Source List

A quick note: my name is Mike Romero, and I'm a Historic Interpreter at Colonial Williamsburg.  The postings I make on this site are my own personal opinions and research, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Colonial Williamsburg.  With that said, enjoy the read!

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Since beginning my research into naval history, several guests to Colonial Williamsburg have asked me for advice on how to begin their own studies.  Below is the 'master list' of resources I've compiled since the beginning of 2016 (just authors and titles rather than the full citations, so my apologies), but just to give you a place to start, here are my suggestions on where to start.  Keep in mind I'm specializing on the Continental and early United States Navies, so you can pick other favorites from the full list depending on your own interests.


Jack Aubrey Commands is an excellent overview of how the Royal Navy was organized at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries...it was written as a historic companion when the film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World was released.  Give Me a Fast Ship tells the story of the Continental Navy fighting the American Revolution at sea, and is a great place to start in terms of American naval power.  Feeding Nelson's Navy is a great reference book, describing how various navies of the 18th/19th centuries provisioned and victualled their crews...it mostly concentrates on the British Royal Navy, but includes sections on France, Spain, and the United States.  If you really want to get into naval history, starting with your stomach can be most useful.

Beyond that, feel free to browse the full list.  If you know of other resources that I've missed, feel free to pass it on!

Royal Navy Sources
1. Lavery, Brian: Jack Aubrey Commands
2. MacDonald, Janet: Feeding Nelson's Navy: The True Story of Food at Sea in the Georgian Era
3. His Majesty and Council: Regulations and Instructions Relating to His Majesty's Service at Sea: 1772
4. Lavery, Brian: Nelson and the Nile
5. Lavery, Brian: Nelson's Navy: The Ship's, Men and Organization 1793-1815
6. Lavery, Brian: The Ship of the Line: The Arming and Fitting of English Ships of War 1600-1815
7. Lavery, Brian: Anatomy of the Ship: The 74-Gun Ship Bellona
8. Pope, Dudley: Life in Nelson's Navy
9. Garneray, Louis: The Floating Prison: The Extraordinary Account of Nine Years Captivity on the British Prison Hulks During the Napoleonic Wars
10. Feldback, Ole: The Battle of Copenhagen 1801
11. Callo, Joseph: Nelson in the Caribbean
12. Adkins, Roy: Nelson's Trafalgar: The Battle That Changed the World
13. Thomas, Nicholas: Cook: The Extraordinary Voyages of Captain James Cook
14. Cook, James: Captain Cook's Journal During His First Voyage Around the World
15. Walter, Richard: Anson's Voyage Round the World
16. Phipps Constantine: A Voyage Toward the North Pole – 1773
17. Lloyd, Christopher: The British Seaman 1200-1860 A Social Survey
18. O’Neill, Richard: Patrick O’Brian’s Navy: The Illustrated Companion to Jack Aubrey’s World 
19. Taylor, Stephen: Commander: The Life and Exploits of Britain’s Greatest Frigate Captain 
20. Knight, Roger: The Pursuit of Victory: The Life and Achievement of Horatio Nelson 
21. Spavens, William: Memoirs of a Seafaring Life 
22. Creswell, John: British Admirals of the Eighteenth Century: Tactics in Battle

Continental Navy Sources
1. Miller, Nathan: Sea of Glory: The Continental Navy Fights for Independence 1775-1783 
2. McGrath, Tim: Give Me a Fast Ship: The Continental Navy and America's Revolution at Sea 
3. Patton, Robert: Patriot Pirates: The Privateer War for Freedom and Fortune in the American Revolution 
4. Volo, James: Blue Water Patriots: The American Revolution Afloat 
5. Coggins, Jack: Ships and Seamen of the American Revolution 
6. Paullin, Charles: The Navy of the American Revolution 
7. Mahan, A.T.: Major Operations of the Navies in the War of American Independence 
8. Various: Naval Documents of the American Revolution, Volumes 1-12 
9. McGrath, Tim: John Barry: An American Hero in the Age of Sail 
10. Thomas, Evan: John Paul Jones: Sailor, Hero, Father of the American Navy 
11. Clark, William: Captain Dauntless: The Story of Nicholas Biddle of the Continental Navy 
12. Barnes, James: With the Flag in the Channel: The Advent of Captain Gustavus Conyngham
13. Gardiner, Bobert: Navies and the American Revolution, 1775-1783 
14. Nelson, James: George Washington’s Secret Navy: How the American Revolution Went to Sea 
15. Nelson, James: Benedict Arnold’s Navy: The Ragtag Fleet That Lost the Battle of Lake Champlain but Won the American Revolution 
16. Various: Naval Documents Related to the Quasi War Between the United States and France, Volumes 1-7
17. Various: Naval Documents Related to the United States Wars with the Barbary Powers, Volumes 1-6
18. Various: The Naval War of 1812: A Documentary History, Volumes 1-3

United States Navy Sources
1. Toll, Ian: Six Frigates: The Epic Founding of the U.S. Navy 
2. Daughan, George: 1812: The Navy's War
3. Utt, Ronald: Ships of Oak, Guns of Iron: The War of 1812 and the Forging of the American Navy
4. Marquardt, Karl-Heinz: Anatomy of the Ship: The 44-Gun Frigate USS Constitution 
5. Tucker, Spencer: Injured Honor: The Chesapeake-Leopard Affair, June 22, 1807 
6. Cross, Charles Brinson: The Chesapeake: Biography of a Ship 
7. Tucker, Spencer: The Jeffersonian Gunboat Navy 
8. London, Joshua: Victory in Tripoli: How America's War with the Barbary Pirates Established the U.S. Navy and Shaped a Nation 
9. McKee, Christopher: Edward Preble: A Naval Biography 
10. Guttridge, Leonard: Classics of Naval Literature: Commodores
11. Tucker, Spencer: Stephen Decatur: A Life Most Bold and Daring 
12. Stevens, William: An Affair of Honor: The Biography of Commodore James Barron, U.S.N. 
13. Cooper, James Fenimore: The History of the Navy of the United States
14. Skaggs, David: Thomas Macdonough: Master of Command in the Early U.S. Navy 
15. Skaggs, David: Oliver Hazard Perry: Honor, Courage, and Patriotism in the Early U.S. Navy

Virginia Navy Sources
1. Cross, Charles Brinson: A Navy for Virginia: A Colony's Fleet in the Revolution
2. Stewart, Robert Armistead: The History of Virginia's Navy of the Revolution
3. Carson, Jane: James Innes and His Brothers of the F.H.C. 
4. Tormey, James: The Virginia Navy in the Revolution: Hampton's Commodore James Barron and His Fleet 
5. Maxwell, William: The Virginia Historical Register, Volume 1 
6. Ford, Harry: For Virginia and Independence: Twenty-Eight Revolutionary War Soldiers from the Old Dominion 

Miscellaneous Sources
1. Lavery, Brian: Anatomy of the Ship: The Colonial Merchantman Susan Constant 1605
2. Anderson, Fred: Crucible of War: The Seven Years War and the Fate of Empire in British North America 1754-1766 
3. Smith, Harvey Garrett: The Arts of the Sailor: Knotting, Splicing, and Ropework 
4. Ashley, Clifford: The Ashley Book of Knots
5. Polish Maritime Museum: The General Carleton Shipwreck 1785 
6. Furlong, Lawrence: The American Coast Pilot 
7. Stark, Suzanne: Female Tars: Women Aboard Ship in the Age of Sail 
8. Atkinson, James: The Epitome of the Art of Navigation 
9. Commissioners of Longitude: The Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris for the Year 1767 
10. Commissioners of Longitude: The Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris for the Year 1774 
11. Commissioners of Longitude: The Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris for the Year 1778 
12. Wyatt, James: The Life and Surprizing Adventures of James Wyatt 
13. Lind, James: A Treatise on the Scurvy – 1757 
14. Marteilhe, Jean: Galley Slave 
15. Rediker, Marcus: Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: Merchant Seamen, Pirates, and the Anglo-American World, 1700-1750 
16. Bolster, W. Jeffrey: Black Jacks: African American Seamen in the Age of Sail 
17. Sobel, Dava: Longitude 
18. Latham, Jean: Carry On, Mr. Bowditch 
19. Goldenburg, James: Shipbuilding in Colonial America 
20. Nell, William Cooper: Colored Patriots of the American Revolution 
21. Earle, Peter: Sailors
22. Howse, Derek: Nevil Maskelyne: The Seaman’s Astronomer 
23. Paine, Lincoln: The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World

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