Cochrane: The Life and Exploits of a Fighting Captain

A seaman as heroic as Nelson, a master of gunnery and genius at deception, a tactician so formidably skillful Napoleon called him "the sea wolf," Thomas Cochrane was an adventurer, admiral, and inventor of new devices of warfare far beyond his time. He made of his life at sea a legend more extraordinary than any of the works of fiction it inspired - like the famous sea tales of C.S. Forrester and Patrick O'Brian's bestselling series of naval novels featuring the redoubtable Jack Aubrey. Barely twenty-five when he assumed command of the Speedy, Cochrane created mayhem in the Mediterranean as he took the tiny brig with its fourteen guns to naval glory and himself to national fame and a fortune in prize money. A maverick, Cochrane often stood at odds with the Admiralty and on occasion operated against its orders.