Six Frigates: The Story Of The Ships That Launched The US Navy

On October 21st, 1805, an English fleet commanded by Lord Admiral Horatio Nelson hunted down and annihilated the combined fleets of France and Spain in an immense sea battle off Cape Trafalgar, near the Spanish coast. The Battle of Trafalgar, as it came to be known, crowned the Royal Navy as undisputed sovereign of the world's oceans.

Admirably researched, rich in detail and inhabited by a gripping cast of real-life, three-dimensional heroes and villains, Six Frigates traces the genesis of a fleet that would, ultimately, replace Britain's as the world's most powerful. And it captures the moment when the Royal Navy first caught a glimpse of the future. Creaking wood, whipping sails, the bark of orders and the bludgeon and thunder of cannon come magnificently alive in its pages. Utterly compelling, this is naval history at its most vivid, readable, convincing and entertaining.