BIOGRAPHICA NAVALIS (6 Volumes)

Sub-titled "Impartial Memoirs of the lives and characters of the Navy of Great Britain, from 1660 to 1797". A six-volume set reprinted from the 1797 original edition. The only word to describe this work is monumental. It is a record of the services of more than 2,200 naval officers across a span of nearly 140 years, drawn from the most authentic sources (according to the title page) and disposed in a chronological arrangement. Sometimes only one or two lines constitute the entry; at other times there are several pages (Earl St Vincent takes ten pages). They are set out on a year-by-year basis, and within each year the names are arranged alphabetically. Each of the six volumes has its own index.