The Sea Warriors: The Fighting Captains and Their Ships in the Age of Nelson - Hardcover

Richard Woodman was born in London in 1944. He became an indentured midshipman in cargo liners at 16 and has sailed in a variety of ships, serving from apprentice to captain. He remains a professional sailor and in 1978 won the Marine Society's Harmer Award. Richard Woodman served an apprenticeship in cargo-liners, qualified as a navigator and spent another eleven years at sea as a commander. His passion for the sea is reflected in his prolific output, which includes works of both fiction (the Nathaniel Drinkwater series) and non-fiction (recently, The Sea Warriors, published by Constable). Richard Woodman spent over 30 years at sea. His prolific output includes fiction (Nathaniel Drinkwater series) and non-fiction (recently, The Sea Warriors). Richard Woodman is best known for his Nathaniel Drinkwater series of historical naval novels. Born in London in 1944 Richard joined his first ship at the age of 16 and spent over 30 years at sea. Married with two adult children, he lives in Harwich.

From the first British involvement in the French Revolution in 1793 to the end of the War of 1812, England's wooden walls fought off French, Danish, Dutch, Spanish, Turkish and American ships to maintain control of the seas and Britain's essential maritime trade. Rather than concentrate on all the big battles of the period, veteran British writer Richard Woodman, with both history and fictional sea tales to his credit, resuscitates now-forgotten ship captains and their quotidian gun duels with enemy ships in The Sea Warriors: The Fighting Captains and Their Ships in the Age of Nelson. Men like Edward Pellew, Thomas Cochrane and Josiah Willoughby contended with defective ships, bad crews, lack of good hygiene and food, and lack of support from their Royal Navy superiors. Press gangs and oftentimes harsh corporal punishment upped the stakes, and mutinies were fairly common. From Woodman's vivid account, it's not hard to see why.

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