Every Man Will Do His Duty

Napoleonic-era accounts of life aboard Royal Navy warships: “Readers of Patrick O’Brian and C. S. Forester will enjoy this collection” ( Library Journal ). At the dawn of the nineteenth century, the British Navy was the mightiest instrument of war the world had ever known. The Royal Navy patrolled the seas from India to the Caribbean, connecting an empire with footholds in every corner of the earth. Such a massive Navy required the service of more than 100,000 men—from officers to deckhands to s