Sons of the Waves: The Common Seaman in the Heroic Age of Sail

摘要

Other historians have examined common sailors during the Age of Sail, but none like Stephen Taylor in Sons of the Waves; The Common Seaman in the Heroic Age of Sail. Taylor has portrayed the British "Jack Tar" at his apogee, from 1740 to 1840, by carefully mining all the known, if obscure, memoirs of British seamen to provide a "ground-up" history. Through the voices of the "lower deck," Taylor covers the lives of seamen in the merchant trade, in exploration, in the slave trade, and, above all, serving in the Royal Navy. To their voices, he adds sparkling narrative and insightful commentary. Although famous naval officers such as Anson, Nelson, and Pellew appear in this story, this book is not about them. Reading Sons of the Waves is like seeing Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, after watching Hamlet: The central players here are those whom most historians treat as minor characters. Here, those who, in the standard histories of battles and leaders are treated as the major characters, make only brief appearances.