Memoirs and Correspondence of Admiral Lord de Saumarez, Vol. I
Sir John RossProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019
Rating 3.3- Word count
- 643K words
- Chapters
- 65
Tags
English Originals Political and Military LeadersMilitary Military HistoryMilitary StrategyRoyal NavyPolitical CareerNaval CommandersGroup BiographyHeroismLettersDocumentary NarrativeEighteenth CenturySummary
Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Memoirs and Correspondence of Admiral Lord de Saumarez, Vol. I by Sir John RossAuthor: Ross, John, Sir, 1777-1856,Language: English, Class: DA: History: General and Eastern Hemisphere: Great Britain, Ireland, Central Europe, Release Date: Jul 11, 2008Editor's review
This is the first volume of the biography of Admiral Lord James de Saumarez, compiled by Sir John Ross, himself a naval officer. It presents Saumarez's early naval and seafaring career through memoirs and correspondence set side by side. As a compilation of primary sources, its value lies not in narrative style but in the first-hand details preserved in letters, orders, and ships' records, giving readers direct access to the personnel, ships, and operational conditions of the eighteenth-century Royal Navy. The public-domain electronic edition from Project Gutenberg is convenient for searching and quotation, making it useful as supplementary material for research in naval and imperial history, and as further reading for those interested in military life in the age of sail. Readers are advised to consult maps and chronologies, to distinguish between the layers of correspondence and editorial notes, and not to attempt to read it straight through in one sitting.Who it's for
A good fit for
- University students and scholars of eighteenth-century British naval and imperial history
- Military-history enthusiasts interested in seafaring, naval warfare, and officer life in the age of sail
- Historical writers needing to consult original letters and memoir sources
- Readers accustomed to English public-domain texts who are willing to rely on annotations to understand the material
Not a good fit for
- General readers hoping for popular historical narrative or personal adventure stories
- Chinese readers without English reading ability and without a translation to rely on
- Readers expecting a complete biography who are willing to read only a single volume
Reading tips
- Read the editor's preface and table of contents first to clarify the timeline and relationships among the figures, then proceed to the letters themselves.
- Use a chronology of British naval history and navigational maps, marking ship names, place names, and battle milestones as you go.
- Read the letters and the editor's notes on separate levels, distinguishing between the participants' own accounts and the later compiler's commentary.
- It is acceptable to begin with chapters dealing with major naval battles or voyages rather than reading straight through from beginning to end.
About the publisher
Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.
Contents
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FAQ
Is this book an autobiography written by Saumarez himself?
No. The book was compiled by Sir John Ross; its main body consists of Lord Saumarez's memoirs and letters, accompanied by the editor's explanatory and connective text. What readers encounter is a mixed text of organized primary material and editorial narrative, and care should be taken to distinguish between the two voices.Will reading only the first volume leave the content incomplete?
The first volume mainly covers Saumarez's early naval and seafaring career; the later part of his life appears in subsequent volumes. If you are interested in only one period, this volume can be read on its own; to understand his life as a whole, you should continue with the remaining volumes.What should readers keep in mind when reading the English public-domain electronic edition?
The Project Gutenberg edition is the original English public-domain text with no Chinese annotations. It is advisable to have a dictionary and naval-history reference works at hand, and to watch for eighteenth-century epistolary usage, ship terminology, and old spellings of names and places, consulting maps and chronologies as needed.This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.
About the author
Sir John Ross Author · British · 1777–1856Sir John Ross (1777–1856) was a British Royal Navy officer and Arctic explorer who led expeditions in search of the Franklin expedition. Public information on his early life and education is limited, and no speculation is made here. The library holds two of his works, both volumes of Memoirs and Correspondence of Admiral Lord de Saumarez (Volumes I and II), biographical and epistolary compilations centered on the life and correspondence of the naval admiral. These works reflect Ross's ability to organize and narrate naval historical materials. His writing, grounded in personal experience and naval observation, is practical in style and offers reference for later understanding of 18th- and 19th-century British naval figures and the context of Arctic exploration.