The Log of a Privateersman
1896
The sea belongs to the bold in this ripping tale of a young man's ascent from poverty to fortune on the bloodied waters of the Napoleonic Wars. George Bowen is nobody's idea of a gentleman, but he has something far more valuable: an instinct for the sea and an iron will to survive. When he's offered the position of second mate aboard the Dolphin, a privateer out for profit and prey, he steps from the shore into a world of cannon fire, midnight raids, and French prizes waiting to be taken. Collingwood renders the privateer's life with the loving precision of a man who knew these ships intimately. The Dolphin is no noble man-of-war; she's a merchant raider hungry for Spanish and French cargo, and every encounter carries the real risk of death or the dank holds of an enemy prison. What unfolds is both a boy's coming-of-age and a vivid portrait of a profession that walked the fine line between legal commerce and outright piracy. This is adventure fiction the way it used to be written: unsentimental, thrilling, and utterly unafraid of a little blood on the deck.
