Author James L. Nelson
Author James L. Nelson giving his virtual presentation for the National Museum of the U.S. Navy, August 16, 2023.
Click on image to view the presentation.
Award-winning maritime author James L. Nelson examines the 18th century political machinations that were part of the beginnings of American might on the seas in his book titled, George Washington’s Secret Navy: How the American Revolution Went to Sea.
George Washington's education with regard to sea power began soon after he took command of the army in Cambridge. Convinced by the seafaring Yankees under his command of the viability of arming small vessels and sending them out to sea, Washington created his own fleet and purposely kept it secret from Congress.
About the Speaker: James L. Nelson is the author of more than twenty works of maritime fiction and history. His books cover the gamut from Vikings to piracy in Colonial America to the naval action of the American Revolution and the Civil War. His novel Glory in the Name was the winner or the American Library Association/William Young Boyd Award for Best Military Fiction and his nonfiction George Washington's Secret Navy won the Naval Order’s Samuel Eliot Morison Award for Naval History. He has lectured all over the country and appeared on the Discovery Channel, History Channel and BookTV. He currently lives in Harpswell, Maine, with his former shipmate from the Golden Hinde, now wife, Lisa and two of their four children.
