Tubbs, Christopher C.
The Dorset Boy:
Martin Stockley at 12 years old was underfed and undersized as the youngest of nine in a Dorset clay miner's family. But he had a sharp mind, had learned to read, write and do his numbers and had a fascination for maps. A stroke of good fortune sees him taken in as a Ship's Boy and Under Steward to the Captain in the Falcon Frigate. Gibraltar, the siege of Toulon and Barbary pirates all feature in this tale of growing up.
Midshipman Martin Stockley is 15 years old and back in the Falcon for another tour at sea. Returning from a trip to the Nordics as part of a prize crew he is unexpectedly summoned to the Admiralty. The following meeting with Admiral Lord Hood and William Wickham twists his career in the Navy in a direction he never expected and his talent for trouble is suddenly in demand.
Newly promoted to lieutenant and made commander of the cutter Lark, Marty continues his adventures in the Special Operations Flotilla of the Royal Navy. Doing the jobs normal officers will not do because they see them as dishonorable, Marty's peasant roots are an asset to William Wickham, the spymaster of Britain, and Admiral Lord Hood, the secret head of Navy covert operations. Betrayal in the Batavian Republic, the Coup of the 19th November, Pirates in Madagascar and an explosive encounter with Arthur Wellesley in India keep our boy busy.
The East India Company is gradually gaining control, but the problem of pirate attacks from their base at Réunion on East Indiamen ships in the Indian Ocean is getting worse. On top of that Maharaja Holkar, who is no friend of the British, has had enough of the internal bickering’s of the Maratha Nobles and is on the march to capture Pune and eliminate the Peshwa. With a daring rescue Marty helps Arthur Wellesley get the Bassein Accord in place.
It's 1804 and the political elite are worried that the level of piracy in the Caribbean is beginning to affect the wealth of the nation. The French, Americans, Dutch, and Spanish are all preying on British merchantmen and the Royal Navy is stretched beyond its limits. Admiral Lord Hood, Head of Naval Intelligence, is asked to help out and sends Marty and his crew in an old Jackass Frigate, The Tempest, disguised as privateers, to infiltrate, disrupt and if possible destroy the pirates in their home bases.
Marty is now a Captain and is waiting for his next ship, while his flotilla is undergoing refit after the depredations of the Caribbean he is asked to recover jewels and top secret documents stollen by a spurned lover of Prince George, leading to a race across Spain.
The French and Napoleon has placed a huge reward on Marty's head. Unable to get to him directly they try and use his family as leverage resulting in a daring rescue and the uncovering of a mole in the Foreign Office. Then he joins up with Sidney Smith and gets involved in the rescue of the Portuguese royal family when the French invade.
Marty has been made Viscount Wellington's Head of Intelligence in Lisbon, Portugal. The lines of Torres Vedras have to be protected and the French kept away from Lisbon to give Wellington time to prepare his army for the big push to kick Soult and Napoleon off the Peninsula.
The Americans are threatening war along the Canadian border, opening a second front. Marty neutralizes a threat to his operations on the peninsula by travelling to Paris, gets diverted to North America to prevent a French attempt to provoke an early start to that war, then goes back to Spain for the battle of Salamanca.
Prince George finally gets his way and makes Marty a Viscount and the Navy promote him to Commodore, but what's the catch? He is a political hot potato in England after killing Graves, the slaver, and the powers that be decide that to get him out of the way his talents are best directed towards South America.
Napoleon has returned to France. Marty takes it personally and takes the team to Paris to try and eliminate the threat at source. Unsuccessful he joins Wellington in Belgium and takes part in the decisive battle of Waterloo.
The Napoleonic war is over but far from getting a well deserved break Marty has to thwart an attempted assassination in Paris before taking to the Mediterranean in support of the Ottomans. But is that his real mission or just a smoke screen?
The third Maruthan war is well underway. A renegade French Consul is supporting the Maruthans and its up to Marty and Frances Ridgley to winkle him out. Popular support for the Maruthans against the East India Company is rife and a plot emerges but is not what it seems.
The world is more or less at peace but in Greece the rumblings of discontent with Ottoman rule are turning into the growls of revolution. The British want Cyprus which means Marty has to keep his promise to the Felicia Eteria.
The 1st Anglo-Burma war is looming, and the East India Company and the British Government need an excuse to start it. Marty is sent to Burma as Ambassador to get things moving.
Martin Stockley is given his first fleet command, to take over the Mediterranean Fleet and liberate Greece from the Ottomans. The result is the battle of Navarino.
The Scarlett Fox:
In 1660, Scarlett Browning, daughter of prolific smuggler Smoker Browning, is establishing herself as a skilled sailor aboard her father’s ships. Spotting the chance to legitimize their endeavors, Scarlett switches to privateering. With their letter of marque (proof of the English Crown’s consent), Scarlett and her crew head to the Channel.
Scarlett is determined to establish a permanent base and maintain her dominance over the Spanish fleet. But when the Dutch become more of a threat to England’s Naval ambitions, Scarlett’s mercenary activities switch to Dutch ships. The Dutch captains believe they can outwit Scarlett but she’s always one step ahead of them.
When her mother and brothers are kidnapped and a price put on their heads, Scarlett sets off on a daring mission to save them and prove her ruthlessness. Scarlett must once again use her cunning to face down the unforgiving rage of the Spanish Inquisition and protect those she loves.
The Decoy Ships:
Set during the reign of Charles II. Ralph Wrenn went to sea at the age of ten. Now nineteen and recently promoted, he serves as the fourth officer on the HMS Kingfisher. It masquerades as a merchant ship to capture Barbary pirate vessels.
At the request of the East India Company, Tom Batrick is to Captain the merchant ship Warley. But Warley is a disguised warship, acting as a decoy to lure pirates, as well as French ships, away from British trade
Tucker, George Fox (1852-1929)
The Boy Whaleman. Little, Brown, 1924. 293 pages
Whaling voyage to the Pacific and Arctic.
Turnbull, Archibald Douglas (1885-1958)
Cochrane the Unconquerable. Century, 1929. 319 pages
Novel based on the adventures of RN hero Thomas Cochrane. "Since man first pushed out upon blue water, there has been only one Thomas Cochrane. Because the Golden Age of Sailors is dead, there can never be another quite like him, asking no odds in weather or war. Alike against political double-dealing and naval corruption ashore, or against overwhelming gales and roaring broadsides afloat, he set a straight course and steered it with a high heart. From a downfall that must have killed a lesser man, he rose to new and greater heights. The spars of this tale are history; it's sails, romance. Who must, may hunt out the robands bending sails to spars"
Turteltaub, H. N. [pseud. Harry Turtledove] (1949- )
Menedemos and Sostratos:
The adventures of two cousins who are merchantmen from Rhodes, set in the years shortly after the death of Alexander the Great. Planned as a seven book series, leading up to the siege of Rhodes by the forces of Antigonos.
The plot of the book centers around the cousins voyaging around the Greek parts of the Mediterranean Sea. They trade a great many things on their ship, the Aphrodite, including, much to the chagrin of many on board, peacocks. During their voyage they encounter pirates, other traders and get caught up in conflicts between some of Alexander's former generals, including Antigonos.
The book centers around the discovery of an apparent gryphon skull (in reality a skull from a dinosaur), and the efforts of Sostratos to get the skull back to scholars for study.
Sostratos, the more scholarly of the pair, visits Jerusalem, where he tries to learn more about the odd monotheists who live there. Menedemos, meanwhile, fulfills his usual role of paying more attention to profits than prophets and pays a great deal of attention to women.
Sostratos and Menedemos arrive in Athens in time for the Dionysia. Sostratos spends much of his time visiting with his old teachers. His cousin, Menedemos finds himself having a sexual encounter with an important Athenian woman.
Very much against their will, Menedemos and Sostratos become small parts of one of the ancient world's greatest naval battles. Published under the Author's real name.
Tute, Warren (1914-1989)
The Cruiser. Cassell, 1955. 363 pages
Life-history of LEANDER class cruiser ANTIGONE from the peace-time Caribbean to WW II in the Atlantic and Mediterranean.
The Rock. Cassell, 1957. 395 pages
Gibraltar at war during WW II. Lots of sea action.
Leviathan. Cassell, 1959. 377 pages
Life story of LEVIATHAN, a ship patterned on the QUEEN MARY -- the crew's pub even has the same name as that on the QM -- from its launch through peacetime and wartime service until it is sunk in WW II.
The Admiral. Cassell, 1963. 313 pages
The career of Mark Hamerlock, RN, from entry as a midshipman 1897, through service in China and at Jutland, to retirement as an admiral in 1942. Not terribly original, but a lot of good period detail.
Tyler, Royall (1757-1826)
The Algerine Captive: or the Life and Adventures of Doctor Updike Underhill: Six Years a Prisoner among the Algerines. D. Carlisle, Jr., 1797. 2 volumes
The fictional memoirs of Updike Underhill. The second volume describes his enslavement and gives an account of the country in which and the people among whom he is confined.
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