Richard Woodman

Tras varios años de servicio, Nathaniel Drinkwater consigue, al fin, el mando de un navío. Se trata del Virago, una anticuada y decepcionante cañonera, que se une a la flota británica que se dirige al Baltico para una campaña de castigo contra Dinamarca. Pero Drinkwater es ambicioso y hara todo lo posible por cambiar el curso de las cosas, dejar de servir unicamente como barco de apoyo y participar activamente en los combates que se desarrollaran en las gelidas aguas de las costas danesas.Por si todos los problemas relacionados con su nave no fueran suficientes, su hermano le pide ayuda para escapar de la horca por un asesinato que tiene ramificaciones con el espionaje frances, de modo que Nathaniel se ve obligado a embarcarle de incognito en el Virago, poniendo en peligro toda su carrera y su propia vida.Richard Woodman, una de las voces mas autorizadas de la ficcion naval, recrea en esta novela uno de los pasajes mas desconocidos de la Historia europea: la alianza entre Napoleon y el Zar Pablo y el ataque de la flota inglesa a Copenhague.

It is 1801. Napoleon is reaching supreme power in France and has allied himself with Tsar Paul of Russia. Young captain Nathaniel Drinkwater is given command of an old ship, the Virago, to be sent to the Baltic as a bomb vessel. Drinkwaters ambition is to turn it back into a fighting ship, but his plans are thwarted. At the same time, Drinkwaters brother appeals for help in his desperate attempt to escape the gallows. As Sir Hyde Parkers fleet approaches the Danish coast, the Virago joins the battle. Amid gales and ice, Drinkwater strives to save his ship and his brother. But personal aims meet international war as, against the hazardous backdrop of Napoleons onward march, Drinkwaters actions in the complex and bloody battle of Copenhagen become crucial.

The frozen splendour of the Arctic Ocean and the absorbing drama of a nineteenth-century whale hunt unfold in The Corvette. Rewarded by promotion for his services at the Battle of Copenhagen, Commander Drinkwater is dispatched in haste to replace the captain of the Melusine, who has been shot in a duel. The ship sails as an escort to a whaling fleet on its annual expedition to the Greenland Sea. During the whale hunt the loss of one of the vessels sets off a chain of misfortune. Disaster, death and treachery result. To repair his ship, Drinkwater seeks shelter off the Greenland coast and finds more hazards than the Arctic alone can produce, and it is here that Drinkwater makes the most difficult decision of his career.

Nathaniel Drinkwater is promoted lieutenant of the brig Hellebore, and routine convoy escort duties end abruptly when Admiral Nelson, pursuing the French fleet to Egypt, sends Hellebore to the Red Sea with an urgent warning to the British squadron there. However, Nelsons apprehensions over French ambitions in the East are more than justified. Edouard Santhonax, Drinkwaters old enemy, is already preparing for a French descent on India. The hunt for this elusive Frenchman and his frigate combine with British naval operations on the flank of Napoleons Egyptian campaign. The attack on Kosseir spells near-fatal danger for the hero, and Drinkwater is left for dead, with victory over Santhonax a distant hope.

AN EYE OF THE FLEET Nathaniel Drinkwater is engaged in dramatic action off the coast of Spain in Admiral Rodneys famous Moonlight Battle and the capture of the Santa Teresa. But his adventures also bring rebellion on board and a perilous expedition into the Carolina swamps. A KINGS CUTTER Clandestine operations off the coast of France aboard the twelve-gun cutter Kestrel involves Drinkwater in the French Revolution, rescuing refugees from Madame Guillotine and helping British agents infiltrate France. A BRIG OF WAR At the request of Nelson himself, Drinkwater is despatched to the Red Sea on an urgent mission, and he soon finds himself on a thrilling naval operation on the flank of Napoleons Egyptian campaign.

Captain Nathaniel Drinkwaters frigate, HMS Antigone, is ordered to the Baltic Sea in the spring of 1807 as Napoleons grip has begun to reach across Europe to the borders of Holy Russia. As country after country falls under the weight of French domination, Captain Drinkwater is faced with the challenges brought about by military disaster and diplomatic intrigue. On board the Antigone, Drinkwater is threatened by the seething discontent of his crew and the instability of his drunken first lieutenant. Drinkwaters task is to cooperate with his countrys allies and intelligence agents. When a coded message is intercepted, his mission suddenly becomes one of extreme personal danger. As the fate of Europe is being decided, Drinkwater must carry out his mission in the face of his old enemy. This final confrontation brings him to the brink of death.

From the tide-torn waters of the Thames, where Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater is compelled to deal with a deserter, to the seas off stunning, traitorous Cape Horn - storm-scoured gateway to the Pacific - the great cruiser Patrician is tense with the threat of mutiny. Despite this, Drinkwater captures a Spanish frigate and meets the stunning Doña Ana Maria, daughter of the Commandante of San Francisco. But, having disturbed a hornets nest of colonial intrigue, Drinkwater finds that the Spanish are eager to humiliate him and the Royal Navy. Moreover, a Russian battleship lurks somewhere offshore, pursuing Tsar Alexanders dark plans. Caught between two formidable enemies, Drinkwater must defeat enemies on all fronts if he is to survive - including on his own ship.

THE BOMB VESSEL It is 1801, and Napoleon is reaching supreme power in France and has allied himself with Tsar Paul of Russia. Drinkwater is in command of an old bomb ship, the Virago, which joins battle off the Danish coast. Amid gales and ice, Drinkwater strives to save his ship and his brother. THE CORVETTE The frozen splendour of the Arctic Ocean and the absorbing drama of a nineteenth-century whale hunt unfold in The Corvette, in which Drinkwater finds himself battling with the enemy, the elements and fiercely independent whalemasters in a three-handed struggle for mastery of icy Arctic waters. 1805 Drinkwater is sent to patrol the Channel coast, helping the Royal Navy maintain a heroic blockade of the enemys post, but soon his ship the Antigone is needed elsewhere as everything now hinges on the confrontation that Nelson has forced off Cape Trafalgar.

It is 1792, and Nathaniel Drinkwater is back in the Royal Navy, this time appointed to the twelve-gun cutter Kestrel, commanded by the inscrutable Madoc Griffiths. With the gathering menace of the French Revolution, he is involved in secret and dangerous operations off the French Coast, including the rescue of emigres and the landing of agents. As Europe plunges deeper into war, Kestrel takes part in the struggle for supremacy in the Channel and Drinkwater has some sinister encounters with Edouard Santhonax, a man who is stirring up interest with British government agents. Fate will bring the two men together, but only one can triumph.

* Fact and fiction are combined to produce a fascinating recreation of a bygone world at war. *The first omnibus of a successful adventure series featuring Nathaniel Drinkwater.

Nathaniel Drinkwaters life at sea begins with the HMS Cyclops capture of the Santa Teresa during Admiral Rodneys dramatic Moonlight Battle of 1780. Drinkwaters courage and initiative are put to the test as the Cyclops pursues American privateers threatening British trade and he is later dispatched to the swamps of South Carolina, where many lives are lost both at sea and ashore. Gradually, Drinkwater matures into a capable and self-assured sailor. As he contends with enemy forces, the tyranny of the Cyclopss midshipman, and the stark contrast between the comfort of home life and the brutality of naval service, he finds strength and sustenance in the love of his beloved Elizabeth.

For the last four gruelling years of the war, the Western Allies supplied arms and ammunition to Soviet Russia, essential to the Russian war effort. Allied merchant ships ran the gauntlet of the icy Barents Sea, outflanked by German bases in Norway, from where bombers, surface warships and U-boats could attack without warning. Each delivery of arms was an epic achievement; an eminent British historian described it as undertaking the impossible. Under pressure from both Stalin and Roosevelt, Churchill compelled the hardpressed British navy to fight convoy after convoy through to Murmansk and Archangel, with considerable loss. It was the Arctic that saw the last concentration of the U-boats; the Arctic that saw the last Royal Naval ship sunk in European waters; and the Arctic that saw the greatest defeat of a convoy in modern history. It was a theatre dominated by the weather: fog, storm-force winds and the ever-present numbing cold; and accretions of ice caused ships to capsize.The debacle of PQ17, the surface actions, the U-boat attacks and running air battles culminating in the final destruction of the Scharnhorst are fully covered, but so too are the personal angle and the perspective of the long-suffering merchant ships and their crews, together with the political implications.

Extraordinary maritime heroes of the late 18th and early 19th centuries stride across these pages - some, like Warren, Pellew, Cochrane and Collingwood, are still renowned; others are almost unknown today, yet their brilliant exploits deserve to be pulled from under the long shadow of the greatest naval figure of all, Horatio Nelson. The Royal Navys struggle is set against the political backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars and the sea war with America.

It is the summer of 1964 during the Far Eastern war euphemistically called Confrontation. A British Royal Marine patrol has orders to penetrate Indonesian Borneo to locate a river thought by Allied intelligence to be in use by the Indonesians to build up supplies before launching a major attack on Sarawak. Charged with this mission, Lieutenant Charles Kirton makes a most extraordinary discovery amid the dense mangrove swamps bordering a river in Borneo. What he finds not only enables Kirton to fulfil his mission, but also turns out to be intensely personal and macabre as the truth behind the strange event is revealed. From this highly charged opening sequence, the story flashes back a century to 1867, when young Henry Kirton, second officer of the auxiliary steamship River Tay, is dumped ashore in Singapore, badly injured by a fall from the rigging of his ship. Woodmans compelling tale has echoes of Joseph Conrad.

It is the summer of 1804 and Napoleon is massing his vast army for the invasion of England. Nathaniel Drinkwater has command of HMS Antigone, and he and his men are sent to patrol the Channel coast, helping the Royal Navy maintain a blockade of the enemys ports. As Nelsons and Napoleons mighty fleets draw closer to one another, Drinkwater is unprepared for the role that destiny deals him when he becomes a prisoner of the French and suddenly finds himself on the wrong side of the British bombardment.