Give Me a Fast Ship

The Continental Navy and America's Revolution at Sea

By: Tim McGrath

Narrated by: Don Hagen

America in 1775 was on the verge of revolution - or, more likely, disastrous defeat. After the bloodshed at Lexington and Concord, England's King George sent hundreds of ships westward to bottle up American harbors and prey on American shipping. Colonists had no force to defend their coastline and waterways until John Adams of Massachusetts proposed a bold solution: The Continental Congress should raise a navy.

The idea was mad. The Royal Navy was the mightiest floating arsenal in history, with a seemingly endless supply of vessels. More than a hundred of these were massive "ships of the line," bristling with up to a hundred high-powered cannon that could level a city. The British were confident that His Majesty's warships would quickly bring the rebellious colonials to their knees.

They were wrong. Beginning with five converted merchantmen, America's sailors became formidable warriors, matching their wits, skills, and courage against the best of the British fleet. Victories off American shores gave the patriots hope - victories led by captains such as John Barry, the fiery Irish-born giant; fearless Nicholas Biddle, who stared down an armed mutineer; and James Nicholson, the underachiever who finally redeemed himself with an inspiring display of coolness and bravery. Meanwhile, along the British coastline, daring raids by handsome, cocksure John Paul Jones and the "Dunkirk Pirate," Gustavus Conyngham - who was captured and sentenced to hang but tunneled under his cell and escaped to fight again - sent fear throughout England. The adventures of these men and others on both sides of the struggle rival anything from Horatio Hornblower or Lucky Jack Aubrey.

Meticulously researched and masterfully told, Give Me a Fast Ship is a rousing, epic tale of war on the high seas - and the definitive history of the American Navy during the Revolutionary War.

©2014 Tim McGrath (P)2014 Gildan Media LLC

Critic reviews

" Give Me a Fast Ship is an exhaustively researched and fluently rendered account of the first incarnation of the American navy. In telling this fascinating and sprawling tale, Tim McGrath never loses sight of the human dimension of his subject...McGrath has mined archival sources that have been largely neglected in previous histories. The result is a thoroughly readable history of an integral aspect of the campaign for American independence." (Ian W. Toll, author of Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy)

Narrator Very Difficult To Hear

This is a very long, but most interesting story of the beginnings of the United States Navy. I was struck by how many times U.S. ships were captured by the British Navy and subsequently in some cases recaptured by either the rebels or the French. I often found great difficulty just simply keeping up with all of the many individuals who were either ship’s captains or other officers of prominence as they would appear for a time only to fade from the scene and then reappear some time later.

My greatest disappointment, however lies with the presentation of the story in such a subdued manner by the narrator. I often found myself losing interest in the details simply because the narrator read it in such a monotone. There are so many instances where a little more emotion by the narrator might have presented the story in a manner that could have made it more exciting and thus a better listen.

Good information, narrator made it a bit difficult to follow.

The author did a great job of presenting stories in a mostly unbiased way. This book could have been a lot more interesting with a different narrator. When there’s a switch between story lines, the narrator doesn’t really pause, making it hard to follow what’s going on. Still a great book if you’re interested in naval or revolutionary war history.

I learned so much

I went into this book having known nothing about the creation of the continental navy, and the read was easy enough that I followed the story quite well. the beginning was a little slow until the war started in ernest, but that's to be expected.

enjoyed the reader of this history!

Nothing to dislike about this book. It was an easy listen and told a great story. I will recommend this to anyone.

More informative than rousing, but…

…pretty darn good all-around, and those descriptions of sea battles that are provided resonate as excitingly as any novel. Best of all, this book demonstrates that our young Nations sea Captains were ever bit the Giants of their Land Bound counterparts. Courage, patriotism and genius aplenty…and oftentimes not a little roguishness. Don Hagen’s has a nice delivery and pleasing cadence…but I enjoyed it much more at 1.3 to 1.5 speed.than 1.0…which tended to be more lulling than I liked.

Fabulous book

You’ll not read more rousing tales of glory, suffering and dedication to a cause. Reads like novel.

Simple

Simple and full of stuff. One of the best early American Navy books I’ve read.