His Majesty's Frigate

by Simon White

His third book in the Cocky Penhaligon series. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312373252
• ISBN13: 9780312373252
• Release Date: July 1979
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press
• Length: 223 Pages

Customer Reviews

Fine book on Royal Navy

This is the third and final book in Simon White's Penhaligon series. It's much better than the second book. Our hero, Penhaligon, is in command of a frigate that is assigned convoy duty. There is plenty of action and suspense. Very enjoyable. The subplot--Pen.'s relationship with a young lady who is taking passage back to England and he naturally tries to seduce is a bit irritating. She turns out to be Pen.'s wife's best friend. Uhgg! Well, does he succeed in his attempts? You'll have to read the book to find out. Nevertheless, Pen makes it back to England and the series ends when he falls into the arms of his wife, Clarissa. Fortunately, the book is easy to read both in terms of style and interest, and it's not too long.

Another Royal Navy adventure

This is the 3rd novel in the Penhaligon series. It tends to be an overlooked series dealing with the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic era. It seems to be set roughly in 1800. Captain Penhaligon was a favorite of Admiral Nelson, but Nelson has been called back to England, and the newly married Penhaligon is sent off with his frigate to convoy a small fleet of East Indiamen carrying treasure from India to England. There are really two plots, the first being the protection of the Indiamen from French and Spanish warships, and the second being Penhaligon's tendencies to chase after women, in this case attempting to seduce a young woman who turns out to be a friend of his new wife. Similar plot material has been used by other authors, and it is hard to say who came up with the original ideas. C. Northcote Parkinson had Delancey taking a frigate to Asia where he, among other things, defended a convoy of East Indiamen. Patrick O'Brien had Captain Aubrey involved in a similar action, essentially expanding on the incident in Parkinson's novel. There is a lot of naval action in the novel, and a lot of technical details on repairing ships at sea. The hero, Penhaligon, perhaps comes across a little too big for life, defeating one enemy ship after another. Events seem a little unlikely, but the story moves on and the action is interesting.