From Kirkus Reviews
In the wake of Stephen Biesty's Incredible Cross-Sections (1992) comes this big, magnificently designed browsers' delight, first (or second?) of a series. The year is 1800; a British fleet sweeps grandly toward the viewer, its huge flagship, fictional sister to H.M.S. Victory, in the lead. Then Biesty slices this ship into nine sections, taking readers from stem to stern both visually and thematically--each spread presents a different topic, from the crew's living conditions and leisure activities to officers' duties and, climactically, battle stations. Biesty renders each deck and duty in enthralling detail: the ship swarms with tiny men dousing fires, stowing or breaking out gear, working and playing with equal vigor, using the toilets, lying in the surgery near buckets of severed limbs, chasing rats in the stores. Platt's captions explain what's going on and provide an easy course in nautical jargon. The great ship is last seen sailing away victorious, its sails damaged by cannonfire, its opponent a dismasted wreck. Vivid, busy, and dramatic. Index. (Nonfiction. 10+) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Excellently researched and beautifully presented book., July 29, 2001

Reviewer: Jon Moore (jonboym@bigfoot.com) from Derbyshire, UK

Anybody with more than a passing interest in old sailing ships will love this book. It is both very detailed and easily accessible. The text is both thorough and very easy to follow. It focuses on the handling of square-rigged warships of Nelson's time and comprehensively covers everything the budding novelist, historian or naval wargamer could possibly want to know. Included are sections on terminology, crew organisation, anatomy and development of the sail plan, as well as an excellent chapter on the physics of shiphandling. The book then goes on to describe the seamanship such as reefing, furling, steering, tacking and wearing from a historical, rather than modern or theoretical perspective. The diagrams by Mr Myers are an essential part of the book and with the many photographs and paintings of the ships manage both clarify the text and show the beauty of the sailing ship. Anyone who has researched this period of history will realise how little information is easily available about the practical art of sailing these ships and how easily it is get misled by recent accounts of sailing the "modern" tall ships. Mr Harland has managed to find many original references and tie them together into an accurate and coherent account. While books on the battles and social history of Nelson's navy abound this one stands alone as the definitive guide to how the "wooden walls" were actually sailed. This book is a real tour de force of seamanship and exudes both a quality and thoroughness of research that is almost breathtaking.