Bernard Dubourdieu

1773–1811

Bernard Dubourdieu was a French naval officer who served in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic wars and became an aggressive commander in the Adriatic. From bases in French-controlled Italy he attacked British trade and positions along the Dalmatian coast. In March 1811 he led a Franco-Venetian squadron against the British near Lissa but was killed when his flagship Favorite was overwhelmed, and the battle ended in a decisive British victory.

Dubourdieu is not the subject of a widely known historical novel, but the Adriatic campaign forms part of the world used by Napoleonic naval fiction. Patrick O’Brian and other sea novelists draw on the same mixture of island bases, convoy warfare, improvised squadrons and close-range actions, even when their commanders are fictional. A novel centred on Dubourdieu would naturally focus on the tension between personal audacity and the tactical risks that proved fatal at Lissa.

In Julian Stockwin’s Balkan Glory, Raids, convoy attacks and island operations earn him a reputation that brings the larger squadron of Bernard Dubourdieu against him.

Series

Series featuring Bernard Dubourdieu (1 series)

Thomas Kydd in Order

by Julian Stockwin 27 books 4.2

The Thomas Kydd series follows a Guildford wig-maker pressed into the Royal Navy in 1793 and traces his rise from inexperienced landsman to admiral. Across twenty-seven novels, Kydd learns the work of the lower deck, crosses to the quarterdeck and commands increasingly important ships during the French Revolutionary…

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