The Fighting Temeraire: Legend of Trafalgar - Hardcover

Sam Willis

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1847249981 ISBN 13: 9781847249982

Publisher: Quercus, 2009

Synopsis

J.M.W. Turner's The Fighting Temeraire Tugged to her Last Berth to be Broken Up (1838) was his masterpiece, and in a recent BBC Radio 4 poll to find the nation's favourite painting it won by a landslide, receiving over a quarter of all votes cast and fighting off Constable's The Hay Wain and other equally well-known works by Manet, Hockney and Van Gogh. Sam Willis tells the real-life story behind this remarkable painting. The 98-gun Temeraire warship broke through the French and Spanish line directly astern of Nelson's flagship Victory during the Battle of Trafalgar (1805), saving Nelson at a crucial moment in the battle, and, in the words of John Ruskin, fought until her sides ran 'wet with the long runlets of English blood those pale masts that stayed themselves up against the war-ruin, shaking out their ensigns through the thunder, till sail and ensign dropped.' It is a story that unites the art of war as practised by Nelson with the art of war as depicted by Turner and, as such, it ranges across an extensive period of Britain's cultural and military history in ways that other stories do not. The result is a detailed picture of British maritime power at two of its most significant peaks in the age of sail: the climaxes of both the Seven Years' War (1756-63) and the Napoleonic Wars (1798-1815). It covers every aspect of life in the sailing navy, with particular emphasis on amphibious warfare, disease, victualling, blockade, mutiny and, of course, fleet battle, for it was at Trafalgar that the Temeraire really won her fame. An evocative and magnificent narrative history by a master historian.

About this title

About the Author

Sam Willis has lectured at Bristol University and at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, and consults on maritime painting for Christie's. Sam spent eighteen months as a Square Rig Able Seaman, sailing the tall ships used in the Hornblower television series and Channel 4's award-winning film Shackleton, and is a consultant to the BBC's Coast. He is the author of Fighting at Sea in the Eighteenth Century: The Art of Sailing Warfare and the highly successful Fighting Ships series for Quercus.

Review

'Absorbing and enjoyable biography . He (Sam Willis) is a reliable and readable guide to the naval history embodied in the Temeraire. His book cleverly uses the microcosm of the life story of one ship to reflect the wider narrative of the decades-long struggle between Britain and France for mastery of the seas.' Sunday Times. 'The author has dealt with his subject on many enthralling levels from the horrific accounts of warfare at sea, through the mutiny at Bantry Bay to the ship's eventual decommissioning and use as a prison hulk' Irish Examiner. 'An absorbing and enjoyable biography' French News.

About this edition

• Publisher: Quercus
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 1847249981
• ISBN 13: 9781847249982
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 416