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The Images Archive

Spanish Naval Uniforms During the Napoleonic Era

While the heroes of our beloved series have little direct interaction with the Spanish navy, they often share the waves with them, knowingly or not. The following is a guide describing the various uniform regulations that applied to the Spanish navy during our time period. There are images that go with the description as well. [...]
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Nelson’s Letters to the Crown Prince of Denmark

After three hours of intense fighting at the Battle of Copenhagen, Danish resistance began to slacken. By half past two, most of the fighting had stopped, but there was still some intermittent resistance. Unwilling to inflict unnecessary destruction on the danes, he had the following note sent to Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark with the [...]
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Napoleon and the Jews

While Mr. Canning is the only Jewish character of any importance in the Aubrey/Maturin series (I think, correct me if I’m wrong), the history of Jews during the Napoleonic era is fascinating because it shows perfectly the contradictions in Napoleon’s character. On the one hand, he was as Stephen would say a tyrant, a despot, [...]
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Royal Navy Uniforms Extant Garments Album Updates

Many new images have been added to both the regular Extant Garments album and the Lord Nelson album. There were too many new items for individual posts, so I thought I’d highlight them here. Of particular interest are the surgeon’s uniform items near the bottom. I can just see Stephen making a horrible mess of [...]
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Historical Shipwrecks: HMS Cerberus & HMS Orpheus Gallery

The Historical Shipwrecks album is dedicated to pictures of artifacts from shipwrecks relevant to our period. The first addition is this gallery of images relating to the HMS Cerberus and HMS Orpheus. On 29 July 1778, a French fleet under Admiral Comte d’Estaing arrived in Narragansett Bay as allies of the Americans in their war [...]
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Paintings, Plans, Diagrams and History of the HMS Boadicea

*SPOILERS* … the Boadicea proved she was a dry, wholesome ship. – The Mauritius Campaign
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A Foremast Jack’s Account of Trafalgar

As previously discussed, the Battle of Trafalgar was a very well-documented affair. However, most if not all of the eyewitness accounts we have come to us from officers rather than members of the lower decks. This letter, written by a sailmaker on the HMS Temeraire, is a rare example of the foremast jack’s perspective on [...]
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Nelson’s Trafalgar Memorandum

In this memorandum, Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson explains to his captains his plans for engaging the allied French and Spanish fleet. The memorandum contains Nelson’s fullest exposition of his conception of naval tactics and formed the basis of his tactics for the Battle of Trafalgar. (Secret.) Victory, off Cadiz, 9th October, 1805. Memorandum. Thinking it almost [...]
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A Brief Guide to Men and Officers in Aubrey’s Royal Navy

Current scholarship (thanks in part to the title of N. A. M. Rodger’s influential book) often refers to the ships of Aubrey’s Royal Navy as “the wooden world”. This is a highly accurate description of a complicated self-contained society with strict rules of conduct and hierarchy. Entire articles can be and have been written about [...]
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Hey There, Hot Shot: A Guide to Ammunition in Aubrey’s Royal Navy

While many readers of our beloved series are already experts in Napoleonic Era naval warfare by the time they discover the novels (seriously, many more than you’d expect!), others like myself stumbled upon the world of Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin with only Hollywood as our guide. Perhaps due to the Pirates of the Carribean [...]
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All To Seek: Cross-Reference

Subjects Commonly Addressed