This text contains eyewitness accounts of the battles, the hardships, and the excitement of naval service during the French Revolutionary War, the Napoleonic Wars, and the War of 1812 - a time when combat at sea was won, not by technology but by sheer courage, wit and endurance. Gathered from memoirs, diaries and letters, the book includes accounts of the age's decisive naval engagements, as well as glimpses into Jack Tar's existence aboard a man-o-war; scurvy, whippings, storms, piracy, press gangs, drudgery and cannibalism.