CONTENTS

List of Illustrations

Preface

Prologue

PART ONE: RISING

1. Ordeal with Anson, 1740–44

2. A Lincolnshire Lad, 1755–59

3. Man and Boy, 1756–59

4. Heart of Oak, 1759–61

5. To the Eastern Seas, 1760–70

6. Farther Still and Farther, 1768–88

7. Hands Across the Atlantic, 1775–83

8. Black Gold, 1750–90

9. Coming Home, 1771–83

10. Fruits of Peace, 1783–92

11. ‘A Terror to Seamen’, 1788–92

Interlude: The Deep

PART TWO: ATOP

12. ‘These Valuable but Helpless People’, 1792–97

13. Family and Friends, 1793–98

14. A Rising Tide, 1794–97

15. Revolution at Spithead, 1797

16. ‘The Machinations of Evil Incendiaries’, 1797

17. Hellfire and Redemption, 1797–1801

18. Tom Bowling, 1801–03

19. Apotheosis, 1805

20. Winning Ways, 1806–09

21. Old Friends, Old Foes, 1803–14

22. Passages to Waterloo, 1809–15

23. Over the Side, 1816–36

24. Storytellers, 1810–40

25. Safe Moor’d, 1820–40

26. Pax Britannica, 1819–40

Epilogue

Notes

Bibliography

Acknowledgements

Index