The man responsible for keeping the ship battle-ready was the “gunner.” He belonged to the corps of warrant officers, which also included the carpenter, purser, and boatswain. These officers operated under a warrant, as opposed to the “commission” held by higher-ranked officers. The gunner, like the other warrant officers, was appointed by the Navy Board. His primary responsibility, as the title suggests, was managing the ship’s ordnance.

Benjamin Hallowell Carew. Painting by John Hayter Family and Childhood: Though often referred to as Canadian, Hallowell's birthplace is debated. He was likely born in Boston, MA, where his father—a British Commissioner of the Board of Customs and Loyalist—faced mob attacks during the American Revolution, forcing the family to leave in 1776. They arrived in... Continue Reading →

Admiral James Saumarez, 1st Baron de Saumarez, was a British naval officer whose career spanned the American Revolutionary War, Napoleonic Wars, and beyond. He is best known for his leadership during the Second Battle of Algeciras in 1801. He was second-in-command at the Nile in 1798.

As press gangs terrorized British harbors, some sought alternatives for recruiting seamen.

Who was Lord Horatio Nelson? What did he stand for? What did he believe in? Answering these questions in full would require lengthy biographies—and rightly so. One effective way to provide a legitimate short answer is to highlight a selection of quotes attributed to the man himself. So here they are …

With Napoleon's hopes of a British invasion quashed at Trafalgar, he sought to force his archenemy into submission through economic warfare: the Continental System. He aimed to bring Denmark into his alliance of nations denying British shipping access to their ports while also seizing its considerable fleet at Copenhagen. Alarmed by this threat, the Royal Navy and British Army responded swiftly.

Thomas Foley played a crucial role in Nelson's engagement off Aboukir in 1798 and later became Nelson's flag captain at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801.

When war broke out with Revolutionary France in 1793, Britain's main concern was preventing French troops from landing on British soil. Despite the political turmoil, the French army remained a formidable and well-trained foe. Although battles like Trafalgar and the Nile diminished France's ability to launch such an expedition, it was the continuous blockade of French naval bases that effectively kept the enemy away from the British Isles.

Despite Spain's neutrality during the early years of the Seven Years' War, the country ultimately allied with France in 1762. The British sought to strike quickly against Spanish forces in the Pacific, aiming to act before news of the war reached the region. The Battle of Manila serves as a prime example of the effectiveness of strong cooperation between the army and navy, even with limited resources.

The construction of ships of the line in the 18th century was a long and complex process. Read more about how these ships were built, from the design in the mind of a shipwright to the final product: a vessel armed to the teeth, made from hundreds of felled oak trees.