VADM Pierre Charles Jean Baptiste Silvestre Villeneuve (1763-1806) Five years younger than Nelson, VADM Villeneuve commanded the combined French and Spanish fleets at Trafalgar. He was born into a Valensoles, […]
VADM Federico Carlos Gravina y Nápoli (1756-1806) Compared with Villeneuve, about whom much has been written, his junior Spanish counterpart at Trafalgar, VADM Gravina, remains a brave but shadowy figure. […]
VADM Francois Paul Brueys d’Aigalliers, Compte de Brueys (1753-1798) VADM de Brueys, commander of the French Fleet during Nelson’s Battle of the Nile in Aboukir Bay, was five years older […]
FADM Viscount St Vincent, John Jervis KGCB (1735-1823) Born in Meaford, Staffordshire, the son of a barrister, John Jervis was given £20 by his father when he joined the navy […]
VADM Collingwood VADM Collingwood was born in Newcastle-on-Tyne some eight years before Nelson. His father was a prominent Northumberland merchant who encouraged his son to join the Royal Navy […]
ADML Samuel Viscount Hood (1724-1816) ADML Hood (painted by James Northcote about 1784.) Samuel Hood, the son of a vicar, joined the RN as a midshipman in 1741, at age […]
Royal Navy: the early years Sociologists tend to argue that it is not so much the individual who changes history. Instead, it is the struggles of the masses and random […]
Nelson: A brief biography Nelson, wearing two of his three gold medals. (A third gold medal was awarded posthumously. Painting by John Hoppner.) Born on 29 September 1758, to the […]
USN Carrier Evolution VIII: Early Attack Carriers Eighth article in a series by Scot MacDonald. Reprinted with permission: Naval Aviation News, November 1962, pp 44-48. “We have hit the Japanese […]
USN Carrier Evolution IX: Escort Carriers Ninth article in a series by Scot MacDonald. Reprinted with permission: Naval Aviation News, December 1962 pp 49-53. “The story of the escort aircraft […]
