The Flying Squadron

Nathaniel Drinkwater #11

by Richard Woodman

It is 1811 and Napoleon’s French Empire dominates Europe. Desperate to stem the encroaching French tide and avert war with the emerging power of the United States, the Royal Navy orders Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater to the Chesapeake Bay to heal the rift between London and Washington.
Quite by chance, on the banks of the Potomac, Drinkwater discovers the first clue to a bold plan by which the U.S. could defeat the Royal Navy, collapse the British government and utterly destroy the British cause. Amid personal crisis, Drinkwater takes command of a squadron sent against the Americans in the South Atlantic, audaciously risking his reputation and, in a climactic confrontation, coming face-to-face with the horror of an interminable war.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Military Fiction, Nautical, Naval Historical Fiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Captain Richard Martin Woodman was an English novelist and naval historian who retired in 1997 from a 37-year nautical career, mainly working for Trinity House, to write full-time.

Reviews

[Viva · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fairly solid entry in the series. Spoilers ahead:

After Drinkwater's (ND) adventure in the Baltic where he went ashore in Hamburg on a spy mission, and was almost killed escaping, he is allowed to rest for a short time. He is next sent to the America to drop off a foreign office official to parler with the Americans. There have been several incidents where British and American ships have fought over press ganging and searching of American ships and the Brits don't want to escalate this because they already have their hands full. His mission is successful.

While waiting for the official to come back on his trip to D.C., a couple of incidents happen. First ND has an affair with a widow. Then 8 sailors desert from ND's ship to an American ship anchored nearby. He finally manages to get them back by bluffing the American captain that he will fire on his ship and cause an international incident.

After ND returns, he gets more R and R. But when America and Britain go to war ND is called back, this time as a commodore with frigates under him. He is to be sent back to the American coast again with wide open orders to deal with privateers.

From information gleaned last time and another visit to the widow, he guesses that an American flying squadron is going to attack an East Indiamen convoy that is carrying a lot of specie back to England. He sails back to the Atlantic and finds the convoy. He finds out that the convoy has already been attacked with 3 merchantmen being taken, including one carrying a lot of specie. While there, the Americans attack again but is beaten off.

ND then decides to go after the leader of the American squadron, which is a frigate, and the 3 captured Indianmen. They find the ships and defeat them. Meanwhile back in England, the spymaster Lord Dungarth dies and appears to appoint ND in his place.

Quite interesting because it deals with the naval portion of the war of 1812 and the conflict between the British and nascent American navy. There's also a lot of other interesting tidbits including the British system of blockade and how it affected everyone, the start of industrialization and the breakage of looms and ND even ships a Paineish activist on his ship.

Now on to the next book.

[Denis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not one of the better Drinkwater books. There was very little action.

[Sonny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining.

[David Eppenstein · Rating 3 out of 5]

The more I read of this series the more I come to admire Richard Woodman as an author in this genre. While his Drinkwater series does include the requisite sea adventures of fighting ships of the late 18th and early 19th century his books have something more. The author has taken his main character, Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater, and made him into a serious character study. This series has followed Drinkwater from an early entry into the British Navy as a young bullied midshipman to his present capacity as an aging post captain. The character has had many adventures, experiences, enlightenments, disappointments, and tragedies over the course of the series. In the last few books and most definitely in this one Woodman has revealed a focus and how all these life events have affected the man that Drinkwater has become with age. This fictional hero is growing old and tired and jaded and aware that younger men are trailing in his wake expecting him to falter and fade away. This book was appreciated not so much for its sea tale as much as for its revelation of a human being in the guise of a naval hero. It will be interesting to see where and how the remaining additions to this series take the reader.

[RhC · Rating 4 out of 5]

After a much needed respite Nat finds himself "dancing" with the Yanks as his duties with HMN and the Secret Services become more intertwined at the opening to War of 1812.

Good adventure with the underlying subplot of setting up the future direction of Drinkwater's career.