The Fighting Temeraire

Book excerpt: The extraordinary story of the mighty Temeraire, the ship behind J. M. W. Turner's iconic painting. The H.M.S. Temeraire, one of Britain’s most illustrious fighting ships, is known to millions through J. M. W. Turner’s masterpiece, The Fighting Temeraire (1839), which portrays the battle-scarred veteran of Britain’s wars with Napoleonic France. In this evocative new volume, Sam Willis tells the extraordinary story of the vessel behind the painting. This tale of two ships spans the heyday of the age of sail: the climaxes of both the Seven Years’ War (1756–63) and the Napoleonic Wars (1798–1815). Filled with richly evocative detail, and narrated with the pace and gusto of a master storyteller, The Fighting Temeraire is an enthralling and deeply satisfying work of narrative history.