Dimensions
264 x 262 x 18mm
Bonaparte, Nelson, and the Battle of the Nile.
A gripping tale of two rival military titans and a fearsome battle whose underwater remains convey the scope of the tragedy. Drenched in dramatic storytelling and filled with arresting graphics, this book recounts the greed, audacity, bravery, and bloodshed that chacterised the Battle of the Nile in 1798. With more than 38,000 troops and some 400 well-stocked ships under his command, the 28-year-old French general set off on a secret mission to conquer Egypt in hopes of choking off Britain's trade routes to the East. He sailed, however, with Lord Horatio Nelson and his crackerjack fleet of English seamen in hot pursuit.
On August 1, 1798, in Egypt's Aboukir Bay, the British surprised fourteen of the French ships moored there in support of Napoleon's land troops, sinking or capturing nearly all and sparking the blaze that triggered the devastating explosion of the flagship of the French fleet, the "Orient". The outcome established Nelson as one of his country's greatest heroes and stranded Napoleon on the Egyptian desert without naval support.
In 1998, famed underwater explorer Franck Goddio explored the wreckage of the Battle of the Nile. The reader revisits the site beneath the bay, by way of a full-colour photo essay, to uncover dramatic 200-year-old treasures from the remains of the "Serieuse", "Artemise", and especially the massive "Orient". Exotic silver and gold coins, artillery, inscribed artifacts, and other incredible finds speak dramatically of life at sea and of war in the late 18th century.
