John Deane of Nottingham: Historic Adventures by Land and Sea

One of the most remarkable lives you've never heard of unfolds in these pages. John Deane, born in 1679 to respectable parents in Nottingham, should have inherited comfort and stability. Instead, he chose the road less traveled - working as a humble drover in London's chaotic streets before commanding warships for two great nations, outwitting pirates in the Caribbean, surviving shipwrecks and storms that would break lesser men, and dining with kings and queens. This is his true story, rendered with all the verve of the finest Victorian adventure fiction. From the muddy roads around London to the frozen waters of the Baltic, from Peter the Great's war vessel to the counting houses of the Merchant Adventurers, Deane's journey spans continents and decades. He served in the Royal Navy, abandoned a captain's commission for the uncertainties of commerce, and ended his days as a British consul - a commoner who moved through extraordinary circumstances. Here are conspiracies, naval battles, Caribbean pirates, shipwrecks, natural disasters, court intrigue, and damsels in distress. The adventure never stops.