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Quarterdeck
WINTER 2018
CELEBRATING HISTORICAL MARITIME & MILITARY LITERATURE
QuarterdeckA Q J
Quarterdeck is published quarterly byTall Ships Communications
6952 Cypress Bay DriveKalamazoo, MI 49009
269-372-4673
EDITOR & PUBLISHERGeorge D. Jepson
OPERATIONS DIRECTORAmy A. Jepson
Quarterdeck is distributed byMcBooks Press, Inc.
ID Booth Building520 North Meadow Street
Ithaca, NY 14850
PUBLISHERAlexander Skutt607-272-2114
ART DIRECTORPanda Musgrove
EDITORIAL DIRECTOR EMERITUSJackie Swift
ON THE COVER:Detail from Winter in the Yard, Boston,1844 depicting USS Constitution, an oilon canvas painting by American marine
artist Paul Garnett. See page 39.© Paul Garnett.
© Tall Ships Communications
McBOOKS press
T SC
ContentsWINTER 2018
2 | WINTER 2018
INTERVIEW
5 Dennis LyallGeorge Jepson interviews the American artist
and illustrator about his career.
SHORT STORY
9 “The Captain and the Courtesans” by Seth Hunter
ESSAY
13 “Letters for a Spy” by Seth Hunter
COLUMNS
4 By George!Wreck Below: The 74-Gun British Man-of-War Invincible
19 DispatchesSt. Kitts by Michael Aye
DEPARTMENTS
3 ScuttlebuttNews from nautical and historical fiction, naval and maritime
history, maritime museums and marine art
23 Reviews
27 Sea Fiction
31 Historical Fiction
34 Sea History
35 Audio Books
NEW BOOK RELEASES2018
US (United States)UK (United Kingdom)
TPB (Trade Paperback)PB (Paperback)HB (Hardback)
EB (Ebook)NF (Nonfiction)
JANUARY
Fools and Mortals (USHB)by Bernard Cornwell
Munich (USHB)by Robert Harris
Halfhyde Outward Bound (ebook)by Philip McCutcheon
FEBRUARY
Persephone (UKTPB / U.S. Release)by Julian Stockwin
The Halfhyde Line (ebook)by Philip McCutcheon
MARCH
Gibraltar (USHB)by Roy and Lesley Adkins
Halfhyde and the Chain Gangs (ebook)by Philip McCutcheon
APRIL
Halfhyde Goes to War (ebook)by Philip McCutcheon
MAY
An Onshore Storm (USHB)by Dewey Lambdin
The Passage to India (UKHB)by Allan Mallinson
Halfhyde on the Amazon (ebook)by Philip McCutcheon
JUNE
The Iberian Flame (UKHB)by Julian Stockwin
3 | WINTER 2018
SCUTTLEBUTT
ALLAN MALLINSONBritish novelist Allan Mallinson’s new Mat-thew Hervey adventure,
, will be published in the United Kingdomin May by Bantam Press. It is 1831, riots andrebellions are widespread. In England, thenew government is facing protests againstthe attempts of the Tory-dominated Houseof Lords to thwart the passing of the Re-form Bill. In India, relations are strained be-tween the presidency of Madras and someof the neighboring princely states.
JULIAN STOCKWIN
Julian Stockwin will celebratethe twentieth title in his
Thomas Kydd sea adventureswith the launch of
in June by Hodder &Stoughton in the United King-dom. This book sees Kyddcome up against an old foe fromhis past – now his superior andcommander – who is deter-mined to break him. The storyis set in the feverish times whenthe tinderbox of Spain burstsout into rebellion and the Pen-insular War begins.
DEWEY LAMBDINThe new Alan Lewie novel by Dewey Lamb-din, , is due out in Mayfrom St. Martin’s Press in the United States.Lewrie is looking for a new transport and anew crew, without the aid of an Admiraltyofficial with a deep government purse orwritten orders, or even access to dockyardsin England. No matter how gloomy theprospects are, though, Lewrie will persevereand not give his enemies satisfaction thathe's finally come a cropper.
4 | WINTER 2018
CONTINUED ON PAGE 36
O N 19 FEBRUARY
1758, the British74-gun man-of-warInvincible foun-
dered off Portsmouth Harbour inEngland and disappeared belowthe waves. Built in Rochefort, France andlaunched on 21 October 1744,the ship – originally calledL’Invincible – was one of the firstthree 74-gun vessels designed bythe French. She was captured bythe British fleet at the First Battleof Cape Finisterre on 3 May 1747. Vice Admiral George Anson wasimpressed with the choice prize. “She is aprodigious fine ship and vastly large, I thinkshe is larger than any ship in the fleet and isquite new,” he wrote in a dispatch to the Ad-miralty in London. The 74s became stalwarts in Europeannavies in the mid to late eighteenth century.On 21 August 1747, L’Invincible was com-missioned into the Royal Navy as Invincible,the first British ship to carry the name, butwithout the prefix “HMS,” which did notcome into use until about 1820. During hereleven years under the Union Jack, sheserved as flagship for three admirals, trans-ported troops, and saw duty in the West In-dies and at Nova Scotia. Moored at Portsmouth on 19 February1758, Invincible was part of a fleet set to sailto Nova Scotia as part of a mission to cap-
Wreck Below
ture the French fort at Louisbourg. After sev-eral unsuccessful attempts to get underway,she ran aground on Dean Sand, a three-mile-long shoal in the eastern Solent, the straitbetween the Isle of Wight and PortsmouthHarbour. Three days later, buffeted with heavy seasbreaking over the ship in gale force winds,the crew was taken ashore. The hull soonfilled with seawater and eventually foun-dered, sinking and coming to rest on the sea-bed, lost to history – until over two-hundredyears later. On a spring day in 1979, fisherman Ar-thur Mack snagged the wreck with his net,while trawling at night, and brought up twopieces of oak timber held together by severalwooden trenails (pegs). Encountering his
BY GEORGE!
Invincible rested on the seabed for over 200 years before her chancediscovery off Langstone Harbour, near Portsmouth, in 1979. This en-graving was published in 1751 and illustrates the ship with her sailsbacked.
Cour
tesy
John
Bro
omhe
ad.
THE 74-GUN BRITISH MAN-OF-WAR INVINCIBLE
5 | WINTER 2018
Dennis Lyall
INTERVIEW
A MERICAN ARTIST AND ILLUSTRATOR DENNIS LYALL wassmitten with drawing from an early age. Over a career span-ning more than four decades, he has applied his talent tocommercial illustration and portraiture, primarily working
with oil on canvas. Lyall’s work covers a variety of themes: historical (including mari-time and western scenes), military, and general interest. Commissionshave included portraits of the thirty-nine signers of the Constitution ofthe United States and postage stamps for the U.S. Postal Service. Hiswork is also held by private collections, as well as by the U.S. AirForce, the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Texas Historical Commission. Among his creations are the cover art for author James L. Nelson’sRevolution at Sea Saga and the McBooks Press edition of The FrenchAdmiral by Dewey Lambdin. In June, McBooks will publish a newtrade paperback edition of the first Alan Lewrie novel by Lambdin,The King’s Coat, with detail from a Lyall painting (see original imageabove) gracing the cover (see image at left).
BY GEORGE D. JEPSON
Detail from cover art by Dennis Lyall (inset) for the new trade paperback edition of The King’s Coat by Dewey Lambdin (below left),the first title in the Alan Lewrie naval adventures, which McBooks Press will launch in June.
© D
enni
s Lya
ll.
6 | WINTER 2018
In this interview with Quarterdeck, Lyall shares the sto-ry behind his distinguished career:
As a boy growing up in Iowa, what initially drew you toart?
Like, I suspect, most artists I didn’t focus on art. I justliked to draw and always seemed to be doing so.
When did sketching and painting become a seriouspursuit?
By the time I reached junior high school, I was gettingrecognition as “artistic” and was fortunate to have a great
teacher. He steered me to the high school I would at-tend, a vocational high school that allowed for con-centrated studies in certain areas like art. It was afabulous program.
What sorts of subjects were you interested in cre-ating?
You name it.
Were you inspired by particular artists during yourearly years?
Norman Rockwell, N.C. Wyeth, and almost any of
INTERVIEW
This panorama by Dennis Lyall was turned into three covers (below) for James L. Nelson’s Revolution at Sea Saga.
© D
enni
s Lya
ll.
7 | WINTER 2018
ter. I began my professional career in Houston . . . withthe Gulf nearby, whole new concepts of expression wereopened.
Who are some of the authors in nautical fiction forwhich you've created cover art?
James Nelson, Dewey Lambdin. Some of the book cov-ers would have been for other authors, but no namescome to mind.
How do you approach cover art projects? Do youread entire books or select passages to determinewhat sort of image you'll paint?
the relative unknowns whose work graced the covers ofpulps.
Do you favor working in one medium over another?
Oil on canvas.
Over the years, your work has covered thegamut, including historical, western and military sub-jects, as well as portraits and sketches. What wasyour first attempt at marine art?
I don’t honestly remember. Growing up in Iowa andNebraska, one didn’t have much exposure to open wa-
INTERVIEW
This panorama by Dennis Lyall was turned into two covers (below) for James L. Nelson’s Revolution at Sea Saga.
© D
enni
s Lya
ll.
Of course it’s best to know the material by reading thebook. Frequently the publishers are pushed with uglydeadlines, so the editor(s) will suggest what scene [and]action they want shown . . . and that’s how it usuallyworks out. And, if the artist has a modest record ofachievement, they’ll just say “Make it Good, we need itby . . .”
How do you research the history you depict, such asship types, armament, uniforms, etc., for authentici-ty?
Even before you could Google everything, there was agreat deal of reference material out there. I’ve had apretty good library for my career . . . and I have almost50,000 photos of my own. Agreat friend and fellow illus-trator had a fine collectionof uniforms and referencetoo. Many clients like theUS Postal Service wouldsupply their own material. Itwas in their best interest todo so.
What is your greatest chal-lenge in creating an instantin time?
I’m not sure how to answer that. Like the Greats whopreceded me (and whose shoulders I’m looking over), Ijust try to make a good picture and pray the rest of ittakes care of itself.
Your depiction of the sea’s various moods is excep-tional. How do you create these conditions so realis-tically?
Like the previous question, I study what the really finemarine painters are doing. Montague Dawson, CarlEvers, Anton Otto Fischer, or modern masters likeChristopher Blossom and Donald Demers. They seemto have figured it out. The problem with water, ofcourse, is that it’s fluid . . . generally speaking,the less you show, the better the result.
INTERVIEW
8 | WINTER 2018
Do you work on more than one project at a time?
I’m usually failing to get it right on at least two projectsat any given time.
Please describe where do you paint.
We live within commuting distance of NYC, in a stan-dard ranch style home. I work in what used to be one ofthe bedrooms. I’ve had very nice studios outside thehome, but have found that most of my ideas are beingdeveloped in that thing sticking up from my shoulders.I no longer need lots of room and equipment: big draw-ing board, easel, some storage, and a spot for the (godforbid) computer. If I need a model, we’ll work in the
living room or on the deck.
Do you read for pleasure?
Yes, I love to read.
What books are currentlyin your reading stack?
Allow me to try bringingorder to the book pile: I justfinished Lincoln and HisGenerals by T. Terry Wil-liams. There are also a book
on solar eclipses, a biography of Johannes Vermeer bi-ography, and books by Bill Bryson, Sarah Dunant, DanSimmons. I’m also re-reading all my Ross Macdonaldsin sequence.
If you could sit down over dinner with three histori-cal figures, whom would you invite?
Two are easy. Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain. Ican’t decide on the third: Spencer Tracy, WinstonChurchill or Dorothy Parker.
Visit Dennis Lyall online atwww.lyallart.com.
C aptain’s log. His Britannic Majesty’s frigate Unicorn,Captain Nathan Peake, off Leghorn, the 27th day ofJune, 1796: “Sirs, I have the honour to inform you thatin accordance with the instructions given me by His Maj-
esty’s consul at Leghorn I took aboard this day twelve . . .” “And where in God’s name am I going to put them, that is what Iwould like to know?” The shrewish tones of the purser interrupted the facetious reportNathan had been composing in his head as he observed the overladenlaunch emerge from the ruck of small boats in the harbour and closeon the waiting frigate. “And if I am to draw upon the stores,” the purser persisted, “howam I to enter them in the ledger?” Nathan viewed the approaching boatload with a jaded eye beforeshifting his attention to the excessive portion of his crew that had
A NATHAN PEAKE STORY
9 | WINTER 2018
BY SETH HUNTER
This short story by Seth Hunter is followed by a related essay entitled“Letters for a Spy,” which is based on the history of the same period.
The Captain and the Courtesans
Paul Garnett
gathered along the larboard waist to welcome it andrender whatever assistance might be required. Thepurser’s remarks had been directed at the first lieuten-ant, though doubtless intended for his captain’s ears,and it was his captain who answered him: “You may enter them as supercargo,” Nathan de-clared with as lofty an air as he could contrive. “Andyou may stow them in my cabin until more appropriateaccommodation can be arranged for them. On the or-lop deck, perhaps.” Well below the waterline. Out of sight, out of mind. “But they are whores,” Mr Prothero hissed in the lowbut scandalised tone of a Welshman provoked beyondhis normal reserve. “The correct term is courtesans,” Nathan informedhim, though the distinction had only recently been ex-plained to him by Mr Udny, the British consul at Leg-horn, who apparently combined his official duties onbehalf of His Majesty’s government with those of Pro-curer for the officers of the Mediterranean Fleet. “Andnow with your permission, Mr Prothero, we will returnto more urgent matters.” He clapped the telescope to his eye and resumed hisstudy of the distant pall of smoke that marked the ad-vance of the French Army upon the one secure base leftto the British fleet on the whole of mainland Italy. Butdespite the rigidity of his stance and the gravity of themilitary situation, his mind remained very much occu-pied with the subject that Mr Prothero had so indeli-cately raised. Where in God’s name were they going to put them? The fact that they came aboard at all was seriouslyvexing to Nathan, who felt that he had been much im-posed upon. As the youngest captain in the squadron,he found it difficult to say no to a man of Udny’s ageand authority, especially when it was pointed out to himthat several of the young ladies were under the protec-tion of officers many years senior to him in the Cap-tain’s List. So now Nathan had the distinction of beingtheir sole Protector on the journey to Corsica where
10 | WINTER 2018
they would be removed from the temptation of fallinginto the hands of the French. Privately, he was surprisedthe women had agreed to such an arrangement. Whileit might be considered unpatriotic to confess it publicly,he would have thought there was little to choose be-tween a French captain of hussars and a post captain inthe British Navy. If you were a whore, that is. Or even acourtesan. In fact, the odds probably favoured theformer. And no need to get your feet wet. He kept a covert eye on them as they were led below.They were undoubtedly possessed of considerablecharms, but he was already regretting his hasty instruc-tion to the purser to have them quartered, even tempo-rarily, in his own cabin. He hoped that it would not belong before it was restored to him and that the rumourwould not spread about the Fleet that he had turned itinto a bordello and set himself up as the Madam. “Very well, Mr Harris,” he instructed the sailing mas-ter who has been impatiently waiting upon his com-mand for the past five minutes or so, “you may setcourse for San Fiorenza.” He reflected that unless the wind picked up, it wouldbe at least a day and a night before they sighted thecoast of Corsica, which made it all the more disturbingwhen the purser reported that his unwanted guests hadspurned his offer of accommodation in the orlop deckand were intent on remaining where they were for theduration of the voyage. “But have you not explained that it is the captain’squarters,” Nathan demanded indignantly, “and that. . .” He sought for a convincing reason to maintainthese for his exclusive use. “And that the safety of theship depends upon my having instant access to it at alltimes?” “I did my best, sir,” the purser replied, “but there isonly one of them that speaks more than a smattering ofEnglish and what she does speak, she speaks with a cer-tain authority, if you take my meaning, sir.” And to Nathan’s astonishment, he laid a fingeragainst his right eye and pulled down the lid, pushing
A NATHAN PEAKE STORY
11 | WINTER 2018
his bottom lip forward in a manner that suggested petu-lant authority. Just as he was about to damn his inso-lence, Nathan realised the significance of the gesture. Itwas widely known that Commodore Nelson had lostthe sight of his right eye at the siege of Calvi. TheirEnglish-speaking passenger must be the woman knownthroughout the Fleet as “Nelson’s dolly” – Signora Ad-elaide Correglia – who had for a time been somethingof a fixture aboard Nelson’s flagship, the Agamemnon.In fact, Nathan had met her once before, when she hadpresided at the Commodore’s table. He had been inawe of her then, and he was in awe of her now. He considered the problem at his leisure. He could,of course, order the Marines to clear the cabin for him,but this was fraught with complications. Injuries mightoccur, and even if they did not, the damage to his repu-tation would be considerable. It was the kind of storythat could spread. Captain Peake’s heroic action in theSea of Liguria – against a dozen unarmed courtesans. Nathan’s youth made him overly conscious of hisdignity, and such an incident could make him a laugh-ing stock throughout the Fleet. Already he was awarethat the crew awaited his next move with interest. Ofcourse, it would be easy enough to commandeer one ofthe officer’s cabins for the remainder of the voyage, buthe felt this would not add to his reputation as a fightingcaptain. He had yet to win the ship’s approval for hisskills as a seaman, or a disciplinarian – too easy on thelash, was the general opinion – but he did have somesmall reputation as a strategist. Surely he could devise astrategy for this particular occasion. It had still evaded him by six bells in the afternoonwatch, the time when he usually had dinner – in hiscabin. He was saved from going hungry, or the embar-rassment of eating on the quarterdeck, by an invitationfrom the first lieutenant to dine with the rest of the of-ficers in the gunroom. He accepted with alacrity, but the atmosphere wouldhave been more cheerful, he felt, without his presence.No one felt at liberty to raise the subject uppermost in
their minds, and an uncomfortable silence fell upon thecompany, which was broken, with an air of desperation, by the first lieutenant. “I am told you are the best rat-catcher aboard theship, Mr Lamb,” he said to the youngest of the mid-shipmen – who had been invited to dine with his bet-ters in the hope of improving his table manners – “andthat you keep them in a cage, like the witch in Hanseland Gretel, to fatten up with weevils for a time of fam-ine.” Lamb blushed scarlet and mumbled an incomprehen-sible reply. “When I was a midshipman aboard the old Hermes Iused to serve them spatch-cocked with a bread sauce,”remarked Nathan with a view to rescuing the conversa-tion. “Split down the middle and spread open,” he ex-plained kindly to the midshipman. “It was condemnedas effete by my critics but held by the majority to besuperior to other forms of preparation.” This did not go down as well as he might havewished but it led to a discussion on other more mascu-line ways of cooking and eating ship’s rat – a speciesheld to be especially nutritious from its practice of din-ing upon ship’s biscuit and the various weevils thatdwelt therein. But Nathan took no further part in the discussion.He was recalling a similar conversation on the last occa-sion he had encountered Signora Correglia when he hadbeen invited to dine, with the other captains of thesquadron, at the Commodore’s table. Prompted by ner-vousness and several glasses of wine, he had told his sto-ry of the spatch-cocked rat to the assembled company,and it had been received with almost universal acclaim,the exception being Signora Correglia, who was there inher capacity as hostess. Nathan had noted the look of lively interest on herlovely features and had come to two conclusions. Onethat she was not as ignorant of the English language asit appeared, and two that she had a feminine aversion torats.
A NATHAN PEAKE STORY
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The recollection of this gave him the germ of an idea.As soon as dinner was concluded he summoned MrLamb to the quarterdeck and asked him how many ratshe had presently acquired. “Well, five, sir,” the midshipman replied uneasily,“which we was intending . . .” But Nathan had no interest in the midshipmen’s in-tentions. “How much would you take for them?” heenquired. “Take for them, sir?” “In coin?’ The midshipman looked stunned. “From you, sir?” “Would five shillings suffice?” “Each, sir?” Mr Lamb was clearly not as innocent as he looked. “For all five, Mr Lamb,” replied Nathan severely. A minute or so later, the midshipman reappeared up-on the quarterdeck and raised the cage to head heightfor his captain’s inspection. Five plump rats glared fu-riously from within the bars. “Now when I give the word,” Nathan instructedhim, “I want you to lower yourself over the lee rail anddrop them through the gunport of my cabin – takingcare that you are not observed in the process, do youunderstand?” The midshipman stared at him for a moment in as-tonishment. Then his plump features creased into aknowing grin. “Oh yes, sir,” he replied. Nathan summoned the lieutenant of Marines andinformed him that the moment the young ladiesemerged and fled screaming to the upper deck he was topost two sentries at the door of the cabin, with fixedbayonets and resist any attempt at a re-entry. Then hegave the signal to the waiting midshipman. Mr Lamb vanished over the rail. A moment later hereappeared with the empty cage. A cheer arose from thewaist. The entire ship’s company, it seemed, had beenalerted to the stratagem. A breathless pause followed asevery man aboard awaited the crescendo of screams andthe stampede of scantily-clad females to the upper deck.
There were screams, certainly. Then a series of loudcrashes and bangs and strange squealing noises. But notthe expected stampede. Time passed. The Marines werestood down. The Unicorn rode easily on the gentleswell. The sun slipped steadily towards the horizon. At the end of the second dog watch, Nathan wasonce more approached by the purser. “Signora Correglia’s compliments,” he began, “andshe requests the pleasure of the captain’s company at hisearliest convenience.” Stemming an angry retort, Nathan descended to hiscabin where he found the Signora composed among herassociates in the manner of a queen among her ladies inwaiting. He bowed warily. The Signora had beenbrought up in the back streets of Genoa, he had beentold, and for all the elegance since acquired, retained therobust and expressive nature of a Wapping fishwife. “Ah Captain,” she greeted him in her heavily-accent-ed English, “we have prepare the little dish for you tomake thanks that you give to us your little room.” She stepped aside, and Nathan saw the object sim-mering in the small silver chafing dish in which hissteward normally prepared his nightly supper of toastedcheese. “I think is your favorite,” the harlot crooned as hercompanions collapsed in hysterical laughter around her.“Spatch-a-Cock the Rat – with the bread sauce. Youtake it away with you please, and you are a good boy,we make you another tomorrow.”
A NATHAN PEAKE STORY
Seth Hunter, who is based inthe United Kingdom, is theauthor of the popular NathanPeake novels and is a fre-quent contributor to Quar-terdeck. Visit him online at:www.nathanpeake.com.
rick O'Brian, but their real-life equivalentsare littered through the archives of the
period: the diaries and journals, theletters between consuls and cap-tains, the dispatches of fleet com-manders to their political mastersback home, and even in lists ofpayments and claims for ex-penses. I find it ironic that in theirown lifetimes these people tooksuch great pains to cover theirtracks, but left such an intrigu-
ing paper-trail of evidence forfuture historians and novelists to
follow. But in most cases, the onlyway for their masters to send them
an instruction was by letter, and theonly way for them to convey information
was to write back. These letters were usuallysealed, wrapped in oilskin, and entrusted tosomeone whose business was secrecy and
subterfuge like a smuggler. Remember the “Smuggler’s Song” by Kipling:
Five and twenty ponies, trotting through the darkWith brandy for the Parson and baccy for the Clerk,
Laces for a Lady and letters for a Spy,So watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by.
Okay, often they wrote in code, or the letters weredestroyed as soon as they were read, but enough ofthem have survived, even if they were claims for expens-es, to provide a rich source of information for anyonewho cares to trawl through the archives of the period.
“The Captainand the Cour-tesans” is awork of
fiction, but I doubt I could haveinvented someone as unlikelyand as intriguing as AdelaideCorreglia. Adelaide was the companionof Admiral Horatio Nelson fortwo eventful years before hisrather more public liaison withEmma Hamilton, and althoughthe Victorians did their best toairbrush her out of history, sheplayed a small but vital role in thewar against Napoleon Bonaparte andthe navies of Revolutionary France. For as well as being Nelson’s mistress,she was also his spy. Adelaide’s story tells us a lot not onlyabout Nelson and his navy but also aboutthe nature of nautical fiction. For like the navies them-selves in the days of sail – before GPS, radar, and radio– the people who write about them wouldn’t get veryfar without a good spy. Even with a readership hooked on the finer points ofsailing, you would have a job maintaining that interestover one complete novel, let alone a whole series, with-out a strong narrative. In other words, you need a de-cent plot, which very often involves an element ofconspiracy and as often as not a spy. Or to use a termmore acceptable in polite company: a secret agent. Most of them are invented, like Stephen Maturin andhis adversaries Ledward and Wray in the novels of Pat-
Letters for a SpyESSAY
BY SETH HUNTER
Admiral Horatio NelsonPD - ART
13 | WINTER 2018
Archives may seem dull to some, but for a writerthey are like rock pools left by the receding tide. Turnover a stone – or a page – and out they come, the al-most forgotten creatures of history, waving their clawsthrough the stirrings of silt and sand (though AdelaideCorreglia was more like one of those darting silver fish,a brief flash of light before she vanished back into theshadows whence she came). In The Price of Glory, I described heras “petite and dark-haired with the fig-ure of a pocket Venus and deep, darkeyes.” This is pure fiction. We’ve noidea what she looked like, or even howold she was. She is often described inthe letters as “little Adelaide,” hence myliberties with her stature, and she proba-bly came from Liguria, hence the darkhair and the deep dark eyes. I know.I’m sorry. But we do know she was real,and that Nelson thought very highly ofher. “Nelson’s dolly,” she is called byhis friend Captain Fremantle, who kepta very interesting – and indiscrete – dia-ry. “He makes himself ridiculous withher,” he wrote, though this could wellbe a case of sour grapes, for we know from a later entrythat Fremantle dabbled in the same waters. We also know that she was an opera singer, if notquite a diva, introduced to Nelson by Mr. John Udny,British Consul at the Tuscan port of Livorno in theyears between 1776 and 1798, when it was a major cen-tre of British commerce in the Mediterranean and animportant base for the ships of the Royal Navy. Mr. Udny, who was later knighted for his services,had the job of keeping the fleet supplied with every-thing it needed to fight the French. And as well as gun-powder, salt beef, and rum, this included women. Atleast for the officers. They were known as courtesans, apolite term for high-class prostitutes, and there is nodoubt that Nelson paid for Adelaide’s services one way
or another. We know from his letters to Udny that heprovided the rent for her house in Livorno, or Leghornas the British called it. For many months she sailedwith him on the flagship Agamemnon as his mistress,though so far as I know, this was never recognised as anofficial rank in His Britannic Majesty’s Navy. It is wonderful to think of her exercising her vocalcords in Nelson’s cabin while he paced the quarterdeck
off the coast of Liguria and wonderedwhat the French were up to beyond thatdistant line of mountains. Whatever her duties aboard ship, Ad-elaide was much more useful to Nelsonon land, particularly in Northern Italywhere the French army was makingsweeping advances under its brilliantyoung commander, NapoleonBonaparte. While his ships patrolled the Liguri-an coast, Nelson would frequently ar-range for the Signora to be dropped offat the neutral port of Genoa, ostensiblyto visit her mother, but with the secretmission of contacting British and alliedagents and bringing back their reports
and conjectures on the movements of the French armyand even Napoleon’s future intentions. I have to be honest here and say that most of what Iknow about Adelaide and her clandestine activitiescomes from John Sugden’s excellent biography of Nel-son, A Dream of Glory, published by Jonathan Cape in2004. Sugden does some serious detective work on LaCorreglia, tracking her across the Mediterranean aboardthe Agamemnon, finding her in letters between Nelsonand Udny and, even more crucially, in Nelson’s dis-patches to his commander, Admiral Jervis in Gibraltar,and even once in a request for supplies from the ship’spurser which lists, along with the usual itemslike cabbages, onions and lemons, six pairs of wom-en’s silk stockings.
ESSAY
14 | WINTER 2018
She vanishes from the records shortly after that evac-uation from Livorno, which features in my short story,and the Victorians did their best to bury her at sea.They could not hide Nelson’s affair with Lady Hamil-ton – it was far too public – but at least could pretend itwas a one-off, or blame it on Emma (a minor flaw inthe character of an otherwise irreproachable husbandand hero). If Nelson was widely known to have had atleast one other affair before that – andwith a sexy Italian opera singer andcourtesan – people might take him for aserial adulterer and philanderer, andthat would never do. So while Adelaide’s role as “Nelson’sdolly” passed to Emma Hamilton, thatof chief informant passed to an equallyintriguing, if less glamorous individualby the name of Spiridion Foresti, a mer-chant and ship owner from the Greekisland of Zakynthos. He served as Brit-ish Consul in Corfu at a time when itwas at the crossroads of the Levanttrade, covering most of the EasternMediterranean between Greece andEgypt. When Napoleon’s victories on land forced the RoyalNavy to pull back to Gibraltar, they relied on Spiridionto keep them apprised of French activities in the Levant.He reported directly to Nelson or his commander-in-chief, Admiral Jervis, often sending his correspondenceto be forwarded by the British envoy in Naples, whohappened to be Sir William Hamilton, husband of theaforementioned Emma. Fortunately, many of these reports have survived toleave a detailed record of his services. Nelson describedhim in a dispatch to the Admiralty as the “second bestagent I have ever encountered.” You might wonder whowas the first – Adelaide? Emma? But Nelson loved spies– literally in some cases – and he would have been lostwithout their guidance. In fact, he was lost on many
occasions, notably before the Battle of the Nile, whenhe was desperately hunting the French fleet that hadslipped past his blockade of Toulon and was heading forEgypt. In 1797, when Venice fell to the French, Foresticame under suspicion as a British agent and was heldunder house arrest. But this didn’t stop him spying onthem, or continuing to send his reports to the British,
who were desperate for informationabout what was happening in Veniceand points east. They were particularlyalarmed that the Venetian fleet, whichincluded thirteen ships of the line,would fall into French hands and tipthe whole balance of power in the Med. I relied heavily on Foresti’s real-lifeactivities for the plot of The Winds ofFolly (Book four in the Nathan Peakeseries) when Nathan is dispatched toVenice to report on the condition ofthese ships and prevent them from fall-ing into French hands or, if they did,from ever putting to sea. But the spy I relied on most, even ifno-one else could, was an American ad-
venturer called Gilbert Imlay. It was Imlay who startedme on the series. I nearly called book one The AmericanAgent and made him the hero along the lines of RhettButler, the blockade runner and lover of ScarlettO’Hara in Gone with the Wind. But the more I foundout about him, the less I liked him. He was far too slip-pery a character even for me. But he makes a wonderfulVillain. His first entry in the historical records describes himas a rum smuggler in the Caribbean, but at the start ofthe Independence War he came home to fight for therebels and served as a first lieutenant in the New JerseyRegiment of the Continental Line. But not for long.Within a year he was no longer on the pay roll. And he vanished for the rest of the war. Some say
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he became a spy for the British, others that he was adouble agent, one of an elite band of spies known as“Washington’s Boys,” who pretended to work for theBritish while reporting directly to the General. Whatever the truth – and no-one really knows – afterthe war he turned up in Kentucky and became involvedin land speculation on the banks of the Ohio River,which was then the border between the states and theIndian territory to the west. The venture was not asuccess. Imlay was forced to flee across theborder into Spanish territory with a packof creditors at his heels. He spent the next couple of yearsin Louisiana, then part of NewSpain, and I have seen letters in theNational Archives in Havana whichsuggest he was employed as a Span-ish agent. He is named as AgentNumber 7, spying on his fellowAmericans in the territory. Again, it is quite possible he wasworking as a double agent and con-tinued reporting to General and laterPresident Washington. You can never besure with Imlay. But in 1792 he turned upin London to have a book published by De-brett. It was called A Topographical Descrip-tion of the Western Territory of NorthAmerica and was apparently designed to promote emi-gration to the region. A year later he published anotherone – a novel this time – called The Emigrants, whichwas a bit more racy and involved a brutal rape. Whetheror not this encouraged emigration is a mute point, butit made Imlay something of a literary celebrity. The following year he was in Paris, which was then inthe throes of what is known as The Terror, where hejoined a circle of English and American expatriates,writers and idealists who had been attracted to Franceby the Revolution of 1789. One of them was MaryWollstonecraft, the pioneer English feminist who had
written A Vindication of the Rights of Women, and with-in a few months, they were man and wife. Sort of. Thewedding ceremony was conducted by the American am-bassador Gouverneur Morris and was of doubtful legali-ty. But Mary now called herself Mrs. Imlay and wasofficially an American citizen, which was useful as Eng-land and France were now at war. The war brought new opportunities to Imlay. He set
himself up as a shipping agent, running much-need-ed supplies past the British blockade, includ-
ing soap (much in demand by thewomen of Paris) and saltpeter, a vital
ingredient in the manufacture ofgunpowder. But as usual, he had other inter-ests. As an American, he had theright to pass freely between Britainand France and he seems to havespent as much time in London asin Paris or Le Havre, though how
he managed this at a time of war, wedon’t know.
Doubtless, he used the same methodas the smugglers who continued to cross
the Channel with contraband in their dark-ened luggers and cutters, dodging the shipsof the Royal Navy and the dragoons whoawaited them on shore. What little we do
know of his movements comes from a fascinating col-lection of letters – The Love Letters of Mary Wollstone-craft – written to him when he was away “on business,”appealing, with increasing anguish,for him to come home. In 1794 Mary gave birth to their child, who shecalled Fanny. But despite her entreaties Inlay continuedto go his own way, which rarely led to Mary and thebaby girl waiting for him in Le Havre. Finally, shecrossed the Channel herself, babe in arms and foundhim in London, living with an actress in CharlotteStreet.
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Mary Wollstonecraftby John Opie (1797)
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During the recriminations that followed, Mary twicetried to take her own life, once spectacularly, when shejumped off Putney Bridge into the Thames only to besaved by two men who had been practicing the new artof resuscitation in a room above a riverside pub.Finally, Imlay packed her off to Norway to find a silverdinner service that had once belonged to the Frenchroyal family and which he had purchased in an auction.Or so he said. As with most of Imlay’sactivities, you couldn’t make it up. He was almost certainly working as asecret agent for the French. I have readsome of his reports, which are kept inthe French National Archives in Paris,including his plans to seize Louisianafrom the Spanish. But he may have hadother employers, including the British. In The Time of Terror I had himinvolved in one of the biggest and mosteffective clandestine operations of thewar, helping to smuggle millions ofdollars worth of counterfeit Frenchbanknotes, known as assignats, acrossthe Channel and up the River Seine toParis, where they were used toundermine the Revolutionary currency and wreck theFrench economy. Imlay plays a part in the next two books in the series– The Tide of War, when he tries to thwart Nathan’smission to the Caribbean and New Orleans, and in ThePrice of Glory, when he becomes involved in nothingless than the quest for the Holy Grail, the chalicesupposedly used by Christ at the Last Supper. This isbased on another true story, which I found in anobscure history of the Bank of Genoa, rumored to havethe Grail stored in its vaults. Though you can make everything up, and manywriters do, there’s nothing quite like finding the truthand using it for your own purposes. I’ll be sitting insome corner of the Caird Library and Archive, on the
first floor of the National Maritime Museum inGreenwich, and I'll find some letter written by one ofmy characters, or even just referring to him or her inpassing. It might just be a shopping list or a request forcompensation for losses incurred in the British interest– as in Foresti's case – but I am ridiculously excited. Isit up and look around to see if anyone else has realizedthe significance of what I have just found. I want to
dash up to people and wave it in theirfaces and say, “Look at this! Isn’t itamazing!” They’d think I was completely mad. However, for some weeks while I wasresearching The Tide of War, I shared atable at the Caird with three ancientmariners. They were retired pettyofficers in the Royal Navy. I askedthem once if they’d been in the Navyduring World War Two – they werejust about old enough – and they said,“No, we were in the Victorian Navy.”It could have been true. They mighthave been ghosts condemned to foreverhaunt the archives of the navies of thepast. In fact, they were volunteers who
came here every Thursday afternoon to put the hand-written letters of Samuel Pepys on computer. These were the official letters that Pepys had writtenand received as a Clerk at the Navy Board, nothing likethe salacious entries in his diary. They invariablyconcerned the fitting out of His Majesty’s ships.Frankly, a bit dull. And when one of the librariansbrought me an old letter or a memo from the archives,or even better a map or a chart, they would gatherround me to see if it was any more exciting. I remember being brought a map of the Gulf ofMexico and the coast of Florida in the 1770s. I neededit for the plot of The Tide of War, when Nathan is sentto foil a French attack on New Orleans. But I had noidea who drew the map, or why, or what it would
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show. It came wrapped in several layers of oilskin andtissue, tied with black ribbon. I unfolded it verycarefully, layer by layer, on one of the tables, while thethree ancient mariners peered over my shoulder. It was hand-drawn, of course, and much covered instains, which may have been caused by salt water orblood, and it purported to show the route taken by“Spanish Galleons” from Veracruz to Havana, huggingthe coast of Mexico and Texas to West Florida, skirtingthe Barrier Islands, and then proceeding down the coastof East Florida to Cuba. I realized that this must be the route taken by thefabled Spanish treasure ships, bringing silver and gold,precious stones and pearls, silk and spices, from thevarious parts of the Spanish Empire. The ships traveledindividually in the greatest possible secrecy to Havana,where they rendezvoused to form the fabled Flota de
Indias, or the Plate Fleet, whichwas escorted across the Atlantic bySpanish warships to Seville. I made my own rough copy,which is shown here, but I have nomeans of knowing if the original isgenuine. Speer certainly was.Papers in the Library of Congresstell me that he was an Englishmariner who spent twenty-oneyears on the Mosquito Coast ofNicaragua and produced twenty-six detailed maps of the region,which were published in 1766 and1771 in the West-India Pilot. I never used the map in a novelor for any other reason, but it gaveme a kick finding it. And the threeancient mariners were like Squire
Trelawney, when Jim Hawkinsbrings him the map of Treasure
Island. Over a pint or two in the Trafalgar Inn wediscussed the possibilities of funding an expedition tothe barrier islands of the Mississippi or the Florida Keysin hopes of finding the wreck of one of those Spanishtreasure ships that never made it to La Habana. It will never happen, but it’s fun thinking about it.
Author’s Note: The activities of Spiridion Foresti and otherspies of the period are chronicled in The Naval Wars ofthe Levant by R C Anderson (Princeton University Press,1952); an article in the Journal of Mediterranean Stud-ies by C. I. Chessell entitled “Britain's Ionian Consul,”dated 2010; the Despatches and Letters of Lord Nelson(Chatham 1998); and in correspondence kept in the Brit-ish National Archives, the British Library, and Notting-ham University Library.
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Seth Hunter’s rendering of a map of the Gulf of Mexico and the coast of Florida, whichpurported to show the route taken by “Spanish Galleons” from Veracruz to Havana.
Cour
tesy
Set
h Hu
nter
.
G reetings to Quarterdeckreaders. Pat and I have nowvisited fifteen different Ca-
ribbean islands. This year, we headedfor the mountainous island of St.Kitts. It lies just northwest of Antiguain the Leeward Islands and is calledthe Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis. Nevis is only twomiles across the water from St. Kitts. From our cottage, Pat and I woke up each morning
ST. KITTSBY MICHAEL AYE
to view gulls and pelicans sittingon a dock or flying about, thendiving down into the sea for fish.Just across the way, we could seeNevis. At dusk on Nevis, the twin-kle of lights presented a brilliantshow. The population of St. Kittsand Nevis is about fifty thousand,eighty percent of which live on St.Kitts. The Caribs, who inhabited theislands about 1300 AD, calledtheir island Liamuiga, whichmeans fertile land. Today, that
name graces the central peak on themountainous island.
Mount Liamuiga is an extinct volcano that towersover the island at 3,792 feet above sea level and iscontinuously covered in clouds. Pat and I were unable
DISPATCHES
Michael Aye, the author of TheFighting Anthonys Series, the Warof 1812 Series and the new PyrateTrilogy travels extensively to re-search locations for his novels. Afew months ago, before HurricanesIrma and Maria swept through theCaribbean, he visited St. Kitts andfiled this dispatch with Quarterdeck.
Michael Aye and a friendat Port Zante.
Phot
o by
Pat
Fow
ler.
Rear-Admiral Sir Thomas Hood's anchored fleet repels Comte de Grasse at the Battle of Frigate Bay off St Kitts January 26, 1782, asdepicted in the detail of this painting by English artist Nicholas Pocock.
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to get a picture of the top of the mountain. The heightand clouds have created a rain forest that unlike othersis expanding. Christopher Columbus sailed past the island on hissecond voyage in 1493, but he did not land. At a dis-tance, Columbus thought the island resembled theshape of Saint Christopher carrying the Christ child onhis shoulder. St. Kitts’ history relates that when English-man Thomas Warner arrived in 1624 to establish thefirst non-Spanish colony in the Caribbean, it was al-ready known as St. Christopher. It was later dubbed St.Kitts. About a mile west of what is now called the city ofBasseterre, we found Bloody Point. As mentioned, Eng-lishman Sir Thomas Warner brought his family andfourteen others to the island. Two years later, PierreBelain d’Esnambue landed with a group of French set-tlers. Fearing the local natives and their violence towardEuropeans, the English and French leaders got together.An ambush wiped out the entire population of the in-digenous Arawaks and Caribs. Legend has it that bloodfrom the slaughter ran for three days, hence the nameBloody Point. Once the English and French settlers had the islandto themselves, they began to expand sugar and tobacco
DISPATCHES
plantations. Slaves were brought in and sugar becamethe most important crop in the world. It was used tomake molasses, rum, and, as I read in the St. Kitts’ mu-seum, “to sweeten the cuisines of people around theworld.” Of all the early English settlements in the Caribbean,St. Kitts was not only the oldest but the wealthiest. By1775, sixty-eight sugar plantations existed for everysquare mile. From St. Kitts, the British settlementsspread to Antigua, Montserrat, Anguilla, and Tortola.The wealth associated with sugar cane brought Europe-an armies and navies to protect empires, while nationswent to war. In the mid-1600s, sugar cane was as valu-able as oil is today. The British built Brimstone Hill Fortress to protecttheir island, mounting the first cannons in 1690. Thiswas done to recapture Fort Charles from the French onthe coast below. The defensive potential of the hill wassoon realized and plans were made to fortify it. BritishArmy engineers designed the massive structure, whichwas built using slave labor. The fort sits atop towering limestone cliffs. Blocks forconstruction of the fort were taken from these cliffs. Atthe foot of the hill lime kiln ruins are still present.The enormous fort was a city within itself. Paintings
The coastline overlooking Frigate Bay on St. Kitts.
Phot
o by
Mic
hael
Aye
.
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in the visitors and welcome center illustrate virtuallyevery daily life function that was carried on inside thefort city. Signs indicate where the hospital, powderrooms, bakery, officer and enlisted quarters, the bathinghouse and latrine are located. The fort was constructed on different levels, com-manding a 360-degree view, with spectacular andbreathtaking vistas. Huge cannons and mortars are ev-erywhere. Tombstones are still present in the cemetery.Down from the Infantry Officers quarters is a large cis-tern that once held 100,000 gallons of water collectedfrom a catchment above. The fortress was built with large, open windows thatdirected cool breezes off the ocean into the lowest re-cesses. As impregnable and defiant as the fort seemed, itwas attacked toward the end of the American Revolu-tion in January 1782. Eight thousand French soldiersattacked St. Kitts and laid siege to the fort. One thou-sand British defenders made up of the Royal Scots andEast Yorkshire Regiments, along with local militia andescaped slaves, fought off the French for an entiremonth. Such was the defense that when finally defeated,the French allowed the defenders to march out withhonors. By 1775, St. Kitts boasted two hundred plantations
or estates producing sugar, one of Britain’s wealthiestpossessions. But all good things come to an end. Thesugar beet and competitive international market eventu-ally drove sugar prices down. By the twentieth century,the market had about seen its end. However, investorsin the early 1900s felt that if there was a way to eco-nomically transport the raw sugar cane to the factories aprofit could be made. In 1912, investors built a modern central sugar facto-ry near Basseterre, which was also near the port. A nar-row gauge railroad, built along the Atlantic coast up andaround the northern part of the island to Sandy Point,was completed in 1926. The railway ran seasonallyfrom February to June for the annual sugar cane har-vest. The railway remained in use until 2005, when thesugar production ceased, while the railway survived. Today, St. Kitts is a popular cruise ship destination.The railway, the only one of its kind in the Caribbean,is now one of the island’s biggest tourist attractions. It isconsidered the prettiest way to see the island. The carshave been renovated and the colorful double-deckertrain carries tourists on a three-hour history tour, enter-tained by a group of calypso singers. A place called The Caribelle Batik owned by Mau-rice Whiddonson is a must stop for women. Whid-
DISPATCHES
Phot
o by
Mic
hael
Aye
.
The lower bastion of Brimstone Hill Fortress.
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DISPATCHES
nots. Driving around the island, the visitor sees a few hous-es that would meet the American standard, while mostwould be considered primitive. The area of mostlymodest homes also surrounds Marriott Resort and Casi-no. Further south of Frigate Bay, huge multimilliondollar homes sit on cliffs. A new marina has been builtwith high-end shops under construction. A large Italian-built yacht sits at one of the slips. The new Hyatt Ho-tel and Condos are being built just south of the marina. Becoming a citizen of St. Kitts is easy. Depending onthe size of your family, a one-time donation ($250,000to $450,000) and an investment of $450,000 will makeyou an immediate citizen. In addition to tourism, construction appears to be astrong and growing occupation. Sadly, huge scabs havebeen cut out of once lush hillsides to provide dirt andgravel for new construction and roads. While some wel-come this, the sad eyes of the everyday islanders, won-dering where their future lies, tell another story.
Visit Michael Aye online at:www.michaelaye.com.
donson had a vast knowledge of textiles andhad been in charge of “brush shops” in ruralZambia. In 1976, he moved to St. Kitts. Hismain objective was to manufacture qualitycotton garments and accessories using the an-cient, labor intensive Batik technique. This isa process where workers (women were doing itwhen we went) hand paint or dye and waxgarments. No two pieces are exactly alike, andthey are beautiful. So is the price tag. To attract customers to Caribelle Batik,Widdonson purchased seventeenth-centuryRomney Manor, which overlooks Old Road,the first British town in the entire Caribbean.Realizing that tourists would come to visit themanor with its restored gardens and 350-year-old trees, he built Caribelle Batik on itsgrounds. I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Widdonson brief-ly. Observing that I was out of place in a store filledwith women, he said, “There’s chairs and tables outsideunder a cool tree. Go out and enjoy a rum punch.”Outside, I found numerous other husbands. The carpark was full of tour buses. Monkeys are everywhere on the island. Drivingthrough a small village, people sit in doorways holdingthem. They also perch on highway guard rails. In PortZante, tourists pose for pictures with them. Pat bal-anced three of them. We were warned to keep the doorto our kitchen closed so that the local monkeyswouldn’t steal our fruit. Another animal you see is the mongoose. They arelike squirrels in South Georgia. Goats are everywhere –in towns, villages and on the sides of hills. I was told that St. Kitts looked nothing like a person,(St. Christopher), but more like a whale. Looking at amap, I have to agree. I read where St. Kitts and Nevishad been fought over by everybody, including the Span-ish, British and French. Some of history’s unsavory pi-rates are said to have used the island as a home base. I found St. Kitts to be a beautiful island, yet itsbeaches did not compare to Grand Cayman, Culebra,or others. The island economy depends on the touristtrade. Because of the tourists seeing how beautiful theisland is, it has become an island of haves and have-
Pat and Mike on St. Kitts . . .
Phot
o co
urte
sy M
icha
el A
ye.
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EVENING GRAY MORNING RED
C RACKING OPEN Evening Gray MorningRed, Rick Spilman’s new novel, I washooked by the first paragraph, which took
me back four decades to – yes, wait for it – “a darkand stormy night” on Lake Michigan. Caught in a tempest aboard a 30-foot sloop, astiff nor’wester drove us intotowering seas. Flying only aheadsail, we slid down one waveand up another under an ink-black sky, bound, we prayed, fora snug harbor. Spilman’s description of asimilar voyage, written by a manwho has spent his life steeped inships and the sea, promised arousing yarn freshened by a saltbreeze. In 1768, the American brigMary Ellen is on course to Bos-ton, spurred by a brisksou’westerly, with a bitter bite inthe air. At sixteen, Thomas Lar-kin, “tall and lanky with a shockof sandy hair tied back in aqueue,” is in command. After the captain’s untimelydeath from fever, young Larkin,the only one aboard schooled in navigation, waschosen master by the crew. Bringing the Mary Ellensafely into Boston Harbor, earns Thom a purseclinking with silver and gold and a berth as chiefmate in a “ship fitting out for the Indies in Provi-dence.” The lad’s future looks bright. But these are British colonies, and Royal Navypress gangs are abroad along the waterfront. Thomand Johnny Stevens, recent shipmates, are raisingmugs in the Crow and Crown when a detachment
BY RICK SPILMAN
of the King’s seamen rush in, swinging belayingpins. Thom is pinched and taken aboard HMSRomney, a 50-gun fourth rate ship of the line. John-ny escapes, but volunteers, with a scheme to freeThom and run at the first chance. Once at sea, en route to the Caribbean, Thom
runs afoul of First LieutenantWilliam Dudingston, sparking awicked war between the twomen. A tropical storm, a recklessescape, a bout of fever, and free-dom on the Dutch island of Sta-tia heighten Thom’s loathing forDudingston and the British.“Part of me’s still on that ship,ready to . . . spit in [his] eye,” hebemoans. “Or maybe cut histhroat.” The seeds for revolutionhave been sown deep withinThom. So when a marauding armedblack schooner, flying a RoyalNavy Jack and with his nemesisin command, appears along theNew England coast, Thom andthe Sons of Liberty move to an-swer the threat.
Spilman’s splendid story puts flesh on the bonesof dramatic events, which fired colonial passionsand eventually led to America’s War of Indepen-dence. His intimate acquaintance with ships undersail, those who trod their decks, and their role insustaining a young nation create a lively and fast-paced narrative.
Evening Gray Morning Red is a piece of first-ratehistorical fiction, introducing Thom Larkin, abright and appealing Yankee hero.
OLD SALT PRESS, $14.99,U.S. Trade Paperback
$4.99, KindleAvailable Now
REVIEWS / BY GEORGE JEPSON
24 | WINTER 2018
REVIEWS
DEAD MAN LAUNCHBY JOHN J. GOBBELL
After graduating from the academy in 1965, Jerryearns his wings at Pensacola and opts for anti-sub-marine warfare (ASW), flying the Lockheed P-3Orion, “a four-engine turboprop with long legs.”Marriage to an eye-filling model and an assignmentto a squadron based in Sicily unexpectedly thrusts
the newlyweds into the cross-hairs of the Italian police, Mafiaand U.S. State Department. On the island of Oahu in Ha-waii, now Vice Admiral Ingramhas his hands full at the KuniaRegional Signals IntelligenceCenter, tracking a Russian subsailing from Vladivostok. At Sochi, Russia, on the BlackSea, Captain First Rank EduardDezhnev, Soviet naval officerand an agent working for theCIA, is about to run for his life,with the KGB in close pursuit. Aboard the nuclear submarineUSS Wolfish in the North Pacif-ic, Jerry Ingram, on a trainingmission, witnesses a horrific inci-dent, which reverberates all theway to the Kremlin and Wash-ington, DC.
In the early ’60s, Gobbell served as a deck andASW officer aboard the destroyer USS Tingey (DD539) in the South China Sea. His meticulous atten-tion to historical, naval and cultural detail – a signa-ture in his novels – is reflected in a stirring andbriskly paced narrative.
Dead Man Launch brilliantly brings to life an erawhen humanity teetered on the brink of Armaged-don and promises to keep the reading lamp lit intothe wee hours.
Starboardside Productions, $14.95,U.S. Trade Paperback / $7.95, Kindle
Available Now
D URING THE THICK OF THE COLD WAR
in the 1960s, the United States and theSoviet Union were entangled in an un-
dersea naval chess match. One false move on eitherside could have touched off a nuclear firestorm. By the summer of 1962, the Soviets were build-ing submarines, armed with nu-clear-tipped torpedoes, at abreakneck pace, in many casessacrificing quality standards forexpediency, while putting crewsat risk. In Dead Man Launch, thesixth historical thriller featuringAmerican naval officer ToddIngram, John J. Gobbell puts ahuman face on those from bothsides who embarked on perilous,often deadly, cat-and-mousemissions. Rear Admiral Ingram, nearlytwo decades removed fromWorld War II, commands cruis-ers and destroyers in the Pacific.His son, Jerry, a third-year mid-shipman at the U.S. Naval Acade-my, is on a summer cruise aboardthe destroyer USS Mallilieu, shad-owing the Soviet nuclear submarine K-12 southeastof Okinawa. It’s unsettling even for a career navy father, whoknows his son is in danger, with a “mushroomingSoviet submarine threat.” And, worse, he’s not ableto share much with Helen, his retired army nursewife, who went through plenty with him after theJapanese invasion of the Philippines during the war. In true Gobbell fashion, the fervor surroundingthe Ingrams is about to escalate.
REVIEWS
GIBRALTAR
BY ROY AND LESLEY ADKINS
O N AUGUST 28 1782, HMS Royal George– the Royal Navy’s preeminent woodenship of war – was preparing to sail from
Spithead with Admiral Howe’s fleet to relieve Gi-braltar, which had been under siege since mid-1779after Spain had declared war on Great Britain in analliance with France. In Gibraltar: The GreatestSiege in British History, Englishhistorians Roy and Lesley Ad-kins chronicle the nearly four-year struggle in the dramaticwords of those who were there. “After three years of relentlesssiege,” write the Adkins, “every-one on Gibraltar was starving,war-weary and desperate for therelief convoy to arrive, not realis-ing that it was yet to sail on the1500-mile journey.” A day later, the Royal Georgewas nearly ready to sail, whenshe unexpectedly sunk at anchor,with the loss of approximately1200 souls. “The additional delay causedby the aftermath of the loss ofthe ship made it even more likelythat the convoy would not be in time to save Gi-braltar from falling to the French and Spaniards,”explain the Adkins. France and Spain originally anticipated an expe-ditious end to the siege, allowing them to secureGibraltar and seize control of the Mediterraneanfrom Great Britain. This was step one in their plan.Step two was to launch an invasion of Great Brit-ain. But three years into the blockade, it was clearthat these two allies had severely underestimated thecourage and fortitude of their sworn enemy.
Behind the British lines on the rocky peninsula,matters were desperate. After suffering prolongeddeprivation, inhabitants were weak from hunger,disease, and the carnage inflicted by Spanish bom-bardment from gunboats and land-based batteries. In November 1781, dispatches had reached Lon-
don stating that General Lord Corn-wallis had surrendered at Yorktown,leading to the end of the AmericanWar of Independence. The Gibraltarsiege was later blamed by some forstretching British forces too thin,resulting in the loss of the Colonies. Three months later, the Britishgarrison on Minorca, which had alsobeen under siege, fell to the Frenchand Spanish – another blow. Preparations were now made for ahuge attack on Gibraltar using tenintricately designed floating batter-ies, supported by a formidableFrench and Spanish fleet, but thegarrison’s use of red-hot shot over-whelmed the attackers. A monthlater, Howe’s relief convoy finallyarrived with more troops, ammuni-tion and other supplies. In February 1783, the siege end-
ed. Under the leadership of Governor of GibraltarGeorge Augustus Eliott, the British prevailed. Thecost in lives on all sides was heart breaking and theloss in treasure was immense.
Gibraltar: The Greatest Siege in British History isanother epic and illuminating look at Britain’s pastfrom Roy and Lesley Adkins, masters of the histori-cal narrative. Ordinary mortals in extraordinary cir-cumstances leap off the pages, describing in detailedletters and diaries their battle to keep body and soulalive under insufferable conditions.
Viking, $30.00,U.S. Hardback
$14.99, Kindle & NOOKMarch
25 | WINTER 2018
THE GREATEST SIEGE IN BRITISH HISTORY
REVIEWS
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R ICHARD WOODMAN has long held an in-terest in the American Revolution – or theAmerican War of Independence, as it is
known in Great Britain. Revolution! The ‘Liberty’War 1775-1784 is a provocative narrative historybased on the English author’s musings over severaldecades. As a Woodman contemporaryand student of early Americanhistory, I was interested in learn-ing whether his point of viewwas colored in any way by hisBritish heritage as I believe minewas during my academic years. To my great delight, I discov-ered a reasoned and impartialaccount during which my previ-ous acquaintance with AmericanRevolution literature was en-riched. Woodman says in his intro-duction that the events leadingto Britons and Americans firingon each other at Lexington on19 April 1775 have often beentinged with “masses of prejudiceand propaganda that have passedinto popular history.” With thisin mind, he presents the causes of the rebellion andits far-reaching consequences through a crystallinelens. This expansive, highly-detailed narrative rangesfrom Captain John Smith’s “Second Virginia Colo-ny” at Jamestown in 1607 to the formal end of theAmerican Revolution in 1783, when the Treaty ofParis was signed, and Great Britain agreed to recog-nize the sovereignty of the United States. In between those events, world history was al-
tered in ways that still reverberate two and a halfcenturies later, not the least of which was the battlefor democracy which remains relevant today. Thequest for “liberty” in the colonies set the stage foreven broader implications. French intervention in the rebellion, writes
Woodman, came “not from al-truism but from the baser motiveof revenge. The Crown of Francesought to wreak vengeance onthe Crown of Britain for her hu-miliation at the conclusion of theSeven Years’ War . . .” In 1789, the French monar-chy’s support of equal rights inAmerica, an effort that was in-strumental in Great Britain’s de-feat, resulted in a bloodyrevolution on its own soil. As the American war pro-gressed, France and Spain, whohad formed an alliance, plannedto invade England. At Gibraltar,the British were under siege bySpain, a drain on the nation’sresources, which many believedto effect the loss of the colonies. “In Britain,” says Woodman,
“the war was unpopular, yet it was necessary asmuch to the ultimate freedom of every Briton as tothat of his American cousin.” It set in motion politi-cal reform and, in turn, gave added impetus to theIndustrial Revolution, which began in Englandabout 1760.
Revolution! The ‘Liberty’ War 1775-1784 is ashining chronicle of the birth of the United Statesand its significance in the world order – a tour deforce by Richard Woodman.
REVOLUTION!BY RICHARD WOODMAN
Endeavour Press, $10.99,UK Trade Paperback / $4.99, Kindle
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THE ‘LIBERTY’ WAR 1775 - 1784
SEA FICTION
The Devil Upon the WaveBY J. D. DAVIES
(Endeavour Press, $7.99, UK Trade Paperback / $3.99,Kindle) Autumn 1671, Sir Matthew Quinton is on amission of vengeance, four years in the making. For in1667, England suffered the worst defeat in her navalhistory, at the hands of the Dutch, who, not contentwith attacking and destroying British ships in their ownwaters, added insult to injury by towing away the flag-ship Royal Charles. The shame and humiliation is toomuch for this king’s captain of the seas to bear. Hemust recapture the Charles and redeem his country’shonour – but little does he know what fate awaits therescue mission. The story details the drama of theDutch attacks on the Medway and Landguard Fort, re-counts the heroism of both attackers and defenders, re-veals the shocking failings at the highest levels ofCharles II’s court, and sees Matthew confront a terribledilemma – finding himself aboard an enemy man-of-war as it sails into battle against his own side.
Strike the Red FlagBY DAVID MCDINE
(Endeavour Press, $5.99, UK Trade Paperback / $4.99,Kindle) Red flags flutter at the mastheads of the Chan-nel Fleet ships gathered at Spithead. It is 1797. Acrossthe calm waters of the Solent the great naval base ofPortsmouth lies impotent. Worse, unrest is spreading toPlymouth and to the Nore. Downtrodden sailors,whose pay has not been increased for a hundred yearsand who endure a poor diet, harsh punishments andlack of shore leave, are prepared to strike. But, accord-ing to the rigid Articles of War, it is mutiny. At a timewhen Britain is at war with Revolutionary France andthreatened with invasion, the nation is plunged intograve peril. Young Lieutenant Oliver Anson is keenlyawaiting transfer to duties aboard a frigate in the Medi-terranean when he is ordered to travel to Portsmouth ona mysterious mission.
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Loch GarmanBY JAMES L. NELSON
(Fore Top Sail Press, $12.99, U.S. Trade Paperback /$3.99, Kindle) Driven ashore on the coast of Ireland,their longships nearly wrecked by the gods who seemunwilling to let them leave, Thorgrim Night Wolf andhis band of Northmen once again face a fight for theirvery survival. Helpless without their ships, they mustfind some refuge in that hostile country and begin thelaborious work of making the vessels seaworthy again.But for all the shipbuilding skills that Thorgrim and theothers possess, there is one thing they cannot do –weave cloth to replace the sails shredded in the gale thatdrove them ashore. For that, they must strike a bargainwith the Irish, the very people who most want themdead. But no such bargain can last for long, and soonbetrayal and deceit have the Northmen trapped by anenemy determined to crush them once and for all.
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List, Ye Landsmen!BY WILLIAM CLARK RUSSELL
(Solis Press, $10.99, U.S. Trade Paperback / $0.99, Kin-dle / Free, NOOK) William Fielding, first officer of theRoyal Brunswicker, is returning to his ship after visitinghis uncle in the English Channel port town of Deal.Fate intervenes, and Fielding never reaches his post, in-stead becoming entangled in a series of adventuresaboard the Black Watch. These take him far across theoceans and test him both as a man and a sailor. Thisseafaring adventure by William Clark Russell is set inthe year of 1815, when Europe was at war, tensionswere high and the open seas were a dangerous cauldronof deceit, greed and the forces of nature.
SEA FICTION
Britannia’s GambleBY ANTOINE VANNER
(Old Salt Press, $11.99, UK Hardback / $3.16, Kindle)It’s 1884. A fanatical Islamist revolt is sweeping all be-fore it in the vast wastes of the Sudan and establishing arule of persecution and terror. Only the city of Khar-toum holds out, its defense masterminded by a Britishnational hero, General Charles Gordon. His position isweakening by the day, and a relief force may not reachhim in time to avert disaster. But there is one other wayof reaching Gordon. A boyhood memory leaves the am-bitious Royal Navy officer Nicholas Dawlish no optionbut to attempt it. The obstacles are daunting – barrenmountains and parched deserts, tribal rivalries and mer-ciless enemies – and this even before reaching the riverthat is key to the mission. Dawlish knows that everymile will be contested and that the siege at Khartoum isquickly moving towards its bloody climax. Outnum-bered and isolated, Dawlish and his mixed force facebrutal conflict on land and water as the Sudan descendsinto ever-worsening savagery.
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Rhode Island RendezvousBY LINDA COLLISON
(Old Salt Press, $00.00, U.S. Trade Paperback / $4.99,Kindle) Newport Rhode Island, 1765. The Seven YearsWar is over, but unrest in the American colonies is justheating up. Maintaining her disguise as a young man,Patricia is finding success as Patrick MacPherson. For-merly a surgeon’s mate in His Majesty’s Navy, Patrickhas lately been employed aboard the colonial merchantschooner Andromeda, smuggling foreign molasses intoRhode Island. Late October, amidst riots against thenewly imposed Stamp Act, she leaves Newport boundfor the West Indies on her first run as Andromeda’s mas-ter. In Havana, a chance meeting with a former enemypresents unexpected opportunities while an encounterwith a British frigate and an old lover threatens her lib-erty – and her life. Rhode Island Rendezvous is thethird book of Patricia MacPherson’s Nautical Adven-tures.
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SEA FICTION
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HISTORICAL FICTION
4 – An Element of Chance(McBooks Press, $25.95, U.S. Trade Paperback / $4.99,Kindle & NOOK) 1795 . . . As war spreads across theglobe, Harry Ludlow joins the struggle for the richesttrade in the world. Then half his crew is illegally pressedinto the Royal Navy by the vicious Captain Toner, andHarry sets off in pursuit.
5 – The Scent of Betrayal(McBooks Press, $24.95, U.S. Trade Paperback / $3.82,Kindle / $4.99, NOOK) Set in New Orleans andenvirons, Harry Ludlow must save his ship, whiletreachery abounds within the governor's residence,throughout the back alleys of the city, and even in theAmerican hinterland.
6 – A Game of Bones(McBooks Press, $22.95, U.S. Trade Paperback / $3.82,Kindle / $4.99, NOOK) A desperate fight to get one lasteasy prize as Harry Ludlow’s ship sails home is aprecursor to danger at home as the Royal Navy hasreached a state of full mutiny.
T P MBY DAVID DONACHIE
McBooks Press offers all titles on its website at 30% off list prices: www.mcbooks.com.
1 – The Devil’s Own Luck(McBooks Press, $20.95, U.S. Trade Paperback / $3.82,Kindle / $4.99, NOOK) Harry Ludlow, sailor turnedprivateer, sails with his brother James aboard theMagnanime. A dead officer is found, arousing suspicionand secrets on the troubled ship.
2 – The Dying Trade(McBooks Press, $23.95, U.S. Trade Paperback / $7.99,Kindle / $3.82, NOOK) Intrigue, avarice, danger, andthe deadly charms of a beautiful woman interminglewith a murder investigation in Genoa in which HarryLudlow finds himself mired.
3 - A Hanging Matter(McBooks Press, $24.95, U.S. Trade Paperback / $4.99,& NOOK) Seeking a well deserved rest, Harry andJames find themselves harassed by an unseen enemy inDeal, a town that looks picturesque but seethes withcorruption and violence.
Golden HillBY FRANCIS SPUFFORD
(HarperCollins, $26.00, U.S. Hardback / $13.99, Kindle& NOOK) New York, a small town on the tip of Man-hattan island, 1746. One rainy evening in November, ahandsome young stranger fresh off the boat arrives at acounting house door on Golden Hill Street: this is Mr.Smith, amiable, charming, yet strangely determined tokeep suspicion shimmering. For in his pocket, he haswhat seems to be an order for a thousand pounds, ahuge sum, and he won’t explain why, or where hecomes from, or what he is planning to do in the colo-nies that requires so much money. Should the NewYork merchants trust him? Should they risk their creditand refuse to pay? Should they befriend him, seducehim, arrest him; maybe even kill him? Rich in languageand historical perception, yet compulsively readable,Golden Hill is a story “taut with twists and turns” that“keeps you gripped until its tour-de-force conclusion”(The Times, London). Spufford paints an irresistiblepicture of a New York.
The True SoldierBY PAUL FRASER COLLARD
(Headline, $26.99, UK Hardback / $9.99, Kindle &NOOK) In The True Soldier, roguish hero Jack Lark –dubbed “Sharpe meets the Talented Mr Ripley” – trav-els to America to reinvent himself as the American CivilWar looms. In April 1861 Lark arrives in Boston as civilwar storms across America. A hardened soldier, Jack hasalways gone where he was ordered to go – and killed theenemy he was ordered to kill. But when he becomes asergeant for the Union army, he realizes that this con-flict between North and South is different. Men arechoosing to fight and die for a cause in which they be-lieve. The people of Boston think it will take just one,great battle. But, with years of experience, Jack knowsbetter. This is the beginning of something that will teara country apart and force Jack to see what he is trulyfighting for.
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HISTORICAL FICTION
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Glory of RomeBY DOUGLAS JACKSON
(Transworld Publishers, $22.95, U.S. Trade Paperback /$14.46, Kindle / $14.99, NOOK) 77 AD: Gaius Valeri-us Verrens is an honored member of Emperor Vespa-sian’s inner circle, but the enmity between him andVespasian’s son Domitian means that, even in Rome,danger is never far away. Meanwhile, in the outer reach-es of the Empire, in Britannia, trouble is brewing. Thegovernor, Gnaeus Julius Agricola, is preparing to marchhis legions north and Valerius is Agricola’s chief legaladviser and deputy governor. It’s the opportunity heseeks to move his wife and son out of reach of Domi-tian’s wrath. But Britannia is where Valerius cut his mil-itary teeth and whetted his sword – and he will soondiscover that the ghosts of his past are never far away.The massacre of a Roman garrison and suspicious deathof the legate of the Ninth Legion throw Agricola’s prep-arations into confusion. Now his eyes turn west to Mo-na, the Druids Isle, where the Celtic priesthood stillharbors hopes of ridding Britannia of Roman rule.
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Day of the CaesarsBY SIMON SCARROW
(Headline, £20.00, UK Hardback) AD 54. The EmperorClaudius is dead. Nero rules. His half-brother Britanni-cus has also laid claim to the throne. A bloody powerstruggle is underway. All Prefect Cato and CenturionMacro want is a simple army life, fighting with theirbrave and loyal men. But Cato has caught the eye ofrival factions determined to get him on their side. Tosurvive, Cato must play a cunning game and enlist thehelp of the one man in the Empire he can trust: Macro.As the rebel force grows, legionaries and PraetorianGuards are moved like chess pieces by powerful andshadowy figures. A political game has created the ulti-mate military challenge. Can civil war be averted? Thefuture of the empire is in Cato’s hands. If you don’tknow Simon Scarrow, you don’t know Rome!
HISTORICAL FICTION
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Available Now Available Now
Kings of the SeaBY J. D. DAVIES
(Naval Institute Press, $29.95, U.S. Hardback) It iswidely accepted that the Stuart kings, Charles II andJames II, had an interest in the navy and the sea. None-theless, the major naval developments during theirreigns – developments that effectively turned the RoyalNavy into a permanent, professional fighting force –have traditionally been attributed to Samuel Pepys.Kings of the Sea presents a provocative new theory: thatthe creation of the proper “Royal Navy” was, in fact,due principally to the Stuart brothers. J. David Daviesdemonstrates that Charles’s Stuart predecessors weremore directly involved in naval matters than has usuallybeen allowed and proves that Charles’s and James’scommand of ship design and other technical matterswent well beyond the bounds of dilettante enthusiasm.
The Evil NecessityBY DENVER BRUNSMAN
(University of Virginia Press, $29.95, U.S. Hardback /$16.95, Kindle / $17.49, NOOK ) A fundamental com-ponent of Britain’s early success, naval impressment notonly kept the Royal Navy afloat, it helped to make anempire. In total numbers, impressed seamen were sec-ond only to enslaved Africans as the largest group offorced laborers in the eighteenth century. In The EvilNecessity, Denver Brunsman describes in vivid detail theexperience of impressment for Atlantic seafarers andtheir families. Brunsman reveals how forced servicerobbed approximately 250,000 mariners of their liveli-hoods, and, not infrequently, their lives, while also dev-astating Atlantic seaport communities and the lovedones who were left behind. Press gangs, consisting of anavy officer backed by sailors and occasionally localtoughs, often used violence or the threat of violence tosupply the skilled manpower necessary to establish andmaintain British naval supremacy.
SEA HISTORY
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The Warship AnneBY RICHARD ENDSOR
(Conway, $35.00, UK Hardback) If you go down to theshore at Hastings on the UK’s south coast at low tideyou will come upon an amazing sight. There, revealedby the receding waves are the remarkably complete mor-tal remains of a seventeenth-century warship. The Annewas launched in 1678 and was lost in 1690 at the battleof Beachy Head. As she lay beached, she was torched toprevent her from falling into enemy hands. Today thewreck is owned by the Shipwreck Museum at Hastings,and in the past few years there have been some intrigu-ing attempts to bring the ship back to life using ad-vanced simulation and modeling techniques. Ship’shistorian and draughtsman Richard Endsor has writtena history of this wonderful and accessible ship, bringingthe ship fully back to life using his beautiful and accu-rate drawings and paintings. Richard Endsor’s previousbook, The Restoration Warship inspired the locals atDeptford to plan a full-size replica of Lenox, the warshipcovered in that book.
Wooden Warship ConstructionBY BRIAN LAVERY
(Naval Institute Press, $29.95, U.S. Hardback) The Na-tional Maritime Museum in Greenwich houses the larg-est collection of scale ship models in the world, many ofwhich are official, contemporary artifacts made by thecraftsmen of the Royal Navy or by the shipbuildersthemselves. They range from the mid-seventeenth-cen-tury to the present day and represent a three-dimension-al archive of unique importance and authority. Treatedas historical evidence, these models offer more detailthan even the most detailed plans and demonstrate ex-actly what the ships looked like in a way that the finestmarine painter could not. This book takes a selection ofthe best models from the beginning of the eighteenthcentury to the end of wooden shipbuilding to describeand demonstrate the development of warship construc-tion in all its complexity. For this purpose, it reproducesa large number of photos, all in full color, and includesmany close-up and detail views. These are captioned indepth, but many are also annotated to focus attention
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SEA HISTORY
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NIGHT OF FLAMESBY DOUGLAS W. JACOBSONNARRATED BY IAN FISHER
Anna Kopernik is an assistant professor at a Warsaw Uni-versity. Her husband, Jan, is a captain in the Polish caval-ry. But when the Germans invade Poland in 1939, Annaand Jan are swept up in a rising storm of violence, destruc-tion, and resistance. Separated by the war, the two mustfind their own way in a world where everything they everknew has been swept away. For Anna, faced with her fa-ther's arrest and deportation to a death camp, there is nochoice but to flee her native country. She takes up refugein Belgium and finds herself caught up in the resistancethere. Meanwhile, Jan escapes with the remnants of thePolish army to Britain. When British intelligence asks himto return to Poland undercover to contact the resistance,he uses the chance to search for the missing Anna.
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36 | WINTER 2018
friend John Broomhead, a local diver, at LangstoneHarbour, he mentioned his find, launching the pair ona course leading to a historical treasure. In 2001, I met Broomhead in Portsmouth at the His-toric Dockyard at the launch of Julian Stockwin’s sec-ond Thomas Kydd novel, Artemis. A few days later,Julian and I visited Broomhead at his home near Ports-mouth, where he shared his Invincible story with us. According to John, Mack’s assessment was that “thepresence of the pegs indicated it was from something ‘asold as the old girl herself,’ referring to Nelson’s flagship,HMS Victory,” which lay only a few miles away in theHistoric Dockyard at Portsmouth. On 28 May 1979 – a misty day with lowering visibil-ity – Mack and Broomhead returned to the site approx-imately four miles from Langstone Harbour aboardWishbone, a small open fishing boat, still not certainwhat lay below. “I kitted up and rolled quietly over theside,” Broomhead recalled. “The visibility just below thesurface was about one meter. When I reached the sea-bed at only eight meters depth, the visibility was re-duced to virtually zero.” Exploring the mysterious wreckage primarily bytouch, Broomhead found “what felt like substantialtimbers . . . approximately fifteen inches square, stick-
ing out of the sand on an angle of about forty degrees.”After surfacing, he told Arthur “that it looked like thecollapsed remains of a massive jetty or pier.” The first organized dive occurred on 1 June, accord-ing to John’s log, when he and dive buddy Steve Court-ney “spent an hour investigating the site . . . on a warm,sultry summer’s day.” During the dive, the pair sur-veyed the wreck “and found large wooden timberplanks held together with wooden pegs.” They also dis-covered part of “a very large coil of rope lying on firmtimber decking” and part of a leather shoe. “Little did I realize that this dive would be the first ofhundreds on the wreck,” said John. “At this very earlystage in the project, we had absolutely no excavatingequipment. All I could do was fan away the sand usingmy bare hands. Clearly, with a wreck this size, wecouldn’t carry on any longer just fanning the sand withour hands. So I read some literature on how an airliftworks, and we manufactured our own . . . we were allset to remove the sediment quickly.” On 20 June 1979, John “came across a large copperstaple embedded in a sizeable flat timber,” marked witha British government broad arrow symbol. “This was anaval ship and a large one! By the end of August, Ihad logged fifteen diving days. Artifacts recovered in-
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4
BY GEORGE!
Engravings of Invincible’s bow (above) and stern (right) appearedin John Charnock’s three-volume History of Marine Architecture,which was published between 1800 – 1802.
PD - ART
PD - ART
BY GEORGE!
cluded musket and pistol shot; very large gun flints; apulley block; a leather apron; fragments of pottery; andfragments from leather shoes.” After discovering a small sandglass, they visited thePortsmouth Museum conservation laboratories in OldPortsmouth, where the artifact was restored. “It was ahalf-hour glass, originally used for timing the ship’swatch,” said John. Other artifacts recovered included leather and wood-en buckets; small bamboo barrels; belaying pins; stone-ware jugs; bottles; complete shoes; shoe and beltbuckles; pulley blocks; as well as silver and gilt num-bered army uniform buttons. By then, all evidence pointed to a naval vessel. Alex-ander McKee, a local historian and diver credited withdiscovering Henry VIII’s flagship Mary Rose, was con-sulted and shown over the wreck. “He considered it befar larger than the Mary Rose,” said John. “He said sheappeared to have timber construction equal to that ofNelson’s Victory, a first-rate ship of three decks.” McKee believed that Mack and Broomhead had hap-pened upon HMS Impregnable, a 105-gun first-rateline-of-battle ship, which foundered and sunk in 1799.However, research proved that the vessel had gonedown in another area. So the ship’s identity remained aniggling mystery. Seeking guidance from the National Museum of theRoyal Navy in Portsmouth, Mack and Broomhead were
directed to a local naval officer, Commander JohnBingeman, who was experienced in diving on historicalwreck sites. After visiting the site, Bingeman was enthu-siastic about what lay below the surface. Returning toWishbone’s deck, the group agreed to form a partnershipand apply for a government wreck protection order. During 1980, Broomhead and Bingeman recoveredan extensive inventory of artifacts, while spending hourscombing through public records and naval archives tono avail. And then one day, John was accompanied tothe wreck by a policewoman diver. While making theirway along the seabed, she discovered what turned out tobe part of a cartridge pouch. The scrap was embossedwith a King’s crest and the number “2” within the“GR,” signifying that this was from the reign of KingGeorge II (1727 - 1760). Commander Bingeman pulled rank within the Ad-miralty in London, digging into archives, which led to atheory that the ship was Invincible. However, there wereflaws in the speculation, not the least of which was anofficial Admiralty record into the ship’s loss that gaveher final position twenty miles further along the coast. Convinced that they had found Invincible, ArthurMack dug into records at historical Priddy’s Hard – for-merly a major naval armory, now a museum – in Gos-port, Hampshire, where he found a document dated 3December 1747 from the Lords of the Admiralty,detailing Invincible’s armament, which matched gun
Left: John Broomhead (left) in 2001 with a besom broom recovered from Invincible. The brooms were used for cleaning the ship’s hullunderwater with a process called breaming. Right: Two sizes of shot and a flint are displayed on a piece of oak from the ship.
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Phot
o le
ft b
y th
e au
thor
; ph
oto
right
by
John
Bro
omhe
ad.
BY GEORGE!
rammer heads raised from the wreck. Not long after, Bingeman discovered the extractfrom the log of HMS Bedford – a 74-gun third-rate –written and signed by then Captain George BrydgesRomney: “This day we did witness the destruction ofInvincible, ashore upon Dean Sands . . .” These find-ings were proof enough for Mack, Broomhead andBingeman that they had indeed found Invincible, butthe evidence wasn’t sufficient enough to convince theReceiver of Wreck in the United Kingdom. “Proof positive came on 30 May 1981,” said Broom-head. “We found a tally stick – a wooden tag – tied insome old tarred sailcloth and on it were written thewords: ‘Invincible – Flying Jib 26 x 26 No 6.’” Once the ship was formally identified, the groupformed The Invincible Committee (1758), with Binge-man the licensee, to research and work the site. Invinci-ble was designated as a Historic Shipwreck under theProtection of Wrecks Act 1973 in September 1981. In 2009, the protected wreck site was inspected inconjunction with the Solent Marine Heritage Assetsproject to assess the structural remains on the seabed.Newly exposed artifacts were also recovered. In 2010,Daniel Pascoe, of Pascoe Archaeological Services, thewreck’s new licensee, launched a project on the wreckin conjunction with the Maritime Archaeological Trust
(MAST). The organization has also partnered withBournemouth University, the National Museum of theRoyal Navy, as well as volunteers.
Invincible provides a crucial bridge between the MaryRose and HMS Victory, offering a rare view into lifeaboard a British man-of-war in the mid-eighteenth cen-tury. And there remains much more to learn from thisancient ship lying in the sands of the Solent. A valuable collection of artifacts from Invincible is ondisplay at the Chatham Historic Dockyard Museum atChatham, Kent. The maritime treasures are also gener-ously illustrated in The Heart of Oak: A Sailor’s Life inNelson’s Navy by James P. McGuane. Two books have been published on Invincible: TheRoyal Navy’s First Invincible by Brian Lavery and TheFirst HMS Invincible (1747 – 1758): Her Excavations(1980 – 2010) by John M Bingeman. In June 2017, Arthur Mack, John Broomhead, andJohn Bingeman returned to the wreck for a reunion diveorganized by Canadian diver Brent Piniuta. Years earlier,Broomhead told me: “To have been part of the teamthat changed the way historians understand life as it ex-isted on board an eighteenth century man-of-war willalways be considered a great privilege. My involvementwith the project changed my life.”
George Jepson
Phot
o le
ft c
ourt
esy
Invi
ncib
le W
reck
Site
; pho
to ri
ght c
ourt
esy
John
Bro
omhe
ad.
Above: In June 2017, Canadian diver Brent Piniuta (far left) organized a reuniondive for the original three: (l-r) John Bingeman, Arthur Mack and John Broom-head, who returned to the wreck for one more dive. Right: A model of Invinciblecrafted by miniature shipwright and woodcarver Phil Rumsey, which is on dis-play in the Royal Marine Museum at Portsmouth.
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MARINE ART
B etween 1842 and 1843, USS Constitution served asthe flagship of the Atlantic Squadron in Norfolk,Virginia. In 1844, she was sent home to Charles-
town, Massachusetts, to undergo a refit before circumnavi-gating the globe under Captain John Percival. This painting shows the ship at a Navy Yard dock, withthe North End of Boston visible just across the way in thewinter of 1844. It is early evening and a snow squall has justpassed, with the front seen receding into the distance. A freshcoat of snow covers the rooftops in the North End, as well asthe ship and the dock. A watchman stands in the doorway of his shack and isspeaking to a worker about the delivery of tar on a horse-drawn cart, which will be used in the spring for the ship’srigging. A warm glow lights the interior of the shack, while
the wood stove heats the small space in sharp contrast to theicicles hanging from the roof and the snow outside. The manspeaking to the watchman holds a shovel for clearing a pathto the gangway. The ship has been prepared for winter, with her sails andthe rigging used to operate them being removed. At thistime, Constitution had her familiar bulked-up rail, raising theship’s profile 18 inches above the spar deck gun ports, whichgave her a boxy look. In my opinion, this destroyed much ofher elegant beauty. In the only artistic license taken, I have lowered her bul-warks back down with the rail cap only covering the gunport. Apologies to the purists – 10 lashes to be administeredat noon!
– Paul Garnett
Winter in the Yard, Boston, 1844A NEW WORK BY AMERICAN MARINE ARTIST PAUL GARNETT
© P
aul G
arne
tt
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