THE BRITISH SEAMAN: 1200-1860 - A Social History.

UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.FINE/VG.No owner inscrptn,and no price-clip to actual price,though there is a diagonal clip in it's proximity! Bright,clean and crisp,glossy laminated,colour pictorial part-illustrated upper wrap ['Manning the Chains',painting by Atkinson,c1810],with publisher's advert to rear wrap,with a small vertical,diagonal crease to front,inside dw/dj flap,just above the aforementioned price-clip; with negligible shelf-wear and creases to edges.Minimal rubbing+creasing to corners,head+foot of spine/backstrip minimally bumped with reciprocal creasing and miniscule chipping with reciprocal loss to same.Top+fore-edges generally bright and clean - unusual considering book's age - contents bright,tight and near pristine - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners - an unread copy? Publisher's original clean,blue cloth boards with red title label with bright,crisp,stamped gilt letters to spine/backstrip which is slightly sunned/faded and near immaculate plain white endpapers.UK, 8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,8-319pp [paginated] +half-title+title pages, contents+illus lists tables,intro,11 chapters,20 b/w contemporary illustrations throught the text and the book,appendices(3),references,a general index,and an index of ships. There are dozens of books on the great figures in naval history such as Drake and Nelson.By contrast very little has appeared in print about the British seaman,without whom there would have been neither merchant ships to sail nor men-of-war to command.Apart from the vague ideas about the press gang and the mutinies at Spithead and the Nore most people have little conception of what his life was like,even in such important matters as how he was recruited or paid or fed.His courage, his seamanship,his endurance have always been taken for granted.It is Professor Lloyd's achievement to have rescued him from anonymity and to have portrayed him in his true colours.A vigorous,quirky,idiosyncratic figure whose vitality could not be quenched by horrible conditions, disgusting food or cruel punishments,he represents at those highest qualities of staunchness and cheerfulness that are claimed,perhaps too glibly,for the national character.From the middle ages to the coming of the steamship,which is the period covered by this book,his circumstances altered little: danger,disease,squalor,arbitary interference with personal freedom and,worst of all,to be cheated of wages that were small enough - these were the rewards of service against the Armada in the time of Elizabeth I,against the Dutch in the time of Charles II,against the French in the time of Napoleon. Why did the seaman put up with all this? Why did not humane and responsible people like Pepys,who knew about these things and were shocked by them,do something about it? How did a country that boasted of its freedom and prided itself on the rule of law square its conscience over such manifest injustice? No-one in future will attempt to answer these questions without availing himself of Professor Lloyd's wide and original research into the problem of manning,the most profound and intractable of all the questions that faced naval administration.Its presentation is as attractive and interesting as its findings are important. Here is a first-rate piece of social history that catches the raciness as well as the pathos of the life it describes. Its characters are individual,glimpsed in the unmistakable tragedies and comedies of real life: Sir James Bagg of the Victualling Office whose nickname Bottomless Bagg tells us all we need to know of his administrative technique: the gunner who,converted to Quakerism, refused to open fire 'lest blood might be spilt': the desperate expedients of seamen,returning home after the long,unhealthy voyages to the tropics,to avoid the pressing cutters waiting in the Channel and the mouth of the Thames.This book illuminates a neglected section of society and the prints with which it is illustrated have the freshness and humanity of the theme. Please contact rpaxtonden@blueyonder.co.uk ,because of the weight/ value of this item,for correct,insured shipping/P+p quotes - particularly ALL overseas buyers - BEFORE ordering through the order page!