The War for All the Oceans: From Nelson at the Nile to Napoleon at Waterloo by Lesley Adkins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This book treat's Napoleon's career as parallel to and spurring on a global war largely sustained by continuous naval action. Bookending this compelling narrative that includes the War of 1812 and the capture of the U.S. Capitol, is the really thrilling life story of Admiral Sir William Sidney Smith. It is of this British naval officer of whom Napoleon Bonaparte, reminiscing later in his life, said: "That man made me miss my destiny". Escaping French imprisonment with the help of royalists, destroying more French ships than Nelson, and frustrating Napolean's East empire dreams on land at the Siege of Acre (1799), Smith deserves all the attention paid in this book.
Another fascinating dimension to this military history is close look inside battles, prison ships, and daily naval life from primary sources such as seaman journals and letters. One thing that jumped out at me in this book is that French officers in military then considered it an affront to their honor to even assume they would try to escape when they became POWs and could be entrusted to stay in a hotel, pay their bills (support themselves) and even not take advantage of freely roaming the city. (I am talking about officers here, not the unfortunate enlisted me crowded onto hellish prison ships.) Of course, in a later century French officers would be expected and even praised for heroic escape and stealing prison camp material to dig tunnels and craft crystal radio sets.
The book also heightens my enjoyment of Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World set in this era and where it says that all the oceans are a "bsttlefield". The youth of officers, there behavior in battle, and the far-flung engagement with the French detailed in this book are brought to life in that movie.
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