IMAGE
Julian Stockwin
Softback
Book Reviews
201106
The eagerly awaited sixth book in the story of Kydd and his particular friend Renzi is another cracking good yarn from the age of sail. Any fictional naval character who's story is set in the period has to eventually come into contact with Nelson and this is the time for Kydd and Renzi to meet the Admiral who has dominated the history of the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars. It is also inevitable that the fictional characters will have at least a brush with Napoleon. Stockwin has chosen this story to include those two encounters and he has chosen, in this reviewer's opinion, wisely. Firstly, he has to move Tenacious from the North American station to the action involving Nelson and Napoleon. In the process he vividly paints the picture of a fear and turmoil as England anticipates invasion in conditions closely repeated almost a century and a half later. The mutinies at Spithead and the Nore have encouraged the Admiralty to disperse the ships. Lack of political will and naval assets have combined to make the Mediterranean a French lake. Now the Royal Navy is expected to achieve the impossible by protecting England from a ruthless and well-equipped enemy who has cowed the rest of Europe and only has to defeat England to dominate the world. First it is necessary to find out what the enemy is really up to. The bulk of the Fleet is positioned off Cadiz to deny a union of the French Atlantic Fleet and the Spanish Fleet with the French Mediterranean Fleet, and the British Fleet has the freedom to form a defence line before the English coast. Nelson is given the task of finding out what Napoleon is up to and bringing the French to decisive battle. Kidd and Renzi, still in Tenacious, join Nelson's squadron. The period of British and world history from the Battle of Trafalgar to the Battle of Britain in 1940 have been dominated by the legend of Nelson and HMS Victory. Trafalgar has been painted as the point where Napoleon's France was defeated. That Trafalgar finally stamped the Royal Navy's superiority at sea on the world for more than a Century and made possible the expansion of Empire through the Victorian period cannot be denied. The story gained in being the bitter-sweet victory where the all-conquering Nelson heroically lost his life. However, the legend disguises the real facts. Stockwin has rightly used this book to show that Nelson and the Royal Navy produced the first major setbacks for France and Napoleon that spelled the eventual end in complete British victory. Kydd and Renzi take part in both significant victories. We see Nelson casting around the Mediterranean in search of the French and of his squadron being reinforced. He eventually runs the French Fleet down at Aboukir Bay where the greatly superior French numbers are arranged in a carefully anchored line that presents a solid wall of cannons. Nelson is not deterred and decides to immediately begin an action against the anchored French that was hard fought through the night and into the following day. This proves to be an epic battle where the much smaller British squadron comprehensively defeats the French annihilating their Fleet and cutting Napoleon's army in Egypt off from France. This not only provides a great naval victory, but it prevents Napoleon from cutting across Egypt to the Red Sea to threaten the British presence in India and the Far East. Stockwin shows the complex character of Nelson. This famous Admiral spoke with a strong Norfolk accent and showed great care for the seamen who manned his ships. His style in battle was aggressive, creating and seizing opportunities without regard for his own life. He also had a reverse side with a towering ego. Not content with his participation in the Battle of the Nile and the first major defeat for Napoleon, Kydd is part of the evacuation of the King and Queen of Naples and of the force retaking the Port Mahon. Renzi heads home for a confrontation with his father, but rejoins Kydd in the second and direct defeat of napoleon at the heroic defence of Acre under Captain Sidney Smith. Stockwin has highlighted a battle that was to be of enormous consequence for Britain and France but has strangely occupied an historical footnote to the wars. At Acre Napoleon met his first military defeat on land, beaten off by a ragtag scratch army of sailors, Arabs and Turks under the leadership of a Royal Navy Captain, a force that was numerically far inferior to the French siege army. This defeat was etched into Napoleon's subsequent actions in much the same way that Hitler was thrown off balance by the evacuation of large numbers of British and French soldiers from the beaches of Dunkirk and the failure of the Luftwaffe to gain air superiority over Britain. These reverses for Napoleon and Hitler resulted in their attentions focussing East into Russia where they both found that they had insufficient forces available to control the vast spaces of Russia and survive the hostile winters there. In writing the Kydd and Renzi tales, Stockwin is introducing new readers to a fascinating period of history and for many this will be the start of a lifelong interest. Those wishing to learn more about Nelson will find a wealth of information on-line at http://www.nelson-society .org.uk and if they visit Nelson's home county of Norfolk they will be able to visit a new museum housed in the old Naval Hospital at Great Yarmouth, a hospital that was known to Nelson who often came ashore at Great Yarmouth. An important part of this new museum is a collection of some 550 significant items collected over a fifty year period by Ben Burgess OBE, agricultural engineer and John Deere agent. Ben Burgess was still adding to the collection in his 90s and, with his wife Jennifer, he donated the collection to a charitable trust (Registered Charity No. 1012599) with the aim of "establishing and maintaining the collection as a permanent entity for educational purposes, within the County of Norfolk". Sadly, the new museum was not to open until after his death.
R1411
Fiction
0-340-83222-3
http://tinyurl.com/
Tenacious
358
£6.99
Hodder and Stoughton