Pirates and Privateers - A Ship for the King

Starving, cold, and clad in rags, Kit Faulkner waits in the shadows for his chance to steal the remains of an apple on a January night in 1618. Just as he stakes his claim, a gentleman snatches him. He and his companion escort Kit aboard their ship, docked in Bristol. This chance encounter opens unexpected doors for the young orphan, for the man who nabs Kit is none other than Henry Mainwaring, a former pirate who presents King James I with his Discourse upon Pirates and their Suppression Thereof. At Mainwaring’s behest, Gideon Strange – captain of the Swallow and a former Barbary slave whom Mainwaring rescued – takes Kit under his wing and teaches him seamanship.

The main portion of the story, however, takes place between 1620 and 1645. During his early voyages, Kit sees his share of fighting as they thwart Algerine corsairs who attack the Swallow. Their success in such battles leads Mainwaring to arrange for Kit and the Swallow to become part of the King’s navy. When the mission to end the corsairs’ attacks on merchant shipping ends in failure, Kit becomes Mainwaring’s clerk and learns how to pass himself off as a gentleman, to acquire knowledge of what Mainwaring does as Commissioner of the Navy, and to experience court life. Eventually, Kit returns to sea to help extricate Prince Charles from a sticky situation in Spain. In the process he meets and falls in love with Katherine Villiers, whose uncle is one of the King’s men, which places her out of reach for a lowly wharf rat.

Eventually Kit captains a ship in the Royal Navy, but after Prince Charles becomes King of England, quarrels at home cause rifts between those who follow Charles and Parliament. Before long, Kit finds himself torn between his wife, a Dissenter and supporter of the Roundheads, and Mainwaring, a Royalist who fights for the king as the country falls into civil war.

While most novels that feature the Royal Navy focus on the years in which Horatio Nelson lived, Woodman chooses an earlier time when the monarchs either neglected or mismanaged the navy. This makes for a refreshing setting, and the author skillfully intertwines history, both on land and at sea, with fiction to craft a story that captures the reader’s attention. Kit grows and matures before our eyes until he becomes a complex character who is both a product of his time and a champion who inadvertently becomes embroiled in politics just because he feels obligated to help those who helped make him who he is. Woodman seamlessly explains nautical language within the story and utilizes words that evoke a sense of time and place, deftly transporting the reader back to the tumultuous seventeenth century. A Ship for the King is a thrilling historical novel rich in maritime detail and English history. Readers will soon find themselves charmed by Kit Faulkner and eagerly await the publication of the next installment, For King or Commonwealth, slated for release in April (UK) and August (US) 2012.