Lord Cochrane: Seaman, Radical, Liberator: A Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald

by Christopher Lloyd

The gripping life story of the Nelson's most fearless and renowned frigate captain.

Popularly known as "The Sea Wolf" for his daring, skill, and enterprise, Thomas Cochrane, Earl of Dundonald, was one of the finest frigate captains to fight in Nelson's navy. Christopher Lloyd's vivid biography paints a memorable portrait of the leader, inventor, and reformer whose courageous actions inspired the works of Frederick Marryat, C. S. Forester, and Patrick O'Brian.

Genres: History, Biography, War, Nonfiction, Nautical

222 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1947

About the author

Charles Christopher Lloyd

British naval historian; authored/edited 91 works in 549 publications in 3 languages.

https://www.worldcat.org/identities/l...

Reviews

[Rindis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lord Cochrane is one of the primary inspirations for the various literary Age-of-Sail sea captains that have been a tradition since the early Nineteenth Century. As such, you'd expect that he'd be well known. But at the same time he was getting a good reputation amongst authors, he was getting a bad reputation amongst historians.

There's good reasons why this should be so. While a capable and daring captain, he was also prickly, opinionated, and often quarreled with his superiors. He was also a reformer politician in a conservative era. So, early biographies of him were negative, and he has been slowly reappraised over time.

This book is actually from 1947, but I have a nicely produced 1998 reprint that I picked up a bit ago. And it holds up well as a fairly balanced short biography. Anyone interested in the Age of Sail should give it a read, as there are some very interesting actions described. At the same time, it lightly goes into Napoleonic-era politics, and sets the scene well for Cochrane's efforts in the South American revolutions, and the Greek Revolution.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lord Cochrane should be as well known as Nelson. He was far less risky but a far more brilliant tactician and strategist. He was also a far more principled and faithful man, where Nelson was a scoundrel. Cochrane was a political demagogue and dunce in Parliament, but luckily his political career was short.

Nobody could carry a grudge like Cochrane, and he acted rashly and foolishly because of his own conceit often. However, Bonaparte himself respected and loathed him because of his remarkable courage, ingenuity and steadfastness against the French and SPanish forces.

Cochrane was steadfast in his innocence and betrayal by the British govt. over the Stock "plot." He was also restored to full honors and rank later in life. His work on the Portuguese and Spanish in south American Waters is worth the read, alone.

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good true historical companion to Aubrey/Maturin novels of Patrick O'Brian. It is an enlightening read as to how political connection or political enemies can prove to further or disenfranchise a naval career in the RBN circa the Napoleonic War era.

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the inspiration for Jack Aubrey and Horatio Hornblower, it's no surprise Lord Cochrane was an interesting character. This is only a short biography though, it would be fun to get some more detail.

[Mati · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thomas Cochrane (1775-1860), the 10th Earl of Dundonald, was one of the most controversial figure in British naval history. His modest background and his climbs up to the career ladder only to be marred by his excesses, which were sometimes as genial as unscrupulous and often leading either to promotion or to danger of great loss for Cochrane. The book follow his naval and political career closely and gives several very interesting opinions and insights in his motivation and also putting light in to darker corner of his life...fraud, love affairs etc.

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Being a sucker for Napoleonic Naval combat, I ate this book up. If you like Aubrey / Maturin, this enhances it.

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an historical biography of Lord Thomas Cochrane. Because he wanted to reform the government & get rid of injustice, he was persecuted.

[Nathan Albright · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book with a good purpose, and with some limitations (most notably its dependence on English-language sources), it manages to succeed at a very difficult mission. It is difficult for contemporary audiences familiar with Master and Commander to appreciate just how wide the gulf was in reputation the name of Lord Cochrane was, with historical novelists viewing him as a dashing and brave and historians tending to take a much more negative view of the Lord as an incompetent and insubordinate stormy petrel. In a way, this book seeks to prove both sides right by taking a larger view of the life of a complicated man, from the beginnings of his life as an impoverished Scottish nobleman who profits from patronage and then bites the hand that feeds later on.

In terms of its narrative, this is a mostly traditional chronological story, in which the exceptions from this rule are made in order to preserve different themes in the complicated story of the life of Lord Cochrane, starting with his early search for a naval career, then moving to his disastrously unsuccessful time in Parliament, and then his checkered career abroad in the navies of Chile, Peru, Brazil, and Greece. The book, as mentioned before, is a bit slim on sources from non-English language sources, which is problematic in that it presents a biased perspective given that Cochrane was English and spent much of the prime of his career in South America and the Mediterranean. The book then discusses his later life, where he was restored to the good graces of the public after a disastrous early adulthood that included prison. At least he had a loyal and beautiful wife to run interference for him. So, even if the life story is full of drama and incident, it ends mostly happily with long life and wealth and honor, if a few enemies were made along the way.

There are a few themes with this book that are worth noting. Cochrane is a rebellious naval officer in a very rigid profession. With a gift at making enemies and a terrible lack of ability in politics, he made his own life very difficult. With dodgy financial decisions and at least one uncle who was a horrible role model, getting him imprisoned because of financial speculation, he clearly did not have the best network surrounding him, and if he was principled in seeking liberty at home and around the world, he did not enjoy the comfort of being vindicated until late in life, after suffering decades of political and personal exile and personal difficulty. At least everything worked out in the end, though.