From the dust jacket:
The span of this splendid book extends from the ousting of oared vessels by sail at the end of the fifteenth century until the complete revolution brought about by the coming of steam early in the nineteenth century.
During this romantic but bloody era the tactics of sea warfare changed continually as ship design improved, more efficient rigging gave greater speed and manoeuvrability, nautical instruments became more accurate and armament more deadly, copper-sheathed hulls made longer voyages possible, and, at last, that age-old scourge of the seafaring man, scurvy, was finally conquered.
Ranging from stories of battles both large and small all over the world from Britain and the Americas to India and the Mediterranean, and also covering the lives of ordinary sailors, this volume attempts to paint a pretty complete picture of war on the sea prior to the introduction of the steam ship.
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