This was a low-priced publication sold at 1s6d.
Preface [n. pag.]
This little work has no pretensions to originality. It is compiled from works too voluminous and too expensive to have place where they should oftenest be found, in the cottage and the workshop, in the hope that it may serve to revivify, in the heart of Young England especially, the failing memory of our glorious Sea Captains. Chiefly indebted to Hepworth Dixon’s Life of Blake, Southey’s Life of Nelson, and Osler’s Life of Lord Exmouth, the compiler especially adverts to them, not only as containing matter which every Englishman should know by heart, but as models of biographical excellence. These, as well as Barrow’s numerous memoirs, remain to be read by those who would know all the details in the lives of the Naval Heroes of Great Britain. In the compass of a book like the present it was impossible to give the memoirs of all our illustrious admirals; only those, therefore, have been selected whose great sea genius or decisive successes more signally recommend them to the emulation and gratitude of Englishmen.
Contents
[The Naval Heroes of Great Britain: Introduction 3]Charles Howard 9
Sir John Hawkins 19
Sir Francis Drake 24
Sir Walter Raleigh 33
Robert Blake 47
Edward Russel 80
Sir George Rooke 86
Sir Cloudesley Shovel 103
Vernon 112
Lord Anson 130
Lord Hawke 15
Boscawen 165
Lord Rodney 182
Lord Howe 206
Lord Duncan 220
Nelson 234
Sir Sidney Smith 292
Earl St. Vincent 309
Lord Exmouth 323