This is one of a major series which describes the great maritime events of the prephotographic era from contemporary paintings, prints, drawings, charts and plans, based on the incomparable collections of the National Maritime Museum at Greenwich. The sixth and final title of the series is devoted to what Theodore Roosevelt described as the unnecessary war. It was also a war of surprises with the hitherto omnipotent Royal Navy suffering a series of humiliating losses at sea, while the American invasion of Canada was defeated by a makeshift force of colonial militia, native indians and a few regulars.