson Senior Research Fellow, National Maritime Museum. He is the author of The Wooden World and The Admiralty as well as the highly acclaimed first volume of his naval history of Britain, The Safeguard of the Sea (available in Penguin).
