James Davey
James Davey is a lecturer on naval and maritime history at the University of Exeter in England and the 2020–21 Kemble Fellow in Maritime History at The Huntington. He is the author of In Nelson’s Wake: The Navy and the Napoleonic Wars (Yale University Press, 2015) and Tempest: The Royal Navy and the Age of Revolutions (Yale University Press, 2023).
Publications
In this insightful history, James Davey tells the story of Britain’s Royal Navy across the turbulent 1790s. As resistance and rebellion swept through the fleets, the navy itself became a political battleground. This was a conflict fought for principles as well as power. Sailors organized riots, strikes, petitions, and mutinies to achieve their goals. These shocking events dominated public discussion, prompting cynical—and sometimes brutal—responses from the government.
