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

Stephen Taylor

ISBN 10: 057127711X / ISBN 13: 9780571277117

Published by Faber & Faber Non Fiction, 2012

About this Item

[ No Hassle 30 Day Returns ][ Ships Daily ] [ Underlining/Highlighting: NONE ] [ Writing: NONE ] [ Edition: Reprint ] Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Pub Date: 10/15/2012 Binding: Hardcover Pages: 368 Reprint edition.

Seller Inventory # 6733338

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Commander: The Life and Exploits of Britain's Greatest Frigate Captain
• Publisher: Faber & Faber Non Fiction
• Publication Date: 2012
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 057127711X
• ISBN 13: 9780571277117
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Good

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.