The War at Sea

Abstract

The navy and the maritime war during the revolutionary and Napoleonic wars, though the subject of numerous excellent studies by Anglo-Saxon scholars,1 still occupy the position of poor relation to the army and land operations in the French historiography of this period. The naval war — less glorious for France and apparently of secondary importance — is often neglected by French historians of the revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. Works on the subject include former naval officer Auguste Thomazi’s now dated study of Napoleon’s sailors,2 plus the more recent works by Jean Meyer and Martine Acerra on the French Navy during the Revolution,3 William Cormack’s on the impact of the new revolutionary ideology in the ranks of the navy and the latter’s involvement in the political conflicts of 1789–1794,4 Michèle Battesti’s on the battle of Trafalgar and Napoleon’s naval strategy,5 and Pierre Lévêque’s social study of the naval officer corps.6 But these studies are exceptions, and fail to focus on the human experience of war among sailors.