Warships of the Napoleonic era - Robert Gardiner

Between 1793 and 1815 two decades of unrelenting naval warfare raised the sailing man of war to the zenith of its effectiveness as a weapon of war. Every significant seapower was involved in this conflict, and at some point virtually all of them were arrayed against Great Britain. A large number of enemy warships were captured in battle, making them of interest to British artists, engravers and printmakers, while the Admiralty ordered accurate draughts to be made of many of these prizes. Consequently, for this era the ships of all navies, not just British, can be illustrated by an unprecedented variety of paintings, drawings, models or plans.