The Terror of the Seas?

Reviews / Votes

"Murdoch ...has written an important contribution to Scottish history as well as to the history of the Atlantic world more generally by filling a gaping hole of the roughly two centuries between the death of King James IV at Flodden and the dispersal of his navy, and the merging of Scottish naval activity into what then truly became the British Royal Navy following the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. ...With the use of abundant archival and other primary sources, the author has pieced together a detailed, highly informative account of Scottish naval activities, and this reviewer found the appendixes to be equally as important as the text. Of great overall value to scholars of the Atlantic world, naval history, and Scottish history. Summing Up: Highly recommended."
D. M. Hall, Lake Erie College, Choice, 2011apr (48-4700)
"...Throughout this period Scottish ships cruised with letters of marque or reprisal. Murdoch is one of the few scholars who fully understands the difference between the two - variously issued in response to private grievances, private ambitions and public policy...Not the least of his services has been to print lists of Scottish warships, privateers, prizes and losses, which for the first time give a proper sense of the scale of Scottish martime effort...This excellent study is a model of how maritime and naval history ought to be written, from the sources of all the relevant countries, without any anachronistic assumptions of how naval warfare ought to be fought. It is important not only for Scottish history but for the maritime history of all Northern Europe, to which the Scottish contribution can no longer be neglected."
N.A.M. Rodger, International Journal of Maritime History Vol. XXIII, Number 1 (June 2011), p. 425