Product Description

TARS is a gripping firsthand account of life in the Royal Navy at its bloodiest and most temptestuous phase, beginning in 1758. Through the lives of the main protagonists - a small band of sailors from across the ranks - TRAFALGAR author Tim Clayton paints a vivid picture of the navy and the era, from close-quarter battles and roistering on the streets of  London to the political decisions that built up and knocked down empires.

In this death-or-glory era the navy became the main weapon of an aggressive and power-hungry government, and fighting at sea was carried out at ever-closer quarters and with ever-increasing amounts of firepower. Using never-before published first-person sources, TARS takes us through these men's daily struggles as Britain navigated her course on the political map.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #274147 in Books
• Published on: 2008-06-12
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 384 pages

Review
'Accessible, well researched, and a true literary masterpiece.' (Mountbatten Maritime Award )

'engaging and original, Tars is an impressive book that deserves a wide readership.' (International Journal of Maritime History )

'Ideal for fans of Patrick O'Brien'

(Bookseller )

'Excellent . . . comprehensively researched, vividly written and judiciously argued. Wonderfully detailed pen portraits . . . Much new material from French and Spanish sources gives a rounded picture . . . it is this perspective from both sides of the battle that makes the book so compelling.' (Saul David, Daily Telegraph on TRAFALGAR )

'A landmark book.' (Observer on TRAFALGAR )

'Vivid and compelling . . . an account of significant importance.' (Naval Review on TRAFALGAR )

About the Author
Tim Clayton has written extensively on nineteenth and twentieth-century cultural history.

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Customer Reviews

Nelson is not our only seaman.
It is well to be reminded from time to time that there were other wars, other battles and other sailors than the Napoleonic, Trafalgar and Nelson. This book deals with the so called "Seven Years War" and mainly with the adventures of Augustus Hervey. Horace may have the better of Gus as regards exploits on the battlefield (battlesea?) but Captain Hervey can have had few equals between the sheets, bedroom not naval. "Augustus Hervey, A Naval Casanova" by Michael Holmes and Capt. Hervey's own journal edited by David Erskine are well worth reading. As is "Battle For Empire" by Tom Pocock which deals with wider aspects of the war.
To me the title "Tars" and the dust jacket picture are misleading, they rather give the impression that we are going hear opinions mainly from the lower deck and there is no indication that the book deals with the seven years war. That being said there is a surprising amount of information about crew members and this is a credit to Tim Clayton's research. He also follows up the later careers of many of his cast which is good. The book could have done with more careful editing there are one or two trivial, for want of a better word "untidynesses". What does rather spoil the book are the maps which would have been full of interest if only they had been legible, they are quite frustrating.
This is an informative and interesting book it doesn't flag and is a very good read. If you are not familiar with the times this and Pocock's book are a very good start and if you are familiar I am sure you will still learn from this book. Hervey was a more than competent seaman with dash and courage and he has a nephew Constantine Phipps who seems an equally engaging character making an appearance in this book. He could be being groomed for another book from Tim Clayton, which would be good news.
5 stars or at the least 4 1/2 would have been in order had the maps been better presented.

History based on individuals
Tars tells the story of the crews of first fthe Monmouth then the Dragon in the second half of the Seven Years War. Taking the then famous defeat of the Foudroyant by the Monmouth off Cartagena as its starting point, it looks at the impact of the arrival of a new captain, Augustus Hervey, on the crew and then follows Hervey when he is transferred to the Dragon and out to the West Indies.

I thoroughly enjoyed Tim Clayton's book on Trafalgar, but this was better. There are plenty of books on famous battles, plenty of generalised histories, plenty of biographies of famous individuals, plenty on individual ships, some on the lives of ordinary seamen, but few if any focusing in to this extent: just four years in the lives of just two individual ships' crews. Whilst it wasn't quite the treatise on the lower decks that the book's title implies, I felt it achieved more by examining how an individual ship's crew worked together, something the navy totally depended on particularly in the days when it took over three weeks for messages to get from Europe to the West Indies. The approach was a refreshing change, building on classics like Rodgers's The Wooden World. As should happen in good history, by focusing in we actually learn more on a broader front.

Not only do we have the interesting angle, but we also have a great story really well told. Between them the Monmouth and Dragon saw a wide cross-section of naval life from the excitement of individual actions and the campaign in the West Indies to the tedium of blockade and the contrast of life ashore. Throughout it all Clayton keeps the pace up and the story never flags.

Picture illustrations are excellent, but I agree with gronow that the maps are a letdown, a major bugbear of mine as a geographer! This happens all too often, particularly in history books: maps tell us so much, yet they are all too often badly underused. On this occasion, that's not so much the problem, but the publishers have fallen into the other commnon mistake - they are simply at the wrong scale. It was a nice idea to use contemporary maps, but they needed much better reproduction (personally, I would rather have seen some well drawn modern maps: old maps make excellent historical documents and illustrations, but cartography for clarification has moved on).

Unlike gronow though, I think the writing still warrants 5 stars. All in all, a book that more than justifies its space amongst the ever growing mass of books on eighteenth century naval history.

Excellent evocation of the life of Jack Tars
If you are fascinated by tall ships and the real life behind Patrick O'Brian's series of novels, this is an essential companion. Too much nautical history is about admirals, battles and esoteric detail about ships of the period. This compelling social history of the backbone of Nelson's Navy is very readable and what's more, it's a book you may well go back to again and again. The author has found a good technique, blending hisorical detail with the careers of ordinary seamen following certain captains. It's a fine approach that combines narrative with understanding about what it was like to enter and probably die 'in the service'. If I published this book, I'd feel confident enough to offer a money back guarantee of satisfaction.