Cindy Vallar's Blog - Posts Tagged "frigate"

The Captain's Nephew by Philip K Allan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


During the Royal Navy’s assault on Ostend, First Lieutenant Alexander Clay is tasked with leading a shore mission to prevent the garrison of French troops at Nieuwpoort from reinforcing Ostend. The straightforward plan is to land, blow up a bridge, and wait for HM Frigate Agrius to return to retrieve them, but the plan goes awry almost from the start. Not only must he play nursemaid to his captain’s inexperienced nephew, but getting to their objective is fraught with complications no one expects, their arrival is noticed, and the uncooperative weather and water conditions prevent an easy recovery. Clay’s ingenious idea for getting his men back to their ship saves them from capture and they return to England to await their next assignment.

Captain Percy Follet’s report of the incident, which soon finds its way into the newspaper, gives credit for the incident not to Clay, but to his nephew, Lieutenant Windham. Lacking an influential mentor and not coming from a wealthy family, Clay fumes at the injustice done him. His only hope of advancement and gaining his own command is through his initiative and accomplishments. It grates that the undeserving-of-his-rank second lieutenant should garner the accolades that rightfully belong to him. When he questions Captain Follet about this injustice, a rift develops between the two men.

The Agrius’s next assignment is to escort a convoy of East Indiamen part of the way to India. The commander of the merchant ships invites all the navy officers aboard his vessel for a formal dinner, much to the chagrin of Clay. He much prefers the regimented wooden world in which he lives and he never knows what to say to women. He is pleasantly surprised to find that one of the ladies, Lydia Browning, is a friend of his sister and, by evening’s end, he’s captivated by Lydia. In the days that follow they become closer, but on the night he decides to declare his intentions, Captain Follet orders him to remain on Agrius. A marriage between Clay and Miss Browning would be totally unsuitable, and her uncle has asked the captain to intervene. Thus the rift between Clay and his commanding officer widens, and soon the crew becomes aware of it. The majority support Clay.

Once the Agrius bids farewell to the merchant convoy, she heads west to take up her new station in the West Indies. She is also tasked with finding and destroying a larger, more powerful French frigate bound for the island of St. Lucia and carrying much-needed stores and troops. In spite of his anger, Clay efficiently carries out his duties, but Follet’s resentment of his first officer leads to complications that endanger the ship and their mission.

The Captain’s Nephew opens with a mesmerizing and vivid portrayal of a man drowning and then regresses six months to show the events that culminate in this tragic incident. From first page to last, Allan bewitches and transports readers back to 1796 to walk the decks of a wooden ship and engage the enemy all the while experiencing what the characters endure. Equally compelling is that this is not just a tale of the officers of the Royal Navy. Interludes are woven into the story to personalize and recreate life on the lower decks, as well as to provide glimpses of what it was like for loved ones left behind. This first book in the Alexander Clay series offers a satisfying resolution of who dies, while only hinting at how it happens – an intriguing and perfect enticement for readers who will eagerly await the next chapter in Clay’s pursuit of his naval career and the woman he loves.




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All Hands on Deck: A Modern-Day High Seas Adventure to the Far Side of the World by Will Sofrin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


In 1969, two events occur that get little media coverage. Shipwrights in Nova Scotia build a replica of a British Royal Navy frigate from the eighteenth century. A novel by Patrick O’Brian, an author not widely known, is published. The ship will be christened Rose; the book, the first in a nautical series, is entitled Master & Commander.

Fast forward to the fall of 2001. A young man returns from Europe after 9/11 uncertain what he will do next. In France, he could afford to spend $300 on champagne; now, he’s in Newport, Rhode Island, working on a tall ship for minimal pay. It’s not the work he wants to do, but his choices are limited. The vessel is a full-rigged ship with a length of 179 feet and 30.5 feet at her widest point amidships. The tallest of her three masts rises 130 feet above the water. Unlike the day she was launched, she is shabby and of questionable seaworthiness. Her name is Rose, and he is Will Sofrin. By the time she’s ready to set sail, he joins the crew as a deckhand and ship’s carpenter. He is familiar with sailing, but has never sailed aboard a tall ship before. The remaining crew consists of men and women, some experienced hands and others with little to none. Her captain is Richard Bailey, “a legend in the tall ship community” and the man who saved the frigate from the scrapyard. (23)

During the next three months – a timeframe that doesn’t allow much wiggle room – he and the others must make the frigate ready for a voyage that will take her from the Atlantic Ocean, across the Caribbean, through the Panama Canal, into the Pacific Ocean, and north to California. Rose has been purchased to be a prop in a new movie by Twentieth Century Fox. She will become HMS Surprise for Peter Weir’s Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World. Along the way, they battle rough seas, gale-force winds, boredom, and low morale. They live in less-than-desirable conditions, and encounter problems that can spell disaster for the ship and themselves.

Sofrin includes technical drawings, tables, and black-and-white photographs to help us better understand the ship and to get to know her crew. Measurements are provided in feet and meters. When using nautical language, he explains these terms in everyday terms to which we can relate. One example is when they find themselves encountering sustained winds of sixty knots and waves twenty to thirty feet high: “It felt like being in a pinball machine, bouncing from one hard surface to the next.” (106)

From start to finish, All Hands on Deck takes us on a stunning and personal journey. Contrary to our romantic notions of sailing aboard a wooden ship, Sofrin offers a frank and honest account of his experiences and his shipmates, as well as tying up loose ends once the ship is delivered. At the same time, he compares his life aboard Rose with what it was like for Royal Navy seamen in the late eighteenth century. He also recounts Patrick O’Brian’s story and how he created his characters, Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin. In small, but memorable, ways, we experience what Sofrin experiences and it is a voyage we are unlikely to forget.


(This review originally appeared at Pirates and Privateers: http://www.cindyvallar.com/Sofrin.html)




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