Charnock's Biographia Navalis

You can now download the PDF file from Google Book Search for John Charnock's book Biographia Navalis. This is the full reference: Charnock, John Biographia Navalis; or Impartial Memoirs of the Lives and Characters of Officers of the Navy of Great Britain from the Year 1660 to the Present Time (6 Vols.). Google is constantly adding material to what can be downloaded, so you need to keep checking. I thought it too bad that they have not added John Thurloe's State Papers, yet. The copy they have seen is under copyright, but the original is from the early 1700's. The James Ford Bell Library, at the University of Minnesota has a very nice copy. I must admit that lower cost electronic version can be purchased from TannerRitchie Publishing. The original copy that is currently available for sale is priced out of reach of most people, above $5,000.