Mariners Library Fiction Classic – serie

The Year is 1813. Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater succeeds Lord Dungarth as head of the Royal Navy’s Secret Department. While the Grand Army of Napoleon faces defeat on the battlefields of Germany, the discovery of a secret treaty with America leads Drinkwater into the forbidding fjords of Norway, and one of the most desperate missions of his career.Increasingly isolated and affected by the long war with France and her allies, Drinkwater pursues his personal odyssey against often daunting odds. In a compelling narrative the author brings vividly to life conditions at sea during the Napoleonic wars. The fate of one of Napoleon’s most charismatic marshals is linked with American privateers, escaped prisoners and the Danish Navy resulting in a violent confrontation set beneath the aurora.

It is 1814 and Napoleon has abdicated as Emperor of the French. King Louis XVIII is brought out of his English exile and escorted back to France by an Allied squadron commanded by the Duke of Clarence. The `Great War’ is at en end and Europe prepares to celebrate the return of legitimate monarchy.But the victorious Allies are increasingly suspicious of one another. Alexander I, the capricious Tsar of Russia, believes he is the savior of the world, while Great Britain whose sea-power has guaranteed victory at sea and contributed to the military success of Russia, Austria and Prussia, remains at war with the United States of America. Out of the ashes of defeat, France’s greatest survivor, Talleyrand, prepares to restore his beaten country to the forefront of European politics. Amid this upheaval, discontented Bonapartists plot to restore the eagle whose shadow still lies across the continent.Attending King Louis, Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater is alarmed to receive secret intelligence that a new and imminent threat exists to peace.

It is 1843 and Captain Nathaniel Sir Drinkwater embarks on the paddle-steamer Vestal for an inspection of lighthouses on the west coast of England. Bowed with age and honors, the old sea officer has been drawn from retirement on half-pay to fulfill his public duty. The following day, tragedy strikes, and Drinkwater is confronted with his past life: his sins and follies, his triumphs and his disasters.Drawing on a true incident, Richard Woodman deftly concludes the career of his sea hero. Drinkwater’s complex character is revealed in its entirety. Far from being the reminiscences of an old man, the novel skillfully weaves the past with the present; the personal tensions below decks, the straining creak of a man-of-war under sail, the crack of a cannon shot and the plaintive mews of the trailing gulls are never far away. To the end, Nathaniel Drinkwater’s life is full of incident and the unexpected, so typical of the sea officers of his day.