Seize Knights Of The Sea: The True Story Of The Boxer And The Enterprise And The War Of 1812 Crafted By David Hanna Digital Copy

not sure if it might be that i had too high expectations from the book, but after having completed the reading it has left me somewhat unsatisfied.


What the books DOES is show a nice, clean, short formulated overview of both the historical context of the fight between the BOXER and the ENTERPRISE near Bristol, Maine, touching on the basics of naval fighting during the times and the politics around the war of.


What the book DOES NOT is delve into the real historic dimension, Everything it touches it only well, . brushes along. Often the quotes given to exemplify naval realities like the life on ships or the life expectancy of naval officers are taken from works of fiction, which while i definitely do not dislike the works of CS Forester and Patrick o'Brien you just need to take a glimpse on my own book lists to know that strikes me as a bit unprofessional in a work of science, as approachable to the casual reader it might be meant to be.
Shouldn't there be similar quotes from the letters of the great naval heroes of the time that suffice to illustrate his point but do stem from first hand experience instead of third hand reports like the fiction of those two excellent authors
A point that struck me as especially disappointing was that at the end of the book i still have only vague ideas about the physical outlay of both combattants and that the description of the fight itself is really glossing along using early on the excuse that other works have dedicated themselves far better to the in detail description of the fight itself than this book could hope to achieve, the author seems to have given up on providing any detail the specifics of the battle, concentrating much on the two captains instead of for example giving the battle order which officer was commanding the batteries/guns on each side and who were the wounded.
As a direct example he mentions the spectacular and impressive image that you could not stand with stretched out arms between two of the shot holes in the rump of the BOXER but does not accompany it with a hard factual number of hits on/under the waterline
So what we end up is lots of conjecture, an awful theory equaling Napoleon with Adolf Hitler, the knowledge that two commanding officers ended up buried besides each other after they got killed during the same fighting action and lots of hints towards the unfavorable comport of Mr Harper the sailing master of ENTERPRISE during the fight, although he got acquitted in his trial, but little tangible fact about a certainly fascinating naval action in a far too unknown war that right now lives through itsth anniversary.


And one other thing i've taken away from this book is that i surely will want to find out more about Commodore Preble and the group of young, daring officers he supported in their carreers and which resulted in more Captains like William Burrow of ENTERPRISE.
During the War

ofan epic battle between the HMS Boxer and the USS Enterprise off the coast of Maine.
The author parallels the lives of the two ships captains as well as looking at details of the battle, Pretty engaging. I most enjoyed the explanatory background on the War of, The admiration the author has for earlyth century naval officers is a little much for me, but maybe thats because I was in the Navy, haha.
Comparisons ofth century naval officers to medieval knights is a bit overdone and the work is too reliant on secondary sources.
Nonetheless, David Hanna's crisp and breezy writing creates an enjoyable and vivid portrait of earlyth century maritime culture, a misunderstood war, and the gallantry of opposing sea captains who lost their lives in a battle witnessed off the shore of Maine.
I really like the age of Sail, I also have an affinity for the birth of our navy during that time, I'm also a fan of the British Navy of the era, especially of the events that led to Trafalgar, Add in the romance of calling these ships amp captains 'Knights of the Sea' and I was intrigued,

I admit to not knowing much about the war ofbefore reading the book, but I feel the author did a very good job of painting the setting of the war and the politics surrounding it very well.
He did a great job, as well, portraying the Captains who would ultimately fall in the relatively short confrontation between Enterprise a favorite name for ships if there ever was one and the Boxer.


In the end, I felt the book did an excellent job and I feel I know more of what made the war so important to America now.
The author does a very good job in one of the later chapters drawing corallaries to more modern events as well, that I found intriging.


Stay tuned at the end of the book for Appendixand, These are transcripts from Court Martials from both sides of specific people or crew, They are facinating. This is a good book for someone not familiar with the subject, A quick read but lightweight for even moderate students of the subject, The sources for the quotes are limited and Patrick OBrien receives far to many references for even a good fiction writer.


I read this in a day and did not regret it but it wont be a book that stays.
This is the first of a series of book reviews I will post that have been written by my husband, Robert Stephenson.


The War ofis lightly studied in America but in fact it was a war with
Britain that possessed great risk to our survival and little potential gain.

In, the political score looked like this:
England was fighting France Napoleon as it periodically had since the's.

France was trying to dominate Europe and possibly invade England,
The US border with Canada had not been settled inand some wanted to annex
Canada
England wanted to possess Norther Maine, the Great Lakes and the Upper Ohio Valley a safe haven for their Indian allies
England was blockading French ports to prevent US exports of grain to France this negatively impacting agriculture and the merchant shipping industry
England, in the process of expanding her Fleet, needed skilled sailors, so she began impressing sailors on land and sea, including Americans.
This was an explosive issue leaving merchant ships at sea without crews and offending American "honor, "

England had the largest, best Navy in the World, The US hadserviceable ships and virtually no permanent army,
Into this dynamic, dangerous political environment the Congress decided to declare war on England,
This book discusses all these dynamic variables, their background, the intensity of the internal debate about the war, the war itself and its results not much.

the fascinating part of the book is the history of the two men who would lead the ships in a classic sea battle off Pemaquid Point, Maine in Septemberthe HMS Boxer and the USS Enterprise.
We learn about their lives in Portsmouth,
England and Philadelphia, respectively, and what Navy life was like in theth and earlyth centuries, and the traditions and codes of behavior that directed their lives.



This is a war that could have destroyed America, In the end, the outstanding effort of a few Navy officers, and the economic interests of both countries, convinced the politicians that this war was pointless.


This is and interesting exciting and sobering story, I highly recommend it. RSS
Best history book I've read in a long time, Brings to life history, not boring, Could not put it down! Quick story about a forgotten battle and a forgotten war, Learned that Americans have been protesting war since the very beginning, I would like to visit the gravesite of the two captains someday, More interesting than a textbook,

Oh man, to be shot in the torso by a cannon,

Surprising how crucial boarding could be to a naval battle, If I had managed to read this book in September rather than October/November, it would have been much more appropriate, being theth anniversary of the engagement between the HMS Boxer and USS Enterprise.
But unfortunately I missed it by that much,

I was excited to launch into this book for a number of reasons, not least of all because it features the "lucky little Enterprise.
" I admit to getting a bit of a thrill as Hanna gave a brief overview of her history leading up to the morning of her fight with the Boxer during the War of.
And whenever Stephen Decatur was mentioned, But that's another story.

Ultimately, Knights of the Sea didn't fulfill all my expectations, Since the focus was the two ships and their respective commanders, Hanna's treatment of the War ofand other notable engagements was necessarily broadbrush which would have been fine, except that the dearth of information on the two central characters made it hard to connect with them, either.
Again, most of that is probably not Hanna's fault, but I still would have liked more detail in the fight itself.
The part I found most interesting and unique was the wrapup chapter, "The Brotherhood," where Hanna compares naval officers during the Age of Sail to the elite class of knights during the heyday of chivalry.


The writing, while not spectacular, was pretty competent, It's written for anyone with an interest in history, and Hanna uses primarily laymen's terms and when he doesn't, he defines the word in the footnotes.
That said, while it serves as a good introduction to anyone who isn't a Patrick O'Brian or C, S. Forester fan, it can get irksome if you already know what a broadside is, A glossary would probably have been better, but ho hum, it isn't the end of the world, .