Most fictional heroes of the Napoleonic Wars at sea are as wooden as their ships, a generalisation from which Patrick O'Brian's Jack Aubrey and Professor Parkinson's Richard Delancey can be exempted.
Description
Richard Delancey, inadvertently embroiled in Liverpool labor riots, sidesteps punishment by "volunteering" for the Navy. Ranked as a midshipman, he is no sooner aboard than his ship sails for the port of New York. But when the events of the American Revolution and the ongoing hostilities between England and France send him back across the sea, Delancey finds himself instrumental in defending the Isle of Jersey and, later, the Rock of Gibraltar.
Reviews
[Parkinson's] knowledge of the naval world of the Napoleonic era was encyclopaedic; his understanding of ships and seamen, of politics, strategy and trade almost unrivalled.
All the competence, courage, and ingenuity of a Hornblower along with a bit more polish. . . . C.S. Forester would have approved of Delancey.
A historical novelist in the best traditions of C.S. Forester and Alexander Kent.
