Cochrane

Long before fiction gave us Jack Aubrey and Horatio Hornblower, there was Thomas Cochrane, the seaman whose life inspired both characters. Napoleon called him le loup des mers, or the sea wolf, and few naval officers of any age matched his bold and successful record. David Cordingly, whose earlier work includes Under the Black Flag and The Billy Ruffian, traces Cochrane's career from his clashes with the French navy to his part in the struggles for independence in Chile, Peru and Brazil. The account also covers the stock exchange scandal that drove him out of Britain and nearly ended his service at sea.

Cordingly builds the portrait on papers that had never been published, on his own travels to the places Cochrane fought and sailed, and on wide reading in the period. His research aims to correct and extend what was previously known about the man behind the legend. The result is a lively study of a figure who embodied the Romantic ideal of the daring hero and who left a mark on the era he lived through.