Sea Fighting Captain COCHRANE

Excellent condition Paperback edition first published 2002. Slight Sunning.
The extraordinary real-life adventures of the sea captain who inspired Patrick O'Brian's Jack Aubrey
The life of the daring seaman Thomas Cochrane, once called 'the sea wolf by Napoleon, is so extraordinary that it reads like a page-turning work of fiction. In one sense it became so, for the novelist Patrick O'Brian by his own admission took Cochrane's exploits as the basis for Jack Aubrey, the protagonist of his best-selling series of naval novels set in the Napoleonic War.

Cochrane became a household name when in 1800 he took command of a tiny brig, the Speedy, and created mayhem in the Mediterranean earning a fortune in prize money. His skill as a sailor and his mastery of gunnery, combined with sheer audaciousness, enabled him to win against vessels many times his size.

His life on land was as colourful as at sea. Like O'Brian's Aubrey he was framed in a Stock Exchange scandal. He escaped from prison and fled the country to become a mercenary admiral in the service of countries fighting for independence. Cochrane maintained a long-running feud with the Admiralty for much of his career, became a Radical MP and, at last, found enduring fame and respect amongst his own countrymen.

"To those who are drawn to the age and especially to aficionados of O'Brian's work, I would recommend Robert Harvey's Cochrane

'An entertaining and compulsive read.


'Wonderfully readable... it is Cochrane's exploits that gave birth to the fictional genre of Napoleonic sea-adventures.'