Associate Professor Teresa Michals sku-800683887 Navy

Associate Professor Teresa Michals's hardcover Lame Captains and Left-Handed Admirals: Amputee Officers in Nelson's Navy, sku-800683887, is listed under World History Books and in Peculiar Bodies: Stories and Histories. During the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, the Royal Navy had more ambitious, talented officers than available command posts.

Yet at least twenty-six officers who had lost a limb reached commander or a higher rank through continued service. A battle injury could become a mark of honor that an officer and his friends used to seek further work at sea.

The book follows four officers who returned to sea and continued fighting and winning battles after losing an arm or leg: Lord Horatio Nelson, Sir Michael Seymour, Sir Watkin Owen Pell and Sir James Alexander Gordon. Nelson fought his most historically significant battles after losing his right arm and the sight in one eye.

Their careers show how physical impairment affected service in the Royal Navy.