Based on family and naval records, this book presents Jane Austen--author of Mansfield Park, with its vivid depiction of life in Portsmouth; and Persuasion, with its account of naval officers and attitudes--as a historian of Nelson's navy. It is not the navy of his great victories but is instead the navy at home, of sailors among their families and friends, set against the background of war and revolution; observed, as always, with Austen's shrewd eye for detail.