Overview
From the bestselling author of Under the Black Flag comes the definitive biography of the swashbuckling nineteenth-century maritime hero upon whom Jack Aubrey and Horatio Hornblower are based.Nicknamed le loup des mers (“the sea wolf”) by Napoleon, Thomas Cochrane was one of the most daring and successful naval heroes of all time. In this fascinating account of Cochrane's life, historian David Cordingly unearths startling new details about the real-life “Master and Commander,” from his daring exploits against the French navy to his role in the liberation of Chile, Peru, and Brazil, and the shock exchange scandal that forced him out of England and almost ended his naval career. Drawing on previously unpublished papers, his own travels, wide reading, and the kind of original research that distinguished The Billy Ruffian, Cordingly tells the rip-roaring story of the archetypal romantic hero who conquered the seas and, in the process, defined his era.
Synopsis
From the bestselling author of Under the Black Flag comes the definitive biography of Thomas Cochrane, the swashbuckling nineteenth-century maritime hero upon whom Jack Aubrey and Horatio Hornblower are based.
The Washington Post - Ken Ringle
The stops and starts and shifting alliances of the Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815), including, in a larger sense, our own War of 1812 with Britain, tend to blur the memory of even passionate history buffs, and one of the strengths of Cordingly's narrative is how well he places the naval battles, which the British could never seem to lose, against those on land, where they could hardly seem to win. He also excels at describing the world of the age of sail (keeping nautical jargon to a merciful minimum) and the socio-political arcana of early-19th-century Britain, with its "rotten boroughs" and "pocket boroughs" and Dickensian brutality. But his signal achievement is in bringing to life both the conflicted genius of Cochrane and the remarkable cultural context in which he lived.
Editorials
Ken Ringle
The stops and starts and shifting alliances of the Napoleonic Wars (1799-1815), including, in a larger sense, our own War of 1812 with Britain, tend to blur the memory of even passionate history buffs, and one of the strengths of Cordingly's narrative is how well he places the naval battles, which the British could never seem to lose, against those on land, where they could hardly seem to win. He also excels at describing the world of the age of sail (keeping nautical jargon to a merciful minimum) and the socio-political arcana of early-19th-century Britain, with its "rotten boroughs" and "pocket boroughs" and Dickensian brutality. But his signal achievement is in bringing to life both the conflicted genius of Cochrane and the remarkable cultural context in which he lived.—The Washington Post
Publishers Weekly
Thomas Cochrane was one of the Royal Navy's greatest frigate captains and most controversial figures during the Napoleonic Wars. A counterpoint to Horatio Nelson and his "band of brothers," who were masters of fleet actions and blockade, Cochrane was a daring commerce raider whose prizes were so rich that he sailed into port with solid gold candlesticks lashed to his mastheads. He was a master as well of coastal raiding and cutting-out expeditions, culminating in the crippling of a French squadron at Basque Roads in 1809. Cordingly, an established historian of Nelson's navy, tells Cochrane's story with flair and sympathy-especially when recounting his professional destruction by a corrupt and inefficient naval establishment, which he challenged from his seat in Parliament with the same energy he turned against the French at sea. Cochrane's support of radical domestic causes further marked him, and in 1814 he was convicted in a Stock Exchange scandal whose details remain unclear. Surmounting disgrace and imprisonment, Cochrane in 1818 was offered command of revolutionary Chile's navy. He led it to victory against its Spanish enemy, then repeated the performance for another rebel state, Brazil. Less successful fighting for the Greeks against the Turks, he returned to Britain a national hero, had his case successfully reviewed and was restored to rank and honor. Small wonder that Cochrane's career was a major source of Patrick O'Brian's popular series, though Cochrane might have considered Jack Aubrey a bit of a bore. (Sept.)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business InformationLibrary Journal
Thomas Cochrane (1775-1860) was a British naval hero said to have inspired the creation of C.S. Forester's fictional Horatio Hornblower. But Cochrane was also very human, as he fought against a financial scandal and lost glory and honor. Drawing on previously unpublished papers, Cordingly (former head of exhibitions, National Maritime Museum, UK; Under the Black Flag) presents a balanced and readable history of Lord Cochrane that covers Cochrane's maneuvers against the French navy as well as his part in the liberation of Chile, Peru, and Brazil. Whereas another recent biography, Brian Vale's Cochrane: The Unhappy Hero, assessed Cochrane as guilty in an 1814 stock market fraud, Cordingly believes his subject was innocent. He may bring overdue recognition to Cochrane, his naval skills, and his role as inspiration for popular naval fiction. Recommended for public libraries, especially those with strong circulation of Patrick O'Brian's and Forester's books. Academic libraries with significant naval or British history collections should purchase both Vale and Cordingly.
—Bryan Craig