Product Description

The life and exploits of the daring seaman Thomas Cochrane, who rose from midshipman to admiral and was called "the sea wolf" by Napoleon, are so extraordinary that his life reads like a compelling work of fiction. In one sense it became so, for the novelist Patrick O'Brian took Cochrane's exploits and used them as the basis for Jack Aubrey, the main protagonist of naval novels set during the Napoleonic War. His life on land was as colourful and adventurous as on sea. Like O'Brian's Aubrey, he was framed in a Stock Exchange scandal. Sentenced to the pillory, he escaped prison by means of a rope and fled the country to become a mercenary admiral in the service of countries fighting for independence. Off the coast of Chile, Peru, Brazil and Greece, always outnumbered and outgunned, he became a legend of daring and courage - on one occasion chasing the entire Portuguese fleet in a single ship. An innovative tactician, he was the first advocate of onshore guerilla raiding. He promoted the use of explosive-laden ships and counter-intelligence and recommended the use of sulphur gas to the Admiralty.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #41875 in Books
• Published on: 2002-02-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

The Independent, Oct. 10, 2000
Truth can be not only stranger but a lot less just than fiction... just wait until you read the true story of Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald. As Robert Harvey convincingly argues, it is Cochrane's exploits that gave birth to the fictional genre of Napoleonic sea adventures.

The Daily Telegraph, Sept. 23, 2000
...this gripping account of an extraordinary life ... an entertaining and compulsive read... Cochrane's story is one worth telling and ... Robert Harvey does it justice.

Review
To those who are drawn to the age and especially to aficionados of O'Brian's work, I would recommend Robert Harvey's Cochrane. --The Times Literary Supplement

An entertaining and compulsive read. --The Sunday Telegraph

a wonderfully readable book....Robert Harvey convincingly argues, it is Cochrane's exploits that give birth to the fictional genre of Napoleonic sea-adventures. --The Independent

Customer Reviews

An Incredible Captain, Scientist, and Radical Politician
Cochrane's life was far more interesting than the Hornblower or Aubrey novels - Cochrane's exploits were so incredible that nobody would believe them in a work of fiction.

He also had considerable scientific, engineering, and weapons design talents; he was an early pioneer of screw propulsion for steamships, was an inventor of gas-lighting (along with his father), invented both the smoke-screen and gas warfare, and his amazingly modern plans for an explosion vessel to devastate a harbor, if implemented, would have been a nineteenth century equivalent of a nuclear device.

He was also a radical politician, with such radical notions for his time as 'one person, one vote', plus the still-novel notion that poor people should get a fair shake. The powers-that-were subjected him to a political prosecution and sent him to prison. After his release, he got the chief witness against him convicted of perjury; then fought in the wars-of-independence of Chile, Peru, Brazil, and Greece; the few ships under his command destroyed or neutralized the Spanish and Portuguese fleets in the new world.

Cochrane had the good fortune to 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 honors restored and was a favorite of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. He is buried in Westminster Abbey.

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. *****

Cochrane - a hero waiting to be rediscovered?
Thomas Cochrane's story is so unbelievable, so vital and so exciting it would take a far less skillful commentator than Harvey to undermine the gripping tale as it unfolds. Most accounts of Cochrane's life (his own no least) are unashamedly in awe of the achievements of this true-life boy's-own hero. Had he be born 20 years earlier it would likely be Cochrane we saluted as the epitome of English Naval daring-do rather than Nelson - certainly the accounts handed down to us of his exploits tell of man whose prescience, bravery and outright cunning warrant our attention and appalause. Harvey does a creditable job of trying to present a balanced account of Cochrane's notorious and enduring troubles with the Naval establishment - but you always have a pretty good idea where his sympathies lie. And yet... and yet... was Cochrane so much in the right ALL the time? Were his ideas as revolutionary and as brilliant as he himself makes out and many agree with? Was fear of an upstart so strong a motive for the entire naval establishment - an organisation which had promoted a maverick in Nelson to its highest rank, and which by contemporary standards had vested in Cochrane a unusual degree of independence and status for one so junior in its ranks - so fearful of his outspokenness that it conspired to engineer his downfall? To what purpose? As Cochrane was, by most accounts, a passionate but ultimately naive and ineffective political force I have my doubts. I'd love to see some more contemporary criticism and to hear a more objective appraisal of Cochrane's importance in a wider context, before coming to an final view of his significance - though of course I resolutely hope that my hero's story is vindicated and that his position as a national treasure is confirmed for posterity.