1. This period has inspired a stream of popular fiction dating from the publication of Mr Midshipman Easy in 1836 by Frederick Marryat (1792–1848). The Hornblower series by C.S. Forester gave the naval novel and short story a great boost. The form continues in the works of Dudley Pope, Alexander Kent and Patrick O’Brien. They remain popular, but unlike some other genres of modern literature they have not yet attracted scholarly critical appraisal. For perhaps the earliest example of the naval novel, in much more comic vein, see Davis, J., The Post Captain (1805; reprinted Sulhamstead, 1984).
2. Peter, M., Pitt and Popularity. The Patriot Minister and London Opinion during the Seven Years War (Oxford, 1980),
3. passim; White, C., Victoria’s Navy: The End of the Sailing Navy (Havant, 1981), pp. 57–92.
4. Hamilton, W. Mark, The Nation and the Navy. Methods and Organisation of British Naval Propaganda, 1889–1914 (New York, 1986), passim.
5. Duffy, M., ‘The Establishment of the Western Squadron as the Linchpin of British Naval Strategy’, in Duffy, M. (ed.), The Parameters of BritishNaval Power, 1650–1850 (Exeter, 1992), pp. 61–79;