Cochrane: The Life and Exploits of a Fighting Captain

Harvey, Robert

ISBN 10: 0786707690 / ISBN 13: 9780786707690

Published by Da Capo Press, 2000

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Bibliographic Details

• Title: Cochrane: The Life and Exploits of a Fighting Captain
• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Publication Date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0786707690
• ISBN 13: 9780786707690
• Binding: hardcover
• Condition: Very Good

About this title

Synopsis

This is an account of the life and adventures of the daring seaman Thomas Cochrane, who rose from midshipman to admiral and was called "the sea wolf" by Napoleon. His exploits were so compelling that the novelist Patrick O'Brian used them as the basis for the character Jack Aubrey, the main protagonist of naval novels set during the Napoleonic War. Thomas Cochrane was framed in a Stock Exchange scandal, sentenced to the pillory, escaped prison by means of a rope and fled the country to become a mercenary admiral fighting for independence. Off the coast of Chile, Peru, Brazil and Greece, always outnumbered and outgunned, he became a legend of daring and courage. On one occasion he chased the entire Portuguese fleet in a single ship.

Review

...this gripping account of an extraordinary life ... an entertaining and compulsive read... Cochrane's story is one worth telling and ... Robert Harvey does it justice. -- The Daily Telegraph, Sept. 23, 2000

Robert Harvey has produced a lively biography. The stories of [Cochrane's] staggering achievements in winning control of both the Pacific and the Atlantic coasts read like the most far-fetched triumphs of Jack Aubrey, or his forerunner, C S Forester's Hornblower. He was a great man but also a phenomenal egotist, who sacrificed his family and almost everyone else to his restless ambition. -- Literary Review, Oct. 2000

Robert Harvey is the latest biographer to be seduced by the comet-like figure of Thomas Cochrane, perhaps the most brilliant commander any navy has ever known...[and] has written a bright and breezy account of Cochrane's life. -- London Evening Standard, Oct. 2, 2000

Truth can be not only stranger but a lot less just than fiction... just wait until you read the true story of Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald. As Robert Harvey convincingly argues, it is Cochrane's exploits that gave birth to the fictional genre of Napoleonic sea adventures. -- The Independent, Oct. 10, 2000