The Naval War of 1812-1815
Foundation of America's Maritime Might
This book is based on the ASMA video documentary that the former Director of the Naval History and Heritage Command of the United States Navy, William S. Dudley, Ph.D., described as “a dynamic, forward thinking, electronic masterpiece that is by far the best and most balanced video history to have been produced during the 1812-1815 Bicentennial.” Dr. Dudley contributed the Foreword.
Contains over 100 full color paintings by members of ASMA
The book tells the exciting story about how the young American Republic established the United States Navy, Marine Corps and Revenue Cutter Service (the predecessor to the Coast Guard), designed and built the most powerful class of frigate in the world, trained its seamen in gunnery and naval warfare and gained battle experience in the Quasi-War with France in 1798-1800 and the Barbary War (“Shores of Tripoli”) in 1801-1805.
By John Stobart, Fellow Emeritus of ASMA
By Robert Sticker (1922-2011), Fellow of the American Society of Marine Artists
The United States was a neutral nation in a world where European powers were locked in a death struggle. When it could no longer tolerate interference with its maritime commerce and the impressment of its sailors into the Royal Navy, it declared war against Great Britain in the “Second War of Independence” in 1812.
Lessons learned then are still relevant in today’s very uncertain world. In this era of fighting sail when ships were made of wood and men of iron, the narrator takes us into the action of the three principal theaters of the conflict: The war on blue water of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans; the war on the lakes along the northern border with British North America (Canada) and the war on brown water of American bays, sounds, estuaries and rivers from Maine to New Orleans.
By Geoffrey Hunt, Member of the American Society of Marine Artists and Member and Past President of the Royal Society of Marine Artists
By Patrick Lyons O’Brien, Signature Member of ASMA
In the words of the current Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus: “(In the future) whatever unknown seas this still young and expanding nation will have sailed, our maritime services will still recognize their voyage began, in earnest, in the War of 1812.”
All proceeds from sales of the books go to ASMA, the nation’s oldest and largest professional not-for-profit educational organization dedicated to marine art and history.