Review: The War for All the Oceans: From Nelson at the Nile to Napoleon at Waterloo

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.



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