The Royal Navy

the long version

This book is the first attempt to record the social history of the Royal Navy during its time of transformation, covering everything from recruitment and training to behaviour in battle, discipline, food and drink, pay and clothing. Starting with the imperial splendour of Queen Victoria's ships, with their labour-intensive crews, social divisions and harsh discipline, and concluding with the professional fighting force that saw service in what many regard as the last gasp of empire, in the Falklands in 1982, [it] describes how the Navy has reflected the social attitudes of the day in the character and behaviour of its people."--Book jacket.