Billy Ruffian

Fülszöveg

'Richly entertaining and informative These resurrected logbooks,
captains' letters and court martial reports give us a thrillingly up-
close feeling for what it was like to live and fight through those
tumultuous best of times and worst of times' Independent on Sunday
This is the story of the Bellerophon, a ship known to her crew as the
Billy Ruffian. From her birth in a shipyard near Rochester in 1782
to her death in a breaker's yard fifty-four years later, the Billy Ruffian's
life was both celebrated and crucial. She played a conspicuous part in
the most famous sea battles of her era: the battle of the Glorious First
of June (1794) which was the opening action against Revolutionary
France; the battle of the Nile (1798) which halted Napoleon's eastern
expansion; and the battle of Trafalgar (1805) during which her
captain was shot dead an hour before Nelson was mortally wounded.
But her crowning glory came six weeks after the battle of Waterloo,
when Napoleon,... Tovább

Fülszöveg

'Richly entertaining and informative These resurrected logbooks,
captains' letters and court martial reports give us a thrillingly up-
close feeling for what it was like to live and fight through those
tumultuous best of times and worst of times' Independent on Sunday
This is the story of the Bellerophon, a ship known to her crew as the
Billy Ruffian. From her birth in a shipyard near Rochester in 1782
to her death in a breaker's yard fifty-four years later, the Billy Ruffian's
life was both celebrated and crucial. She played a conspicuous part in
the most famous sea battles of her era: the battle of the Glorious First
of June (1794) which was the opening action against Revolutionary
France; the battle of the Nile (1798) which halted Napoleon's eastern
expansion; and the battle of Trafalgar (1805) during which her
captain was shot dead an hour before Nelson was mortally wounded.
But her crowning glory came six weeks after the battle of Waterloo,
when Napoleon, trapped in Rochefort, surrendered to the captain of
the ship that had dogged his steps for more than twenty years. § I
'An excellent biography Inanimate objects like great ships can
have personalities, and through scholarly use of many different
sources, Cordingly brings out the Bellerophon's brave and noble
character' Sunday Telegi
'Describing the life of one of the ships that are the essential backdrop
to the novels of Patrick O'Brian and C. S. Forester is a brilliant way
to extend readers' understanding of those stirring times the great
naval actions are the high points of this book' Independent
'A masterly account and, like all good biographies, says as much, if
not more, about the historical context as about the subject itself'
Sunday Times ' Vissza