Commander: The Life and Exploits of Britain's Greatest Frigate Captain

Taylor, Stephen.

ISBN 10: 057127711X / ISBN 13: 9780571277117

Published by Faber & Faber Non Fiction, 2012

About this Item

Seller Inventory # U9780571277117

Bibliographic Details

Title: Commander: The Life and Exploits of ...

Publisher: Faber & Faber Non Fiction

Publication Date: 2012

Binding: Hardcover

Condition: Very Good

Dust Jacket Condition: 46846586

Signed: 5/18/2025 10:00:32 AM

Edition: 1747562432.

About this title

Synopsis:

Edward Pellew, captain of the legendary Indefatigable, was quite simply the greatest frigate captain in the age of sail. An incomparable seaman, ferociously combative yet chivalrous, a master of the quarterdeck and an athlete of the tops, he was as quick to welcome a gallant foe into his cabin as to dive to the rescue of a man overboard. He is the likely model for the heroic but all-too-human Jack Aubrey in Patrick O'Brian's novels.

Pellew was orphaned at eight, but fought his way from the very bottom of the Navy to fleet command and a viscountcy. Victories and eye-catching feats won him a public following. Yet as an outsider with a gift for antagonizing his better-born peers, he made powerful enemies. Redemption came with his last command, when he set off to do battle with the Barbary States and free thousands of European slaves. Contemporary opinion held this to be an impossible mission, and Pellew himself, in leading from the front in the style of his direct contemporary Nelson, did not expect to survive.

Pellew's humanity as much as his gallantry, fondness for subordinates and blind love for his family, and the warmth and intimacy of his letters, make him a hugely engaging and sympathetic figure. In Stephen Taylor's magnificent new life he at last has the biography he deserves.

About the Author:

Stephen Taylor grew up in South Africa, and now works for The Times. He is the author of several celebrated books on Africa, incuding The Mighty Nimrod and Livingstone's Tribe: A Journey from Zanzibar to the Cape. The Caliban Shore was called 'a wonderful book, hugely satisfying on many levels' by Paul Theroux and his most recent book, Storm and Conquest, was called 'a triumph . . . a ripping yarn founded on original research' in the Guardian.