From the inside cover:

"This book is, at the same time, the first biography of Captain Thomas Tingey, who was an important figure in the early development of the U.S. Navy, a history of the first quarter century of the Washington Navy Yard, and the story of the transition of the navy from the object of partisan discord to a vital defender of a growing and increasingly self-confident nation.

Tingey, who made significant contributions to the success of the American navy in the War of 1812, came to the New World after a short service in the Royal Navy. Upon arriving in Washington in 1800, one of his early tasks in the young federal city was to build a shipyard from scratch. The Washington Navy Yard was the result of his hard labor and organization, and it became the principal facility of the nation's navy; in it, the ships that would soon earn sterling reputations were prepared and supplied for war. Brown looks at the development of the navy through its construction and logistical components, in which the Washington yard and Tingey played a vital role. He also examines Tingey's contributions to the development of yard procedures and practices, his civic role in the budding city of Washington, and the tragic events of 1814, when he was forced to burn his own creation to save it from falling into British hands.

By recounting the role of Captain Thomas Tingey in the development of the nineteenth-century American navy, The Captain Who Burned His Ships provides a more complete portrait of those times than the biographies that have more narrowly focused on the exploits of the heroes of the Barbery campaigns and the War of 1812."

• Publisher : Naval Institute Press; Illustrated edition (September 15, 2011)
• Language : English
• Hardcover : 224 pages
• ISBN-10 : 1612510442
• ISBN-13 : 978-1612510446
• Item Weight : 1.15 pounds
• Dimensions : 6.2 x 0.9 x 9.1 inches