Enfilade

From Yale UP:

James Davey, Tempest: The Royal Navy and the Age of Revolutions (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2023), 448 pages, ISBN: ‎ 978-0300238273, $35.

The French Revolutionary Wars catapulted Britain into a conflict against a new enemy: Republican France. Britain relied on the Royal Navy to protect its shores and empire, but as radical ideas about rights and liberty spread across the globe, it could not prevent the spirit of revolution from reaching its ships. In this insightful history, James Davey tells the story of Britain’s Royal Navy across the turbulent 1790s. As resistance and rebellion swept through the fleets, the navy itself became a political battleground. This was a conflict fought for principles as well as power. Sailors organized riots, strikes, petitions, and mutinies to achieve their goals. These shocking events dominated public discussion, prompting cynical—and sometimes brutal—responses from the government. Tempest uncovers the voices of ordinary sailors to shed new light on Britain’s war with France, as the age of revolution played out at every level of society.

James Davey teaches at the University of Exeter. He was formerly curator of naval history at the National Maritime Museum and is the author of In Nelson’s Wake: The Navy and the Napoleonic Wars.

c o n t e n t s

List of Illustration and Maps
Acknowledgments
Note on Conventions

Prologue
Introduction
1  Lawless Mobs and a Gore of Blood: Naval Mobilisation and Impressment
2  War of Principle: Naval Conflict in Europe, 1793–5
3  ‘We the Seamen’: Protest and Resistance at Sea
4  Tides, Currents, and Winds: Navy and Empire, 1793–7
5  Splintering the Wooden Walls: The Threat of Invasion, 1796–8
6  The Delegates in Council: The Naval Mutinies of 1797
7  A Tale of Two Sailors: Camperdown and Naval Propaganda
8  Bad Luck to the British Navy! Mutiny and Naval Warfare, 1798–1801
Epilogue
Conclusion

Notes on Sources
Notes
Bibliography
Index