The Royal Navy to which Admiral Lord Nelson sacrificed his life depended on thousands of sailors & marines to man the great wind-powered wooden warships. Drawn from all over Britain & beyond often unwillingly these ordinary men made the navy invincible through skill courage & sheer determination. They cast a long shadow with millions of their descendants alive today & many of their everyday expressions such as skyscraper & loose cannon continuing to enrich our language. Yet their contribution is frequently overlooked while the officers became celebrities. JACK TAR gives these forgotten men a voice in an exciting enthralling often unexpected & always entertaining picture of what their life was really like during this age of sail. Through personal letters diaries & other manuscripts the emotions & experiences of these people are explored from the dread of press-gangs shipwreck & disease to the exhilaration of battle grog prize money & prostitutes. JACK TAR is an authoritative & gripping account that will be compulsive reading for anyone wanting to discover the vibrant & sometimes stark realities of this wooden world at war.