1st. Published 1979 by
Routledge & Keegan Paul Ltd, London

A navy cloth bound book with gilt lettering to spine -in VERY GOOD PLUS condition in a VERY GOOD PLUS condition un-priceclipped dust wrapper.

160 mm. x 240 mm. x 22 mm.
252 Pages

£8.00 + P & P

Jacket blurb

Tide of Empires
Decisive Naval Campaigns in the Rise of the West
Volume I 1481-1654

This, the first of a four-volume history of naval warfare, deals with the period from Venetian sea supremacy and the Portuguese campaigns of discovery to the Dutch conquest of a world-wide maritime empire, and finally the emergence of England as a serious rival to the Dutch. Mr Padfield's campaign and battle descriptions are marvellously exciting and colourful: he vividly describes not only the ships and weapons of the period and the men and nations who developed ship design and naval strategy, but also examines the strengths and weaknesses of particular commanders. The author discards the glamorous motives which are traditionally attributed to the naval commanders, explorers, navigators and pioneer adventurers, and instead attributes the motive forces to wealth and the envy of wealth. This original view produces a stark and challenging interpretation of the rise of the West as a remorseless economic battle for world markets during which brief intervals of 'peace' are determined solely by exhaustion.

Stripped of dogma, national bias and historical legend, this is a radically new view of naval history, written with all the gusto and attention to detail which has established Peter Padfield among the most readable and exciting of naval historians.

The Author

Peter Padfield trained for the sea aboard HMS Worcester, and served as a navigating officer on the P&O liners to Australia and the East. In 1957 he served as a mariner on board the replica pilgrim bark Mayflower II to America. Since 1965 he has been a full-time writer specializing in naval history, with particular interest in gunnery and the interaction between gunnery and naval tactics.

Contents

FOREWORD BY GENERAL SIR IAN JACOB GBE, CB, BA

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

1. THE CAMPAIGN OF DISCOVERY
2. THE CONQUEST OF THE INDIAN OCEAN
3. THE MEDITERRANEAN CENTRE
4. ATLANTIC WEALTH
5. THE DUTCH EMPIRE OF THE OCEANS
6. THE RISE OF ENGLAND

GLOSSARY

BIBLIOGRAPHY, REFERENCES AND NOTES

SELECT INDEX

Illustrations

1. Vasco da Gama
2. Ships of the time of Vasco da Gama
3. Carrack of the type in which Columbus sailed to America
4. Early sixteenth-century lateen-sailed vessel
5. A Dutch merchantman
6. Breech-loading, wrought-iron swivel gun
7. Early wrought-iron, breech-loading bombard
8. Affonco d'Albuquerque
9. Venetian galley of the early sixteenth century
10. Battle of Lepanto
11. Don John of Austria
12. Sir John Hawkins
13. Howard of Effingham
14. Outboard loading
15. Sixteenth-century English iron demi-culverin
16. Spanish galleons of the type that fought in the Armada campaign
17. Design for a 'race-built' man-of-war
18. Medina Sidonia's fleet off Portland
19. Diagram of the action off Portland in the Armada campaign
20. Maarten Tromp
21. Dutch warship of the early seventeenth century
22. Bronze demi-cannon recovered from the warship Vasa
23. Robert Blake
24. Battle off the Gabbard

MAPS

1. Wind and current systems of the Atlantic
2. The Mediterranean centre, Battle of Prevesa and War of Cyprus
3. The West Indies. The Atlantic fringe settles on the fringe of the Spanish Empire in the New World

BATTLE DIAGRAMS

1. Battle off Malabar coast, 1501
2. Lepanto — the fleets deploy about 9.00 a.m., 7 October 1571
3. Lepanto — the centres clash about noon, 7 October 1571
4. The Armada campaign — opening action, 30 July 1588
5. The Armada campaign, 30 July — 9 August 1588
6. Battle of Kentish Knock, 8 October 1652
7. Battle off Dungeness, 10 December 1652
8. The 'Three Days' Battle, 28 February — 2 March 1653
9. Battle off the Gabbard, 12 June 1653
10. The United Provinces and the Battle of Scheveningen, 10 August 1653