Synopsis: Returning to England after a dramatic voyage, Sam Witchall is taken on as a midshipman to serve on Nelson's flagship HMS Victory.

Review: This is the third and final instalment of Sam Witchall's seafaring adventures. We met him first in in Nelson's fleet in Powder Monkey, at the age of thirteen, then transported for a crime he didn't commit in Prison Ship, and now drawn back to the sea to see action at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, aged eighteeen.

 Like Nelson, Sam is a Norfolk boy, and Dowswell skilfully compares the sleepy life of early nineteenth century Broadland country life with the contrasts both of elegant city life and slum dwelling, and the hardships on board ship in battle. He has researched his period well, and is concerned not only with putting across the emotional repercussions of naval life, but also with creating as accurate a setting as possible while maintaining a gripping intensity of action.

Sam is a likable character, whose first person narrative brings immediacy to the novel, and whose thoughts on events allow readers to access detail about this historical period almost subliminally. We shall be sorry to see no more of this accident prone young sailor - perhaps, like Hornblower, he might be reprieved by the author to further his naval (or another) career?

2008-04-06