Book
Richard Bolitho, Midshipman
First published 1975
In October 1772, sixteen-year-old Richard Bolitho joins HMS Gorgon at Portsmouth after four years in the Royal Navy. The seventy-four-gun ship is crowded with inexperienced men, and Bolitho must learn how to exercise authority without losing the trust of sailors enduring storms, harsh discipline and the daily dangers of an eighteenth-century warship.
Although Britain is formally at peace with France and Spain, piracy and the slave trade make the West African routes increasingly dangerous. When Gorgon is ordered to show the flag and suppress those challenging British shipping, Bolitho and his fellow midshipmen face an enemy as organised and ruthless as any national fleet.
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