Pirates and Privateers
The History of Maritime
Piracy
Cindy Vallar, Editor
& Reviewer
P.O. Box 425,
Keller, TX 76244-0425
Books for Adults ~ Nautical Fiction
& History: Navy
Portsmouth Point
The Life and
Times of Horatio Hornblower
Portsmouth Point: The British Navy in Fiction,
1793-1815
by C. Northcote Parkinson
McBooks Press, 2024, ISBN 978-1-59013-806-9, US $19.95
Also available in other formats
If you enjoy
stories of the Royal Navy, chances are
you’ve read at least a few that take place
during the French and Napoleonic Wars
(1793-1815). At some point, the ships,
sailors, and officers visit Portsmouth. As
much as we may like to visit, this early
19th-century naval base and dockyard is
gone. It is only through the pages of
stories that it is recreated. But these
are modern interpretations. What was
Portsmouth Point like back then? How did
novelists of yore, those to whom this was
a real place rather than a fictional
recreation, portray it?
True, history books describe Portsmouth
Point, but such scholarly works rarely
breathe life into the past. Parkinson
believed “there is that to be learnt from
fiction which can be learnt in no other
way.” (11) Novelists who actually lived or
spent time there were far better “guides
who understand.” (11) Hence, the purpose
of this book, allowing readers to
experience the place as they did. All the
writers included were members of the Royal
Navy, some serving during these wars and
some soon after. As much as Parkinson
wanted to include only contemporary
novels, he found this impossible to do,
for the novelists were too engaged in
their duties to devote time to fictional
accounts of what transpired. Therefore,
only two stories were published before
1826. The majority chosen were released
between 1826 and 1848, so they are as near
to being contemporary recreations of
Portsmouth as is possible. Among the
selections are The Navy at Home
(1831), Frank Mildmay, or The Naval
Officer by Captain Marryat (1829), The
Naval Sketch Book (1826), Tom
Bowling: A Tale of the Sea by
Captain Frederick Chamier, R.N. (1841),
and Jack Tench, or the Midshipman
Turned Idler by Blowhard (1841).
The book is divided into twelve chapters,
each covering a different aspect of the
navy: The Man-of-War, The Officers, The
Midshipmen, The Crew, The Marines, The
Daily Routine, The Food, In Harbour, Naval
Dialect, Prize-Money, Religion, and
Anecdotes. Each chapter begins with a
brief introduction about the topic. If
additional insight is deemed necessary,
Parkinson inserts this between snippets as
well. One example where this occurs is in
the chapter on The Officers; brief
portraits of specific positions are
summarized followed by a pertinent
excerpt, such as the comeuppance of a
surgeon whose go-to treatment for the men
was seawater. The chapter on food served
in the navy includes “The Logarithm for
Making Punch” and a “recipe for a mess of
chowder.” The only chapter without the
brief insights is the last chapter; the
chosen anecdotes are brief, interesting,
amusing, and self-explanatory. One
concerns a captain who swears his
familiarity with the local waters negates
the need for a pilot.
Scattered throughout the book are
black-and-white illustrations, diagrams,
and maps. These are explained in Appendix
B, Note on Illustrations. The first
appendix, Bibliographical Note, lists the
works included in the book, as well as
brief summaries of the history of naval
fiction and the authors’ naval careers.
The final appendix is a Glossary of
Technical Terms. The book is also indexed.
First published in 1949, this is an
invaluable resource for readers and
writers of naval fiction. The snippets and
the introductory material are as close to
“direct evidence” of Portsmouth Point as
it existed in the early 19th century and
what life was like in the Royal Navy
between 1810 and 1815. Some titles are
still in print; others are available
online for free. (Readers will have to
search for these themselves.) Portsmouth
Point also serves as a wonderful
introduction to early works of naval
fiction.
Review Copyright ©2024 Cindy Vallar
The Life and Times of Horatio
Hornblower: A Biography of C. S. Forester’s
Famous Naval Hero
by C. Northcote Parkinson
McBooks Press, 2024, ISBN 978-1-4930-8409-8, US
$24.95
Also available in other formats
When
writers create stories and populate
them with characters, it’s necessary
to also flesh out details about who
these people are and why they are as
they appear in the books. This
allows the authors to craft
believable characters and readers to
see them as “real” people. One such
character who has stood the test of
time is C. S. Forester’s Horatio
Hornblower, whose life unfolded over
thirty years in twelve books.
Forester pieced together
Hornblower’s life from documentary
evidence that the admiral’s
descendant donated to the Royal Navy
College, Greenwich in 1927.
In 1970, Parkinson
discovered that three boxes of new
material about Viscount Horatio
Hornblower had come to light. The
admiral had refused to permit
these papers to be seen by others
until 100 years after his death.
The problem came in tracking down
these containers since the
companies to which they were
originally entrusted had undergone
change during that time lapse.
What Parkinson eventually found
were details that filled in gaps
left by Forester’s accounts of
Hornblower’s life. So much was new
that Parkinson decided to write a
biography about this legendary
character.
A biography is
defined as the history of a
person’s life, and that person is
someone who actually lived. For
all intents and purposes, this
book is an actual biography
complete with appendices,
correspondence, illustrations, a
family tree, diagrams, and maps.
It is also indexed and one
illustration is of a title page of
a book that Hornblower owned and
signed. The twelve chapters
chronicle his life from Schoolboy
to Midshipman to Lieutenant all
the way through his achieving
Admiral of the Fleet. Much of the
book focuses on his naval career,
but there are also personal
moments, such as his marriage to
his landlady’s daughter, his
children, and the loves of his
life, one of whom was related to
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of
Wellington.
This book is a
compelling read and a must for
those who have enjoyed the
Hornblower novels, or those
unfamiliar with the first edition
published in 1970, and those who
know Horatio Hornblower only
through the movies that illustrate
his early exploits. You will not
be disappointed and you will most
likely learn new details about
this fascinating, though
fictional, admiral.
Review Copyright
©2024 Cindy Vallar
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