A Voyage up the Mediterranean in His Majesty’s Ship the Swiftsure
With a Description of the Battle of the Nile on the First of August 1798

Published in 1802, chaplain Willyams offers an illustrated eye-witness account of the Battle of the Nile, Nelson's greatest triumph.

Cooper Willyams (Author)

9781108020466, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 16 September 2010

426 pages, 40 b/w illus. 2 maps
29.7 x 21 x 2.2 cm, 1.02 kg

This book is an eye-witness account of the Battle of the Nile in 1798, Nelson's greatest triumph, written and illustrated by the Royal Navy chaplain Rev. Cooper Willyams. Educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, Willyams took holy orders in 1784. The son of a navy commander and formerly chaplain to Admiral St. Vincent, Willyams was a veteran of several campaigns, having accompanied the expedition to the West Indies which ended in a British defeat of the French in 1794. The Battle of the Nile is considered by historians to have been Nelson's most complete victory and Willyams' account to be the most authentic. Willyams was a self-taught artist, and the work contains 43 plate-engravings of sketches he produced of the battle. It was published in London in 1802, soon after the battle. A German edition was published the following year.

1. Sir Horatio Nelson appointed to command the squadron
2. The British fleet passes the Straits of Messina
3. Description of the Bay of Syracuse
4. Admiral Nelson revisits the shores of Egypt
5. Pursuit and conquest of the French fleet
6. Aboukir Bay
7. Vessels endeavouring to escape from Alexandria are burned
8. The Swiftsure joins the squadron off Marabou
9. Names of the ships that arrived off Alexandria under Commodore Troubridge
10. A British squadron sails from Palermo to the Bay of Naples
11. The squadron returns to Palermo
12. Lord Nelson dispatches the Swiftsure to Civita Vecchia
13. Voyage to Minorca.

Subject Areas: Military history [HBW]