British Library Dispatches

Date Posted: 29/01/2013

My latest book, In The Hour of Victory, is about an amazing collection of naval dispatches that only a handful of people know exist. In 1821 the Lords of the Admiralty ordered that the battle dispatches from the major British naval victories of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars should be gathered together and presented to the Nation. They include Admirals’ narratives, captains’ letters, boatswains’ reports, surgeons’ journals, captured enemy accounts, maps, casualty lists, diplomatic correspondence…the list goes on. The original volume, more than two feet long and too heavy for one person to lift, bound with silver, covered in navy blue velvet, contains over 350 pages of the most extraordinary documents.

If you would like to see the British Library’s volume of naval dispatches on display, or to have access to its contents online, please vote below and voice your support by leaving a comment.

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