Sea Life in Nelson's Time

Book Description
Written by British Poet Laureate John Masefield in 1905, this lyrical tribute to sailors in the Age of Sail captures the grim reality of life at sea. In the clear, muscular English that made him famous, Masefield breathes life into the misery and barbarity that served as a foundation for naval glory. He brilliantly tells the story of the ships of Nelson's Navy, and especially of the sailors, describing the duties of each man, the unwholesome food, the cramped and filthy living quarters, the inhuman punishments, and the floating hell of a ship in action. Based on his own youthful apprenticeship aboard windjammers that sailed around the Horn, Masefield was both inspired and repelled by the sailor's lot. This epic eulogy for sailors long gone, considered a classic for decades, will be valued by Nelson enthusiasts everywhere.


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"For two centuries there has been a never dwindling interest and fascination in the Nelsonian era, that most magical and inspiring period of British history. The Nation's tenuous naval supremacy over its powerful enemies was epitomized by the increasingly battered figure of Horatio Nelson. His extraordinary talents and achievements made him a cult figure and his tragic death at the moment of his greatest victory was the supreme irony." "One hundred years after Trafalgar, John Masefield, later to become Poet Laureate, first published Sea Life in Nelson's Time. Not only was Masefield a superb researcher and writer but, by virtue of his training and experience, he thoroughly understood the naval ethos." His book strips away the glamorous veneer that popular perception had bestowed upon the Royal Navy of the time. Instead it reveals a harsh and often brutal regime deemed necessary to preserve discipline under the most testing conditions.


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