Summary

The life and exploits of the daring seaman Thomas Cochrane, who rose from midshipman to admiral and was called the sea wolf by Napoleon, are so extraordinary that his life reads like a compelling work of fiction.

The life and exploits of the daring seaman Thomas Cochrane, who rose from midshipman to admiral and was called the sea wolf by Napoleon, are so extraordinary that his life reads like a compelling work of fiction. In one sense it became so, for the novelist Patrick O'Brian took Cochrane's exploits and used them as the basis for Jack Aubrey, the main protagonist of naval novels set during the Napoleonic War.