Birth of Royal Navy (From The Oxford Times)

Birth of Royal Navy

4:18pm Thursday 12th November 2009

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PEPYS’S NAVY

J. D. Davies (Seaforth, £40)

Subtitled Ships, Men and Warfare 1649-1689, this explores, with outstanding analysis, paintings and portraiture, what may be considered the true birth of the Royal Navy. While Pepys was a man who embellished history with great images from his diary at the time of plague and fire, professionally he was one of the most powerful figures in the arena of naval administration and strategy: “methodical, inquisitive and highly competent”.

It was these virtues that led him to build the seaborne fighting force that would make Britain impregnable. From Charles I’s execution near the Whitehall Palace to the accession of William and Mary, this epic of a book goes into extraordinary detail on naval developments, shipbuilding and recruitment, its officers and crews and, above all, the battles fought against the Dutch and even the Barbary corsairs.

Most importantly, Pepys’s achievement laid a foundation that would stand Britain in good stead for its ultimate wars with revolutionary France and the coming of the Nelson era.

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