Commander: The Life and Exploits of Britain's Greatest Frigate Captain: The Life and Exploits of Britain's Greatest Frigate Captain by Stephen Taylor | eBook

There was a time when aficionados of the "wooden world" became dangerously worked up over the historical precedent for Patrick O'Brian's Jack Aubrey. The subject threatened to become as acrimonious as the long- standing dispute, in other quarters, over the real-world origin (if any!) of King Arthur — dividing families, severing friendships, and flooding the letter columns of history journals with vitriol. I marvel when I think of the commotion Stephen Taylor's Commander: The Life and Exploits of Britain's Greatest Frigate Captain would have caused had it been published fifteen years ago. The captain, so extravagantly described, is Edward Pellew, whose similarities to Jack Aubrey are striking enough that readers, as Taylor puts it diplomatically, "will judge for themselves whether O'Brian was ignorant of his hero's resonance with Pellew." Still, the shocker is not that Pellew has been entered into the lists to vie with the likes of Thomas Cochrane and George Anson as model for Aubrey, but that Pellew himself — or rather, his fictional self — is the captain under whom C. S. Forester's Mr. Midshipman Hornblower served. The mere suggestion that O'Brian might have availed himself of a character, however real, from the Hornblower novels would have found his loyal partisans reaching for billhooks and belaying pins.

In what way Edward Pellew, later Admiral and Viscount Exmouth, "can be fairly described as the greatest frigate captain in the age of sail," as Taylor says, and why he is so little known (outside the pages of Mr. Midshipman Hornblower) are two parts of the same story, well told in this fine biography. Born in Dover in 1757, our hero was the son of a Cornish packet ship captain who left his wife a widow eight years later. Abandoning school, young Pellew went to sea at the age of thirteen as a lowly hand. His keenness, intelligence, and athleticism — and, not least, a penchant for showing off — impressed his superiors and marked him, menial though he was, for possible advancement.

The definitive step upward came with the outbreak of American Revolution and Pellew's signing on to a ship carrying troops and General Burgoyne to Canada. Unique among naval commanders bound for distinction and celebrity, the young man's first command, as well as the first official notice of his valor and competence, came to him during action on inland waters. Stationed aboard the schooner Carlton at the Battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain, he took charge of the vessel after both the first and second in command were cut down. Demonstrating initiative and leadership, he also showed "the sort of hot courage that swings battles" in climbing out on the bowsprit to heave the jib around, so that the ship might move off from the deadly broadsides and rifle fire raking her decks.

Pellew's fortunes soared during the Revolutionary War with France when he was given command of the Indefatigable, a forty-four-gun frigate. As captain, his style was notable in several respects: He was a zealous advocate of gunnery, demanding constant practice for accuracy and speed. He was unusually attentive to the welfare of his men, never asking them to do what he would not; indeed, though he became bulky ("running to belly" as he lamented), he remained physically active for most of his career, scrambling up masts and across rigging in the most unfriendly conditions. A strong swimmer, he saved a number of hands who had fallen into the sea. Above all, he was a born leader of men, inspiring in them "a sort of ferocious élan." He developed a loyal and legendary following, including a crew of Cornish tin miners (who "stood out among the seafarers like an alien tribe, and a warlike one at that?. Fearsome-looking subterranean, they were dressed in the mud-stained smocks and trowsers in which they worked underground, all armed with large clubs and speaking an uncouth jargon which none but themselves could understand").

Pellew was especially given to playing the patron, taking young men under his wing and promoting their careers. Though many of his protégés went on to success, many did not, among them his brother and two sons, and therein lay his great weakness. Intent on establishing his family's position and wealth, he caused scandal by unabashedly pursuing prize money and by elevating his relations and the sons of his friends and influential men to posts whose demands demonstrably exceeded their talents and characters.

Possessed of a gift for friendship, fortunate in his patrons, and capable, charismatic, and lucky aboard his own vessels, Pellew was — in the best tradition of nautical heroes — a dunderhead when it came to navigating the labyrinthine corridors of power ashore. He brought considerable financial damage upon his family by standing for a seat in Parliament and, having won it, proceeded to run afoul of powerful men who had previously smiled upon his career. His humble origins and rapid rise were frequently called upon to denigrate him as "a man of mushroom extraction."

Though Pellew ascended in rank and honors, his time as a frigate captain was his heyday, and his subsequent promotion to the command of a ship of the line, the seventy-four-gun Impetueux, in 1799 was, in fact, a penalty for having crossed a superior. The Impetueux was an unhappy ship, or as Taylor puts it with characteristic flair, "a dangerous hulk, wallowing in drunkenness, indiscipline and factionalism," and it was Pellew's difficult lot to command it until the Peace of Amiens. After that short-lived respite in the war with France, he moved on to promotion as rear admiral on a seventy-four-gun flagship bound for the East Indies, where he took over as commander-in-chief. But what promised to be the making of a vast fortune and embellished fame quickly turned sour. Mercantile greed, political influence in Whitehall, a split command, personal enmity, and a badly maintained ship combined to produce tragedy and lasting damage to Pellew's reputation. Taylor is clarity itself in describing the complexity of this unfortunate affair, one too convoluted to summarize but which goes a long way toward explaining Pellew's historical neglect.

Here and throughout, Taylor shows how the Royal Navy really worked: how not only the seas, the enemy, one's vessel and gear, and the temper of one's men made up the dangerous universe through which a commander made his way, but also how that progress was affected by jealousies within the service and the vicissitudes of power at Whitehall. Often fortuitous or incidental, internecine rivalries and faraway politics helped shape a man's reputation, his "naval character," "that hard-won accretion of dispatches in the naval Chronicle, well-placed gossip and simple folklore." Even Pellew's swan song in 1816 — an astounding assault on the heavily fortified, seemingly impregnable port of Algiers and the subsequent rescue of over a thousand Christians held in slavery — did not assure his renown through the ages.

I cannot say I finished this excellent biography believing that Edward Pellew was "the greatest frigate captain in the age of sail," if only because there is no scale by which that can really be measured. But in Commander, Stephen Taylor does relieve the great man of his station in Hornblower's universe, restoring his true character, personality, and illustrious place in naval history. In doing so he has also contributed handily to our appreciation of the workings and vagaries of the Royal Navy at the end of the "long eighteenth century." And if he also happens to stimulate a few more arguments among lovers of nautical adventure, so much the better.

Katherine A. Powers reviews books widely and has been a finalist for the Nona Balakian Citation for Excellence in Reviewing from the National Book Critics Circle.

Reviewer: Katherine A. Powers

Publishers Weekly

Edward Pellew (1757–1833) was one of the British Royal Navy’s most successful and famous officers in the era of the French revolutionary wars. Orphaned at eight, he rose by merit and achievement, making enemies by his successes and by his persona: “a rude, sturdy, boisterous and impudent seaman.” As Horatio Nelson was a master of fleet tactics, Pellew was unrivaled as a single-ship commander. Particularly as captain of the frigate HMS Indefatigable, he demonstrated a blend of seamanship, courage, and charisma that made him rich through prize money and earned him the accolade “greatest sea officer of his time... a great man—and a good man.” In an era when the Royal Navy’s treatment of its men was harsh, Pellew urged his subordinates to “be as kind as you can without suffering imposition on your good nature.” Pellew spent more than 36 years at sea, rose to the rank of admiral, led an international fleet against the pirate stronghold of Algiers, and secured the freedom of over a thousand Christian slaves. And he achieved all this without the “interest” so important in that era. Journalist Taylor’s (Storm and Conquest) meticulous archival research vividly presents a real-life hero whose deeds provided material for C.S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower and Patrick O’Brian’s Jack Aubrey. 10 color and 3 b&w illus. Agent: Caroline Dawnay, United Agents (U.K.). (Oct.)

Sunday Times

[Pellew] is skilfully conjured up in Stephen Taylor’s commendable biography. Fans of Forester and O’Brian will enjoy this tale of Pellew’s meteoric rise.

Daily Telegraph

An entertaining, swashbuckling adventure, filled to the brim with derring-do.

Christian Science Monitor - Katherine A. Powers

Taylor is clarity itself . . . he has also contributed handily to our appreciation of the workings and vagaries of the Royal Navy.

USA Today - Charles Finch

If Pellew’s life, fired in the kiln of O’Brian’s genius, gave us Jack Aubrey, both our interest and gratitude ought to be ongoing and deep.

Charles Finch - USA Today

If Pellew’s life, fired in the kiln of O’Brian’s genius, gave us Jack Aubrey, both our interest and gratitude ought to be ongoing and deep.

Katherine A. Powers - Christian Science Monitor

Taylor is clarity itself…he has also contributed handily to our appreciation of the workings and vagaries of the Royal Navy.

Library Journal

Edward Pellew (1757–1833) was one of the few British officers during the age of sail to rise from a commoner's roots to reach flag rank. Although considered the finest seaman of his time, as demonstrated by both his athletic prowess aboard ship and his exemplary command of his vessels, he was not without his faults. Pellew had a knack for favoritism, namely directed toward friends and family, which, though not unheard of among other officers, left a mark on his career, harming political relationships as he sought favor from lords and nobles. Pellew, who later became Lord Exmouth, was often compared to his contemporary, Horatio Nelson, who undoubtedly had greater political ability. Yet Pellew was the better seaman, and probably the better captain; he was the likely model for Jack Aubrey, the protagonist of Patrick O'Brian's series of novels. VERDICT An objective account and worthy read for all fans of naval history, particularly the Nelsonian era.—MJW

Kirkus Reviews

In a biography of Edward Pellew (1757–1833), the legendary British captain, Taylor (Storm and Conquest: The Clash of Empires in the Eastern Seas, 1809, 2008) demonstrates his commanding knowledge of naval history, especially during the late-18th and early-19th centuries, a period of some of the greatest battles on the seas. The author's research went far beyond the Admiralty archives to an old barn with a trunk full of notes written by Pellew's son. This story is all the more remarkable because of Pellew's meteoric rise to midshipman within four years and his first command by age 25. Rare in a seaman, he could swim and more than once dove into the sea to save a crewmember, and his physical prowess ("tall, broad, keen-eyed, animated and beaming, master of the quarterdeck and athlete of the tops") was the stuff of legend. Rather than just a long list of Pellew's achievements, the author provides a detailed picture of life at sea during wars in America, the English Channel, the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean. His captaincy of the Indefatigable established his position as a master of single-ship command with the expert crew he built of men from his native Cornwall. While Pellew gained fame and considerable fortune, he was derided as a "tarpaulin officer" rather than a gentleman. Still, letters from his colleagues, comrades and notably from defeated enemies testify to his strength of character and sense of responsibility and fairness. During a lull in the Napoleonic War, he stood for Parliament, although he only delivered one speech, assuring the members that, from his experience in the Channel, England's waters were secure. Edward Pellew was "the First Seaman of the Age." Taylor illuminates his extraordinary life, and the book is especially vivid and enlightening to landlubbers who don't know a hawser from a yardarm.

Commander: The Life and Exploits of Britain's Greatest Frigate Captain: The Life and Exploits of Britain's Greatest Frigate Captain

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