Cochrane: The Life and Exploits of a Fighting Captain

by Robert Harvey

Book Overview

A seaman as heroic as Nelson, a master of gunnery and genius at deception, a tactician so formidably skillful Napoleon called him the sea wolf. Thomas Cochrane made of his life at sea a legend more extraordinary than any of the works of fiction it inspired -- like the famous sea tales of C. S. Forester and Patrick O'Brian's bestselling series of naval novels featuring the redoubtable Jack Aubrey.Barely twenty-five when he assumed command of the Speedy,...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786707690
• ISBN13: 9780786707690
• Release Date: November 2000
• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 1.23 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.7" x 8.8"

Customer Reviews

The greatest sailor - EVER

What an excellent book, both the content and the delivery! This reads more like a novel than a biography, understandably, as it is the basis for almost all of the Aubrey/Maturin series.The descriptions of the naval exploits almost defy belief, if they weren't so patently true - and the land-based politicking, double-dealing and chicanery are incredible, only to be corrected half a century later in the Great Reform Act.The intuitive brilliance of Cochrane as a sea-commander is totally at odds with the gullible naivety of his political career; his devout moral ethics made it very difficult for him to ignore wrongs or slights against himself or any defenseless group (specifically Jack Tar), and he carried his attempts to redress the balance to extremes, putting himself in very real danger, both physically and financially.His moral stance was such that he was abstemious, never had a man flogged, never lied, never used his position to personal advantage and never philandered (although counter claims have been made in that direction, but it is hard to believe that a man made of such high moral fibre would cuckold another man or his own wife).This brilliance also extended to inventions, all (I believe) of which he failed to patent, leaving the kudos to others; the Admiralty failed him in ignoring his suggestions and it was only off his own bat that the advantages were seen (explosive ships, steam vessels etc). Mr.Harvey covers all this in a very readable style, elaborating in detail on some of the more important episodes in Cochrane's life, but never boring us. He includes snippets from Cochrane's autobiography, where we see his droll, laconic prose used to great effect (particularly in antagonising the Admiralty against him).In contrast to Nelson, whose claim to fame was by some very suspect naval maneuvres with huge losses of life and parading himself round Britain & Europe, Cochrane stands out head and shoulders higher, in terms of naval brilliance, invention, support for the underdog, attacking jobbery, and humility. He deserves to be re-instated as the finest sailor EVER. *****

History as it ought to be written...

...but too often isn't. This is a highly entertaining biography of a truly remarkable man, and Robert Harvey is to be applauded for keeping the human element in the story while still giving us a clear account of the historical context within which his hero moved. Yes, there IS some hero-worship, but frankly there SHOULD be! Cochrane's actual adventures make his fictionalized shadows (Aubrey and Hornblower) pale by comparison, and Harvey writes in an un-put-downable style that keeps us going to the end. My only real complaint IS the end, there is a bit of a feeling of "rush" in the final chapters -essentially from when Cochrane leaves Brazil on- and it would have been fun to have his final years given more detail, but the first two thirds of both the book and Cochrane's life are such a rush that anything would have been an anti-climax.

Wow!

If you were brought up on John Wayne, this book is for you. One of the problems in modern American society is the feeling that history started in 1940, and for some even later. This book shows that heroes were born and made and lived even as early as 200 years ago. The Horatio Hornblower books, the Patrick O'brien books, the Alexander Kent books. they are all based on this man. Now we can meet the real man, warts and all. And he fits into the world of America's beginnings, the Napoleonic wars, Revolutionary France, freedom in south america. Nearly up to the civil war. From round shot to rifled rounds. A great book.

A rp-snorting biography of an amazing seaman

Cochrane's life makes for a fascinating tale, here very well told by Robert Harvey. The book rushes along at breakneck speed, bringiug out the essential features of the hero without getting bogged down -- or overly concerned -- with details and alternative interpretations. For once, notes are properly left to the end of the book to be ignored.Cochrane himself was a mass of contradictions -- outstandingly able to out-think his military opponents, and almost totally at the mercy of his political ones, showing little ability to predict their actions. The venality and corruption of the latter pass belief, as does Cochrane's inability to realize how they will stand in his way. So also is the incompetence of the military commanders. This corruption and incompetence may not be surprising for a country as corrupt in all aspects of public life as Britain at the start of the 19th century. The surprising thing is that they were able to defeat Napolean at all. Where the other British strengths lay, and what might have been the source of the incompetence of Cochrane's opponents is not explored. While various writers have drawn on aspects of Cochrane's exploits in fictional work, their protagonists have quite different characters from the one presented here. He is more mysterious and possibly less sympathetic.Harvey does not dwell on the details of the exploits of his hero. He gives most detail to the incredible defeat by Cochrane of a French fleet in the face of notable lack of support from the admiral in charge of immediate British forces at Aix Roads.All in all, the economy of Harvey's presentation whets one's appetite for more -- more detail, more analysis, more background -- all a mark of a first-rate book. This is biography as page-turner -- and far better than most page -turners.

An Incredible Captain, Scientist, and Radical Politician

Cochrane's life was far more interesting than the Hornblower or Aubreynovels - Cochrane's exploits were so incredible that nobody wouldbelieve them in a work of fiction. He also had considerablescientific, engineering, and weapons design talents; he was an earlypioneer of screw propulsion for steamships, was an inventor ofgas-lighting (along with his father), invented both the smoke-screenand gas warfare, and his amazingly modern plans for an explosionvessel to devastate a harbor, if implemented, would have been theearly nineteenth century equivalent of a nuclear bomb. He was alsoa radical politician, with such radical notions for his time as`one person, one vote', plus the still-novel notion that poorpeople should get a fair shake. The powers-that-were subjected him toa political prosecution and sent him to prison. After his release, hegot the chief witness against him convicted of perjury; then fought inthe wars-of-independence of Chile, Peru, Brazil, and Greece; the fewships under his command destroyed or neutralized the Spanish andPortuguese fleets in the new world. Cochrane had the good fortuneto outlive the years of repression that followed the Napoleonic Wars,and saw some but not all of his novel tactics & methods & politics achieve acceptance. In his old age (he lived until 1860),the old hero saw his honours restored and was a favorite of QueenVictoria. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.