Nathaniel Drinkwater Series by Richard Woodman
Nathaniel Drinkwater #1
An Eye of the Fleet nd-1
Richard Woodman
The first book in the Nathaniel Drinkwater series. Tells of the rise in the 1780s of Nathanial Drinkwater to the rank of Lieutenant in the Navy. Prior to promotion he saves a young seaman from the brutal attentions of a depraved midshipman and in the process, wins the love of a parson's daughter.
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Nathaniel Drinkwater #2
A King's Cutter nd-2
Richard Woodman
The second book in the Nathaniel Drinkwater series. Midshipman Drinkwater is back in the Navy in 1792, appointed to the 12-gun cutter Kestral. Off the French coast, the Kestral becomes involved in the secret and dangerous adventures linked with the rescuing of emigres. Drinkwater plays a vital role in the landing of agents.
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Nathaniel Drinkwater #2
A King's Cutter
Richard Woodman
In 1792, Nathaniel Drinkwater returns to the Royal Navy with an appointment to the twelve-gun cutter KESTREL, commanded by the inscrutable Madoc Griffiths. Beneath the gathering shadow of the French Revolution, he undertakes dangerous secret operations off the coast of France, including the rescue of emigres and the landing of agents.As Europe plunges deeper into war, KESTREL participates in the struggle for the Channel, and Drinkwater encounters the devious and sinister Edouard Santhonax, who is attracting a great deal of interest from the British government.Drinkwater eventually uncovers a network of intrigue that paralyzes the Royal Navy with mutiny, leading to a bloody confrontation at Camperdown, where Drinkwater and Santhonax come face to face.
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Nathaniel Drinkwater #3
A Brig of War nd-3
Richard Woodman
In A Brig of War, Nathaniel Drinkwater is promoted lieutenant of the brig HELLEBORE. He finds routine convoy escort duties end abruptly when Admiral Nelson, pursuing the French fleet to Egypt, sends HELLEBORE to the Red Sea with an urgent warning to the British squadron there. However, Nelson's apprehensions over French ambitions in the East are more than justified. Edouard Santhonax, Drinkwater's old enemy, is already preparing for a French descent on India. The hunt for this elusive Frenchman and his frigate is combined with British naval operations on the flank of Napoleon's Egyptian campaign. It is during the attack on Kosseir that Drinkwater is left for dead. His escape and the subsequent desperate attack on Santhonax leads to a still more dangerous situation under Augustus Morris, former tyrant of the midshipmen's berth on HMS CYCLOPS.
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Nathaniel Drinkwater #3
A Brig of War
Richard Woodman
In A Brig of War, Nathaniel Drinkwater is promoted lieutenant of the brig Hellebore. He finds routine convoy escort duties end abruptly when Admiral Nelson, pursuing the French fleet to Egypt, sends Hellebore to the Red Sea with an urgent warning to the British squadron there. However, Nelson’s apprehensions over French ambitions in the East are more than justified. Edouard Santhonax, Drinkwater’s old enemy, is already preparing for a French descent on India. The hunt for this elusive Frenchman and his frigate is combined with British naval operations on the flank of Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign. It is during the attack on Kosseir that Drinkwater is left for dead. His escape and the subsequent desperate attack on Santhonax leads to a still more dangerous situation under Augustus Morris, former tyrant of the midshipmen’s berth on HMS Cyclops.Drinkwater’s fight to bring a half-armed ship safely to the cape of Good Hope is beset with personal enmity, the activity of the French and the violence of the sea.
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Nathaniel Drinkwater #4
The Bomb Vessel
Richard Woodman
In The Bomb Vessel, a young Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater is given command of the old VIRAGO, to be sent to the Baltic as a cargo ship. Drinkwater's ambition is to turn VIRAGO back into a fighting ship, but he is thwarted by Lord Nelson. At the same time, Drinkwater's brother appeals for help in his desperate attempt to escape the gallows. As Sir Hyde Parker's fleet approaches the Danish coast, the VIRAGO is nearly caught in their destructive path. Amid gales and ice, Drinkwater strives to save his ship and his brother.In the spring of 1801, Napoleon had reached supreme power in France and allied himself with Tsar Paul of Russia. Against this hazardous backdrop of the Baltic expedition, Drinkwater's actions in the complex and bloody battle of Copenhagen are crucial. About the Author:As a professional sailor, Richard Woodman has sailed in a variety of ships serving from apprentice to captain. Besides the Nathaniel Drinkwater series, he has written nautical fiction about tea-clippers and cargo liners. A member of the Society for Nautical Research, he lives in England. Woodman is considered one of the strongest voices in nautical fiction today.
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Nathaniel Drinkwater #7
7- Baltic Mission
Richard Woodman
In the seventh tale of the highly acclaimed Drinkwater series, Captain Drinkwater's frigate, HMS ANTIGONE, is ordered to the Baltic Sea in the Spring of 1807 as Napoleon's grip has begun to reach across Europe to the borders of Holy Russia. As country after country falls under the weight of French domination, Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater is faced with the challenges brought about by military disaster and diplomatic intrigue. On board the ANTIGONE, Drinkwater is threatened by the seething discontent of his crew and the instability of his drunken first lieutenant. Drinkwater's task is to cooperate with his country's allies and intelligence agents. When a coded message is intercepted, his mission suddenly becomes one of extreme personal danger. As the fate of Europe is being decided, Drinkwater must carry out his mission in the face of his old enemy. This final confrontation brings him to the brink of death.**
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Nathaniel Drinkwater #8
In Distant Waters nd-8
Richard Woodman
The eighth book in the Nathaniel Drinkwater series. The capture of a Spanish frigate augurs well for Drinkwater, but he has disturbed a hornets' nest of colonial intrigue. The Spanish are eager to humiliate him and he finds himself in solitary confinement and his ship a prize of the enemy.
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Nathaniel Drinkwater #8
8- In Distant Waters
Richard Woodman
From the tide-torn waters of the Thames, where Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater is compelled to hand a deserter, to the seas off Cape Horn, storm-scoured gateway to the Pacific, the great cruiser PATRICIAN is tense with the threat of mutiny.Despite this, Drinkwater captures a Spanish frigate and meets the stunning Doña Ana Maria, daughter of the Commandante of San Francisco. But, having disturbed a hornet's nest of colonial intrigue, Drinkwater finds that the Spanish are eager to humiliate him and the Royal navy. Moreover, a Russian battleship lurks somewhere offshore, pursuing Tsar Alexander's dark plans. Caught between two formidable enemies, Drinkwater's mission is made impossible by treachery.But chance brings the aid of Doña Ana Maria and mysterious mountain man. In the distant waters of this beautiful and remote region, Drinkwater struggles to carry out his mission and is truck with ten most extraordinary twist of fortune in his eventful life.
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Nathaniel Drinkwater #9
A Private Revenge
Richard Woodman
In the aftermath of a typhoon, Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater brings His Britannic Majesty's frigate Patrician into the shelter of the Pearl River on the China coast. Seeking the means to refit, Captain Drinkwater finds himself caught up in the bizarre events following the British occupation of Macao and Admiral Drury' attack on Canton. Drinkwater is relieved to be assigned to escorting a convoy to Penang. The convoy's cargo includes a mysterious quantity of silver and a single passenger. Spite, treachery, greed, perversity, and cruelty lead to a climactic encounter in the remote tropical rain forest of Borneo.
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Nathaniel Drinkwater #10
Under False Colours
Richard Woodman
The 10th story in the life of Nathaniel Drinkwater. Set during the Napoleonic Wars, it takes the eponymous hero from the stews of London's dockland to the island of Heligoland on a daring mission to flout Napoleon's Continental System and drive a wedge between him and his ally the Tsar.**
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Nathaniel Drinkwater #10
Nathaniel Drinkwater 10 - Under false colours
Richard Woodman
In 1809, working undercover for the Admiralty's Secret Department, Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater goes ashore and mingles with the dregs of London's dockland. Disguised as a Merchant Marine shipmaster of low character, he encounters a known French agent in a brothel and advertises his plans to carry military cargo to Russia.
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Nathaniel Drinkwater #11
11- The Flying Squadron
Richard Woodman
It is 1811 and Napoleon's French Empire dominates Europe. Desperate to stem the encroaching French tide and avert war with the emerging power of the United States, the Royal Navy orders Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater to the Chesapeake Bay to heal the rift between London and Washington.Quite by chance, on the banks of the Potomac, Drinkwater discovers the first clue to a bold plan by which the U.S. could defeat the Royal Navy, collapse the British government and utterly destroy the British cause. Amid personal crisis, Drinkwater takes command of a squadron sent against the Americans in the South Atlantic, audaciously risking his reputation and, in a climactic confrontation, coming face-to-face with the horror of an interminable war.
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Nathaniel Drinkwater #12
12 - Beneath the Aurora
Richard Woodman
The Year is 1813. Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater succeeds Lord Dungarth as head of the Royal Navy’s Secret Department. While the Grand Army of Napoleon faces defeat on the battlefields of Germany, the discovery of a secret treaty with America leads Drinkwater into the forbidding fjords of Norway, and one of the most desperate missions of his career. Increasingly isolated and affected by the long war with France and her allies, Drinkwater pursues his personal odyssey against often daunting odds. In a compelling narrative the author brings vividly to life conditions at sea during the Napoleonic wars. The fate of one of Napoleon’s most charismatic marshals is linked with American privateers, escaped prisoners and the Danish Navy resulting in a violent confrontation set beneath the aurora.**
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Nathaniel Drinkwater #13
The Shadow of the Eagle
Richard Woodman
It is 1814 and Napoleon has abdicated as Emperor of the French. King Louis XVIII is brought out of his English exile and escorted back to France by an Allied squadron commanded by the Duke of Clarence. The 'Great War' is at en end and Europe prepares to celebrate the return of legitimate monarchy.But the victorious Allies are increasingly suspicious of one another. Alexander I, the capricious Tsar of Russia, believes he is the savior of the world, while Great Britain whose sea-power has guaranteed victory at sea and contributed to the military success of Russia, Austria and Prussia, remains at war with the United States of America. Out of the ashes of defeat, France's greatest survivor, Talleyrand, prepares to restore his beaten country to the forefront of European politics. Amid this upheaval, discontented Bonapartists plot to restore the eagle whose shadow still lies across the continent.Attending King Louis, Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater is alarmed to receive secret intelligence that a new and imminent threat exists to peace.
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Nathaniel Drinkwater #14
Ebb Tide
Richard Woodman
It is 1843 and Captain Nathaniel Sir Drinkwater embarks on the paddle-steamer Vestal for an inspection of lighthouses on the west coast of England. Bowed with age and honors, the old sea officer has been drawn from retirement on half-pay to fulfill his public duty. The following day, tragedy strikes, and Drinkwater is confronted with his past life: his sins and follies, his triumphs and his disasters. Drawing on a true incident, Richard Woodman deftly concludes the career of his sea hero. Drinkwater’s complex character is revealed in its entirety. Far from being the reminiscences of an old man, the novel skillfully weaves the past with the present; the personal tensions below decks, the straining creak of a man-of-war under sail, the crack of a cannon shot and the plaintive mews of the trailing gulls are never far away. To the end, Nathaniel Drinkwater’s life is full of incident and the unexpected, so typical of the sea officers of his day. **
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