ENEMY AT TRAFALGAR

Eye-witness narratives, dispatches and letters from the French and Spanish Fleets. Much has been written about the greatest sea battle of the age of sail, but very little of it in English is from the perspective of the defeated. Edward Fraser, an experienced writer on naval subjects, compiled and translated a collection of official dispatches and personal accounts by the participants, weaving his first-hand material into a vivid and eminently readable continuous narrative. This takes the story from Napoleon's strategic intentions for the Combined Fleets, through the events while it was blockaded at Cadiz, to the details of the battle itself, the storm which followed, and the terrible aftermath for victors and vanquished alike. With unusual illustrations and detailed maps.