• Ships of Oak, Guns of Iron

  • The War of 1812 and the Forging of the American Navy
  • By: Ronald Utt
  • Narrated by: Stephen W. Davis
  • Length: 20 hrs and 22 mins
  • 4.3 out of 5 stars (93 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
Ships of Oak, Guns of Iron  By  cover art

Ships of Oak, Guns of Iron

By: Ronald Utt
Narrated by: Stephen W. Davis
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $29.95

Buy for $29.95

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

The War of 1812 is typically noted for a handful of events: the burning of the White House, the rise of the Star Spangled Banner, and the battle of New Orleans. But in fact the greatest consequence of that distant conflict was the birth of the U.S. Navy. During the War of 1812, America's tiny fleet took on the mightiest naval power on earth, besting the British in a string of victories that stunned both nations.

In his new audiobook Ships of Oak and Guns of Iron: The War of 1812 and the Birth of the American Navy, author Dr. Ronald Utt not only sheds new light on the naval battles of the War of 1812 and how they gave birth to our nation's great navy, but tells the story of the War of 1812 through the portraits of famous American war heroes. From the cunning Stephen Decatur to the fierce David Porter, Ships of Oak and Guns of Iron relates how thousands of American men and boys gave better than they got against the British Navy. The great age of fighting sail is as rich in heroic drama as any epoch.

Dr. Utt's Ships of Oak and Guns of Iron retrieves the American chapter of that epoch from unjustified obscurity, and offers listeners an intriguing chronicle of the War of 1812 as well as a unique perspective on the birth of the U.S. Navy.

©2012 Ronald D. Utt (P)2014 Ronald D. Utt
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

More from the same

What listeners say about Ships of Oak, Guns of Iron

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    57
  • 4 Stars
    22
  • 3 Stars
    6
  • 2 Stars
    5
  • 1 Stars
    3
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    43
  • 4 Stars
    19
  • 3 Stars
    13
  • 2 Stars
    8
  • 1 Stars
    5
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    63
  • 4 Stars
    13
  • 3 Stars
    7
  • 2 Stars
    1
  • 1 Stars
    3

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Mediocre - do not recommend

What would have made Ships of Oak, Guns of Iron better?

book is mostly quotes from other books - lacks original research and ideas in my opinion

How did the narrator detract from the book?

Narrator cannot pronounce place and people names correctly - painful to listen to.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

dissapointing...

Any additional comments?

I have read numerous books on this period. There are a lot of better choices out there.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Ships of Oak

Should be MEN of iron. I would never had made it back then. lol

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Narrator needs pronunciation coach

What did you love best about Ships of Oak, Guns of Iron?

interesting story of the romantic age of sail; this is the stuff that 'Master and Commander' only emulates

How would you have changed the story to make it more enjoyable?

found a narrator who knows how to pronounce nautical terms

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Stephen W. Davis?

uncertain,

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

story of Steven Decatur and the capture of the Macedonian

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Ships of Oaks and guns of irons

Very interesting facts about the US Navy during the war of 1812. Nicely written!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Awful Narration, virtually unlistenable

The narrator makes so many pronunciation errors in nautical terms, individual's names and geographical locations as to make this virtually unlistenable. It is so terrible, and so distracting that I have almost turned it off numerous times. It is plainly obvious that the narrator, Stephen Davis, failed high school geography, likely never took American history and knows nothing about sailing and nautical terminology. I am wondering what the "editing" process is for audio books, and that no one ever required him to learn proper pronunciations? Nary a single nautical term is pronounced correctly and Chapter 19, the Battle of Lake Champlain, (pronounced "Champ lin" and not "Sham plain" throughout the book, really?) is so distracting as to make this seminal battle sequence unlistenable. Perhaps even more cringe-worthy is the mispronunciation of oft-quoted Alfred Thayer Mahan's name throughout the book, and perhaps most comically the pronunciation of Cartagena as "Cart-a-jeana." At one point I had to double-check that perhaps this wasn't a computer-generated narrator between the mispronunciations and the flat and inflectionless delivery. I will never listen to another book narrated by Davis, and his narration ruins an otherwise interesting and well written book. Read it yourself, Davis is unworthy of the author.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Good but could be better

This book covers the war of 1812 in great detail; however, it often repeats itself and is not well organized. The performance could be better.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Not what I expected

I have purchased almost 150 Audible books and this is the first one that I have ever returned.
It was not what I expected. My review is based on my disappointment on the content but you may enjoy the book if you are looking for more of a history of the ship yards?

I expected an overview of the technical aspects of WWII naval ship building with insights into some details of that construction.
What I got was a history lesson about the political competition among the ship yards over the building contracts.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great listen

Books on the Navy's role in the War of 1812 are rarely as good as this one!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Bad production

Badly produced with many repeats, stumbles and mispronunciations of words. Example… Carta-gina. History is detailed and scholarly, but bogs down under the weight of those details.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

exciting and informative!

highly informative and exciting i really enjoyed listening to this! the narrator wasn't on dull and pronounced the words good!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!