Quarterdeck MARITIME LITERATURE & ART REVIEW Compliments of McBooks Press THE DESTINATION FOR NAUTICAL FICTION www.mcbooks.com / www.rowman.com Quarterdeck MARITIME LITERATURE & ART 17 REVIEW T S C Quarterdeck is published quarterly by Tall Ships Communications 6952 Cypress Bay Drive Kalamazoo, MI 49009 269-372-4673 EDITOR & PUBLISHER George D. Jepson Contents [email protected] AUTUMN 2020 ASSOCIATE EDITOR Amelia A. Yeoman INTERVIEW COLUMNS Quarterdeck is distributed by McBooks Press, an imprint of 13 DAVID POYER Globe Pequot 5 By George 246 Goose Lane, Suite 200 The author takes a retrospective Discovering Nelson’s England Guilford, CT 06437 look at his Dan Lenson novels EDITORIAL DIRECTOR George D. Jepson 8 AUTHOR’S NOTES Phone: 269-372-4673 FEATURE Balkan Glory - From Conception [email protected] www.mcbooks.com to Completion 17 BRITISH MARINE by Julian Stockwin Visit Quarterdeck and McBooks Press WATERCOLORS on Facebook James Mitchell, London gallery proprietor, offers a brief guide to collecting DEPARTMENTS 5 4 SCUTTLEBUTT 26 BOOK REVIEWS 29 MARITIME FICTION 33 MARITIME HISTORY ON THE COVER: Detail from “An East Indiaman, with men on the yards taking in sail” by English marine artist Samuel Atkins (active 1787-1808) Pen and ink, and watercolor. © Tall Ships Communications 3 | QUARTERDECK | AUTUMN 2020 SCUTTLEBUTT SETH HUNTER NEW BOOK RELEASES fter a three-year hiatus, McBooks Press 2020 - 2021 SETH HUNTER will publish a rousing new Nathan Peake A naval adventure in the United States and US (United States) THE the United Kingdom in May 2021. The Sea of UK (United Kingdom) Silence is the seventh title in the acclaimed nauti- TPB (Trade Paperback) SEA OF cal historical fiction series from the pen of Eng- PB (Paperback) HB (Hardback) lish novelist Seth Hunter. SILENCE EB (Ebook) Peake, the Anglo-American British naval offi- NF (Nonfiction) cer, is the man who saved the life of Napoleon Bonaparte – and now he must stop him from OCTOBER conquering the world. After seizing power in France and subduing the rest of Europe, Napo- Balkan Glory (UKHB) leon has made a truce with the British who rule by Julian Stockwin A Nathan Peake Novel the seas and turned his attention to the Americas. A King’s Cutter (USTPB) All that stands between Napoleon and his global by Richard Woodman ambition is one small sloop, a handful of British and American sailors, a diminishing band of rebel slaves – and Nathan Peake, the Anglo-American naval officer who A Brig of War (USTPB) saved the dictator’s life. by Richard Woodman Seth Hunter is the pseudonym used for the Nathan Peake series by the author of award-winning novels for both adults and children. He is also a writer, director and Word of Honor (USHB) by Robert N. Macomber producer of television dramas and documentaries for leading broadcasters in Europe and the USA, including the BBC and PBS. He makes his home in London. NOVEMBER TERRY MORT By Force of Arms (USTPB) by James L. Nelson n April, McBooks Press will launch Hunters in the Stream, the first title a new series by Ameri- The Maddest Idea (USTPB) I can author Terry Mort, featuring Riley Fit- by James L. Nelson zhugh, a hard-boiled LA private eye turned naval officer. MARCH As war clouds gather in Europe, Fitzhugh, using an FBI connection, applies for officer candidate Captain Putnam for the Republic of Texas (USHB) school. After graduation, Ensign Fitzhugh is as- by James L. Haley signed to PC 475, an anti-submarine vessel sta- tioned in Key West, as second in command to her APRIL skipper, an up-from-the-ranks lieutenant. Called Nameless by her crew because patrol craft Hunters in the Stream (USHB) only carried numbers, PC 475 cruises the Gulf of by Terry Mort Mexico searching for U-boats preying on Allied Crash Boat (USHB) shipping in the days just after Pearl Harbor. With by Earl A. McCandlish and regular stops in Havana to meet with the Cuban Navy and enjoy the local surround- George D. Jepson ings, Fitzhugh learns of a clandestine U-boat fueling station in eastern Cuba’s wilds. Nameless sails into dangerous waters with orders to locate and destroy the base. MAY Along the way, Fitzhugh encounters novelist Ernest Hemingway in a Havana wa- tering hole and shares PC 475’s adventures. Hemingway and his pals, seeking their The Sea of Silence (USHB) own excitement, also stalk the Nazis with his deep-sea fishing yacht. With Heming- by Seth Hunter way away for days at a time, Fitzhugh and the author’s wife, writer Martha Gellhorn, cross paths and feel some mutual stirrings – and give in to them. 4 | QUARTERDECK | AUTUMN 2020 By George! © Alamy Discovering NELSON’S ENGLAND ABOVE Nelson’s Column in n a brilliant spring afternoon I almost expected him to speak. Trafalgar Square, with the in 2002, Amy and I traveled to Over the last two decades, our visits to Eng- Houses of Parliament in the background, and the dome the Portsmouth Historic Dock- land have invariably taken us to places related of the National Gallery in yard for the launch of to the Royal Navy under sail, and, the right foreground in OJulian Stockwin’s Artemis, the sec- specifically, to locations touched London. The Nelson monu- ment was constructed be- ond title in the Thomas Kydd by Nelson, which stretch far tween 1840 and 1843 to a naval adventures. and wide across the country. design by William Railton The festivities took place Autumn is our preferred at a cost of £47,000. in the National Museum of season in England, but as RIGHT Lord Nelson by John the Royal Navy across I write, there will be no Hoppner, English portrait from Admiral Lord Nel- visit this year, with the painter, 1758 - 1810. son’s flagship, HMS Victo- world under siege from ry. Ahead of the celebra- COVID-19. tion, while browsing While “beached” for a through a gallery displaying time, I’ve had pause to re- a collection of Nelson-related call our travels to Nelson’s articles, I stepped around a par- bits of England – sometimes tition and came face-to-face with to very public places and, on the man. other occasions, to out-of-the-way PD Art Startled, I took a step backward to eye a locations. life-like figure depicting Nelson immediately Arriving in London for the first time in May before Trafalgar in 1805, based upon current of 1997, we ventured into Trafalgar Square, research at that time. The figure seemed so real where Nelson’s Column rises 169 feet and † 5 | QUARTERDECK | AUTUMN 2020 Photos by George D. Jepson. son – who had gone to sea over the centuries to defend Britannia. In the distance, Victory’s top ABOVE LEFT The ornate en- three inches over the area formerly known as hamper rose above a building. try port greets visitors to Charing Cross. Nelson’s statue atop the fluted Walking through the dockyard, with its an- HMS Victory at the Ports- mouth Historic Dockyard. column faces down Whitehall, towards the cient storehouses on our left, we passed by the Admiralty, HMS Victory at Portsmouth, and mast pond and ropewalk before Victory hove © Alamy ABOVE RIGHT Victory’s fig- toward Cape Trafalgar in southern Spain. into view. urehead, a replica of the This was the first of many visits to the ship. Hanoverian royal arms sup- A short stroll away, we peered into the ported by two cherubs, courtyard on Whitehall where so many naval Each time we pass through the ornate entry which was originally fitted officers – real and those imagined in fiction – port, my imagination wanders back to life in during between 1801 and had passed through the portals into history the Georgian Royal Navy, visualizing Nelson in 1803. The sculpture was carved in 1801 by George and the writings of C S Forester, Alexander his surprisingly spacious cabin in the hours be- Williams. During of the Kent, Patrick O’Brian, David Donachie, and fore Trafalgar or hosting his captains – his Battle of Trafalgar, the star- Julian Stockwin, among others. “band of brothers” – in his dining cabin. board figure had its leg shot On another sunny morning, we made our The year of the Artemis launch, we stayed at away, and the port figure, its arm. Sadly, in October way to St Paul’s Cathedral via the Under- the Angel Posting House and Livery on the 2009, rot was discover- ed ground to pay our respects to Admiral Nelson cobbled High Street in Guildford, home to Ju- in the figurehead and it was and the Duke of Wellington, who lie in the lian Stockwin’s naval hero Thomas Kydd. In removed from the ship. crypt. the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, By the time we boarded a train a day later at British naval officers, including Nelson, often Waterloo Station for Portsmouth Harbour broke their passages at the Angel, while coach- and the Historic Dockyard, I was deeply in ing from London to Portsmouth. arrears to Amy, who had indulged my passion Though spring had arrived, a bitter cold for all things related to Royal Navy history – front blew in from Russia. Returning to the and Horatio Nelson. Angel after a stroll, we warmed ourselves with Disembarking from our carriage at Ports- tea and biscuits in front of a blazing fire on the mouth Harbour, after a lovely journey great hearth just inside the entry. through the Hampshire countryside, crisp sea One morning, with a chill wind blowing, I air awakened our senses. HMS Warrior, the met up with Julian Stockwin and we traveled world’s first ocean-going, iron-hulled, and ar- by rail to the Historic Dockyard in Chatham – mored warship in her 1860 configuration, was another Nelson connection.