A Chinese Command: A story of adventure in Eastern Seas

by Harry Collingwood

I hope to goodness the poor old chap's got some encouragement to-day, if nothing else, for he's fearfully down on his luck, and no mistake , thinks Dick Penryn about his friend, Murray Frobisher. And, between me and those fire-irons there, I'm getting almost afraid to let him out of my sight, for fear he'll go and do something foolish ! But foolish endeavors seem the order of the day for Frobisher, a cashiered Royal Navy ex-officer. Frobisher inveigles himself into dozens of ambitious schemes to win fortune -- half of them done in hopes of restoring himself to good standing in his home country. Yet the wrong sorts of opportunities seem to come knocking -- from running arms to Korean rebels, to commanding of a battleship beneath a Chinese flag! A Chinese Command is one of the many world-spanning adventures penned by William Joseph Cosens Lancaster (1851-1922) under penname Harry Collingwood.

360 pages, Paperback

Published February 5, 2020

About the author

William Joseph Cosens Lancaster

1851-1922

Reviews

[John Cosc · Rating 4 out of 5]

The hero, Murray, was a Royal Navy Lieutenant dismissed the service in 1891 by a court martial after losing his Motor Torpedo Boat with all hands during an exercise. Desperate for work, he accepts a post as chief officer with Captain Drake on a steamer smuggling arms to rebels in Korea. Tasked with delivering the arms to a location inland he is betrayed by a government agent and ambushed. A prisoner, he witnesses the running fight between the government and the rebels trying to recover the arms. On the point of torture he is rescued by a senior Chinese naval officer who offers him a commission in the Chinese service as China is about to engage in war with Japan. Before he can take over his new command, a cruiser, she is run aground by an incompetent captain. While waiting for repairs, Murray is tasked with rooting out a next of river pirates. However, due to corruption, most of the charges in the gunboat's magazine are duds, and Murray is captured by the pirates. He escapes after several months with the aid of Captain Drake during the escape they discover a fantastic hidden treasure. In command of his cruiser, Murray plays a part in the naval battles with Japan. Shipwrecked, he falls into the hands of cannibals on Taiwan, but is rescued by the arrival of Japanese troops who take him prisoner. He escapes yet again, this time by seizing a Japanese destroyer. When he arrives back with the Chinese forces, he discovers that they were signing a treaty with the Japanese, and the destroyer was returned to Japan. He and Drake returned to the hidden treasure and brought it to England, where he found that his court-martial verdict had been overturned.