Publisher's Synopsis
The Mammoth Book of Life Before the Mastcontains eyewitness accounts of the battles, the hardships and the excitement of naval service during the French Revolutionary War, the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 - a time when combat at sea was won, not by the impersonal might of technology but by sheer courage, wit and endurance.
Here is the real life behind the historical sagas of C.S. Forrester and Patrick O'Brian. Gathered from memoirs, diaries and letters this volume includes exhilarating accounts of the age's decisive naval engagements, as well as including revealing glimpses into Jack Tar's existence aboard a man-of-war: scurvy, whippings, storms, piracy, press gangs, drudgery and cannibalism.
By turn thrilling and heart-rending, poignant and captivating, The Mammoth Book of Life Before the Mast relates the realities of naval warfare through the words of those who experienced it.
