Hms London

A fascinating and lively account of the lives of British warships named London, looking at history from the perspective of the men who were there. There is no current warship in the Royal Navy called HMS London, but vessels carrying the name have featured in some of the most controversial episodes of British naval history. For example, the wooden wall battleship HMS London of the late 18th century could be called “the ship that lost America” while the heavy cruiser of WW2 was command vessel for the escort force that failed to safeguard the controversial convoy PQ17. Examining the stories of HMS Londons all the way from the English Civil War, through the Battle of Copenhagen in 1801—where Nelson famously ignored signals to break off the action displayed by HMS London—we also learn of the pre-dreadnought London’s participation in the ill-fated Dardanelles campaign of WW1. Among the people Iain Ballantyne interviewed for this book were veterans of the Arctic convoys of WW2, the Yangtse Incident and warriors of the Cold War and 1991 Gulf War. It all adds up to a thoroughly researched and exciting narrative of naval history. Adding to the authenticity of the tale, Iain even sailed to Russia in the last HMS London, a Type 22 guided-missile frigate, in August 1991. During a WW2 convoy re-enactment the ship was almost hit by a practice torpedo launched from a Soviet submarine and had to take evasive action.

The story of HMS Bellerophon is a record of the many and varied duties which the Royal Navy had to carry out in the period 1793 1815. It was involved in the first great fleet action of the War and was involved in the last moments of the struggle with the surrender of Napoleon.The 74-gun ship was the standard unit in the line of battle, Bellerophon was one of the most distinguished with a fine fighting record. Having fought at 'The Glorious First of June'; the battle of the Nile and at Trafalgar the ship saw more than her share of fierce ship-to-ship encounters. In between there were the varying duties of blockade and escort carried out with service in the Channel, the Mediterranean, the North Sea, the Baltic and the West Indies. The ship saw every type of service which fell to the Navy in that period.All the many and various aspects of the ship's life are covered from construction through maintenance and refits to final disposal. Sadly the ship could not be been saved like Victory and the ship and her fine record were confined to the history books.

A meticulously researched biography of a young officer in the early part of the 19th Century. The son of an admiral, Richard Purvis went to sea in Nelson's Navy at the age of 11 before being commissioned at the age of 15 into the Bengal Army, part of the great East India Company. He went on to serve 17 years in India before returning to become a country parson.The emphasis of this book is on his Indian military service, with the story told largely through an extensive collection of previously unpublished contemporary letters. These give a unique and intimate insight into the daily lives, difficulties, ethos and humour of young British officers in India during the Napoleonic period. There was, of course, danger and action too and Purvis's role in the Nepal War is described. Patronage was also a feature of a young ambitious man's life during the Georgian period and the workings of this are fascinatingly revealed.