“The first comprehensive listing of these ships in English. . . . Profusely illustrated [and] impressively informative.” —Midwest Book Review The origins

“This outstanding book will be essential for future studies of naval policy in the period between la Gloire and the Great War.” —The Naval Review This boo

In 1786 the French Navy had just emerged from its most successful war of the eighteenth century, having frequently outfought or outmanoeuvred the Royal Navy in

"The origins of a permanent French sailing navy can be traced to the work of Cardinal Richelieu in the 1620s, but this naval force declined rapidly in the 1650s

Peter the Great created the Russian navy from nothing, but it soon surpassed Sweden as the Baltic naval power, while in the Black Sea it became an essential too