Historian releases work on 17thC navy in paperback form
David Davies is the country’s leading historian of the navy of the 17th century and the author of many books on the subject, including a series of novels based on naval episodes at the time.
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Hide AdThe book, Pepys’s Navy, describes the British navy in the second half of the 17th century, during the long period of conflict with the Dutch. It covers the time when the Fleet Royal was taken into Parliamentary control after the defeat of Charles I, until the accession of William and Mary in 1689 when the long period of war with the Dutch came to an end. It was a crucial time which witnessed the creation of a permanent naval service and the birth of the Royal Navy, in an era where Samuel Pepys played a significant role.
The book covers every aspect from naval administration, ship types and shipbuilding, naval recruitment and crews, seamanship and gunnery, shipboard life, dockyards and bases, foreign navies of the period, and the three major wars fought against the Dutch.
David is chairman of the Naval Dockyards Society and sits on the council of the Navy Records Society.
The new book is £19.99 from Seaforth Publishing, ISBN 9781473879287.