O'BRYEN, Christopher.

Naval evolutions: or, a system of sea-discipline; extracted from the celebrated treatise of P. L'Hoste, professor of mathematics, in the Royal Seminary of Toulon; confirmed by experience; illustrated by examples from the most remarkable sea-engagements between England and Holland; embellished with eighteen copper-plates; and adapted to the use of the British Navy. To which are added, an abstract of the theory of ship-building; an essay on naval discipline, by a late experienced sea-commander; a general idea of the armament of the French Navy; with some practical observations.

London, printed for W. Johnston, 1762. 4to (260 x 210 mm), pp. viii, 90, [2], with 18 folding plates; contemporary mottled calf, gilt; corners slightly worn; rebacked, preserving old spine. First edition. ‘The first book on tactics in the English language . . . . Translated extracts from Hoste’s book amounted to about a quarter of the younger O’Bryen’s work. The experience of the Seven Years War may have tended to discredit Hoste’s approach, or at any rate the kind of battle tactics derived from it, but there were, no doubt, British officers who regretted the absence of a tactical manual in English. The extracts from Hoste, covering part of the elementary sections at the start and most of the battle sections at the end, were probably those considered most useful for British officers . . . . The plates were redrawn from the originals and to the same scale. Hoste’s Théorie de la construction des vaisseaux was also abstracted by O’Bryen’ (Tunstall, Naval warfare in the age of sail pp. 123–4).The ‘Essay on naval discipline’ was probably written by the author’s father, also Christopher O’Bryen. He had been made post in 1713, commanding the 60-gun Rippon at Cape Passaro, before entering the Russian navy in 1739. The essay ‘is of considerable value to the historian because it discusses current thought and practice’. ‘If we assume that the selection of incidents over half a century old in the essay make it rather an anachronistic effort, it becomes difficult to account for its reappearance in 1767. On the contrary, it would seem that the 1762 book was well received, and that this was not entirely due to its wretched presentation of Hoste, with whom many British officers must by then have been familiar, especially after the second edition of 1727. Past events, even half a century old, were relevant to the study of tactics because the matériel of navies had changed so little’ (Tunstall pp. 124, 125).Adams & Waters 2150; NMM V 736; Sommervogel IV 480.

• GBP 2,750.00 > other currencies
• ordernr.: T2927

• bookseller: Bernard Quaritch Ltd. (GREAT BRITAIN)