In this book the author recounts the 28-year career of HMS Agamemnon, a 64-gun ship of the line which became one of the most famous vessels of the Royal Navy commanded between 1793 and 1796 by Nelson, who always referred to her as his favourite ship. For three decade the most crucial decades of British naval history, Agamemnon was at the centre of events, fighting at the Battle of the Saintes, the Battle of Copenhagen and, of course, Trafalgar. Later she served in the West Indies, participating in the Battle of Santa Domingo and then in South American waters until she was wrecked in Maldonado Bay off the coast of present-day Uruguay, in 1809. By extensive use of contemporary documents and officers’ logs, including a full Admiralty Sailing Qualities report for the ship and a transcript of the court-martial of her captain following her loss, the author tells the story of this famous ship in unparalleled detail providing all the information on all aspects of the operation of Britain’s ‘Wooden Walls’, accounts of the conditions of life at sea for officers and men during the Napoleonic Wars and detailed histories of the campaigns in which Agamemnon was involved.