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Books > History > European history > 1750 to 1900
J.M.W. Turner's The Fighting Temeraire Tugged to her Last Berth to
be Broken Up (1838) was his masterpiece. Sam Willis tells the
real-life story behind this remarkable painting. The 98-gun
Temeraire warship broke through the French and Spanish line
directly astern of Nelson's flagship Victory during the Battle of
Trafalgar (1805), saving Nelson at a crucial moment in the battle,
and, in the words of John Ruskin, fought until her sides ran 'wet
with the long runlets of English blood...those pale masts that
stayed themselves up against the war-ruin, shaking out their
ensigns through the thunder, till sail and ensign dropped.' It is a
story that unites the art of war as practised by Nelson with the
art of war as depicted by Turner and, as such, it ranges across an
extensive period of Britain's cultural and military history in ways
that other stories do not. The result is a detailed picture of
British maritime power at two of its most significant peaks in the
age of sail: the climaxes of both the Seven Years' War (1756-63)
and the Napoleonic Wars (1798-1815). It covers every aspect of life
in the sailing navy, with particular emphasis on amphibious
warfare, disease, victualling, blockade, mutiny and, of course,
fleet battle, for it was at Trafalgar that the Temeraire really won
her fame. An evocative and magnificent narrative history by a
master historian.
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