Naval Warfare in the Age of Sail - The Evolution of Fighting Tactics 1650-1815

Based on the life's work of the naval historian Brian Tunstall, Naval Warfare in the Age of Sail traces the evolution of fleet tactics from the Dutch Wars of the seventeenth century to the War of American Independence in the late eighteenth and the defeat of the French Empire in 1815. It thus covers the entire period in which the sailing fleet was the major instrument of naval power.

Tunstall follows his illustrious predecessor Sir Julian Corbett in emphasizing the importance of signals and fighting instructions as a key to the way in which fleets were actually employed, but his insights into well-known battles are entirely new. He also adds a truly international dimension by giving full weight to Dutch, French and Spanish tactical thinking as well as English, the result is a comprehensive analysis of the ideas behind all the naval battles in the age of sail

Tunstall's work has been fully edited by Dr. Nicholas Tracy, a specialist historian of the sailing navy, who has also selected numerous portraits of prominent tacticians and the most reliable contemporary depictions of naval actions to accompany the text. To clarify further Tunstall's insights and to give the reader a clear understanding of the progress and outcome of the battles, nearly 150 maps have been specially drawn by Brian Lavery.

Naval Warfare in the Age of Sail offers the general reader as well as the historian and naval enthusiast an original insight into the workings of the great sailing fleets, and into the problems of control and effective deployment of their forces faced by the commanders in some of the greatest events of naval history; it is unlikely to be superseded as an original study of warfare at sea.