5 President’s Foreword This year’s edition of the Trafalgar Chronicle, in every respect, fulfils The 1805 Club’s mission to ‘inspire greater understanding of the maritime world of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries…in recognizing the role of the sailing navies of the Georgian Period (1714–1837) and promoting their legacy into the modern seafaring age.’ The journal is impressive in the quality and variety of its content and illustrations, and in the expertise of its writers, editors, and publisher, Seaforth Publishing. For this year’s theme of Naval Intelligence in the Georgian Era, the editors invited ‘well-researched tales of intelligence gathering, espionage, secret plots, assumed identities, deception and denial, clandestine operations and intrigues’. Seven contributors did just that, much to the satisfaction of the editors and, I predict, the delight of our readers. Captain Steven E. Maffeo, USN (Ret) graciously provided the lead article, an excerpt from his book, Most Secret and Confidential: Intelligence in the Age of Nelson, defining intelligence gathering in the Age of Fighting Sail. As someone who had years in the naval service as both a consumer of intelligence and one who gathered and reported time-information, I can state that Captain Maffeo’s piece reminded me how little has changed in the methods and sources that produce intelligence; how little has changed except for the enabling technology that gathers and transports information and ‘finished’ intelligence at the speed of electrons. Additional articles provide examples of intelligence gathering methods, espionage, and how naval commanders relied on intelligence in carrying out their missions. Of particular interest is the monograph by Natacha Abriat: a biographical depiction of Chevalier d’Imbert, a French naval officer and royalist agent during the wars of French Revolution and the Napoleonic war who, at one point, worked for the Admiralty, establishing a network of spies in France:
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