num_pages: 332
description: Beginning with his boyhood and entrance into the prestigious British Royal Navy, Admiral Thomas Cochrane describes his life from its inconspicuous beginnings through all the turbulence of his subsequent years created by his radical ideas – earning him the unofficial and dangerous title of navy reformer…Frustrated with the stifling parameters of the administration of the Admiralty – he had even been court marshalled for disrespect to his superiors – Lord Cochrane pushed for change. It soon became clear, however, that true change could only be achieved if he became active voice in the political sphere.From fiercely efficient Naval captain, to rebel reformer and political activist, to fraudulent convict, this autobiography presents us with the opportunity to truly understand one of the greatest characters from the late eighteenth- early nineteenth-centuries that has inspired many a fictional character in both novels and poetry.Admiral Thomas Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, styled Lord Cochrane between 1778 and 1831, was as naval flag officer with the British Royal Navy. In 1814 he was dismissed from the Royal Navy for a fraud conviction on the Stock Exchange, and from then on led a vibrant life with various rebel Navy forces across the globe fighting for independence, before being pardoned by the Crown in 1832. His life and exploits inspired the naval fiction of 19th- and 20th-century novelists, particularly the figures of C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower and Patrick O'Brian's protagonist Jack Aubrey.
language: English
title: The Autobiography of a Seaman
publisher: Albion Press