Requirements: .ePUB reader, 1 MB
Overview: George Edwardson is the ‘nom de plume’ of George Westropp, a former Fleet Street financial journalist and writer of naval and military historical novels and fly fishing and children’s books. Based in the South England, he is an amateur historian and genealogist.
Genre: Fiction > General Fiction/Classics Historical
Wharton (#1)
Midshipman Johnnie Wharton has no idea when he joins HMS St George as a 12-year-old that he is soon to take part in some of the greatest sea battles of Nelson’s Royal Navy.
Life aboard his next ship HMS Gibraltar is tough for the youngster and he and the other officers face disgrace as his Captain blunders badly at the Battle of the Glorious First of June.
Posted next to HMS Monarch, the 74-gun third rate is sent to the West Indies and survives a monstrous hurricane with the ship-of-the-line nearly wrecked.
Back in home waters, Wharton leaves Monarch and is sent to the fast brig-sloop Magpie, commanded by the pugnacious Captain Sotherton to assist in the British blockade of the French coast.
Sea fights with French ships off Brittany follow and then the capture of a valuable Dutch merchantman. Wharton’s share of the prize money from the sale of the Dutch ship’s cargo of wine and brandy help smooth the career ahead in the Royal Navy for this son of a Devon doctor.
Finally, Johnnie Wharton plays a key role in landing one of Prime Minister William Pitt’s spies on mainland France and the rescue of another with vital information about Napoleon’s plans to invade and capture Egypt to block Britain’s route to India.
Majestic (#2)
Majesticis a novel set in the turbulent years of the Napoleonic Wars as the Royal Navy fights the French for supremacy across the oceans of the world. It continues the career of Midshipman Johnnie Wharton in both great men-of-war and nimble brig-sloops.
Wharton is poised for promotion, hastened by the terrible toll suffered by HMS Majestic at Admiral Nelson’s great triumph at the Battle of the Nile. Wounded by an exploding cannon, he recovers to take command of a battery of guns in the decisive battle off Egypt’s Aboukir Bay.
While the battered Majestic awaits new masts and work to repair her hull, alongside many other of Nelson’s victorious ships at anchor off Naples, Wharton is loaned by his captain to a fast brig, HMS Swallow, which acts as the ‘eyes and ears’ of Admiral Duckworth’s small fleet as Britain seeks to re-conquer Menorca from the Spaniards.
Soon promoted to Acting Lieutenant, Wharton becomes one of Swallow’s key officers as they provide an early warning to Duckworth of any Spanish counterattack while seeking prizes along the way.
Johnnie Wharton learns more aboard Swallow about ship to ship battles than he ever could aboard Majestic, which prepares him for the great sea battles to come.
Ajax (#3)
The freshly promoted Lieutenant Johnnie Wharton RN, now recovered from the horrors of the Battle of the Nile, is ordered to Plymouth to join the Royal Navy’s newest battleship HMS Ajax as secondlieutenant.
The endless war at sea continues with the British naval blockade of all French ports and Wharton seems destined to spend the next year or so sailing back and forth opposite Brittany and the Bay of Biscay.
A surprise secondment to the fast brig-sloop HMS Cynthia, captained by the buccaneering Scotsman Rory Burns, leads to the capture of with a French schooner and, probably, more Prize Money. Then Burns and Wharton are ordered to scout for the attack on the Dutch fleet at anchor at Den Helder and De Vlieter in the Zuider Zee.
Napoleon and his Grand Armee’s invasion of Egypt has put Britain’s route to India in peril and Wharton plays a key role in the mass army and navy landings near Alexandria as an aide to Admiral Lord Keith and Captain Alexander Cochrane.
Peace talks between France and Britain at the end of 1801 cause concern for the Royal Navy with many officers and men facing being beached with half-pay or worse, as much of the fleet could be laid-up. Johnnie Wharton fears for the end of his naval career.
Goliath (#4)
France and Britain are finally at peace and many of the ships in the Royal Navy’s vast fleet are laid up. In the circumstances, Lieutenant John Wharton RN is amazed to be able to find the position of first lieutenant on the venerable but fast sloop HMS Camilla in Portsmouth.
By the autumn of 1802, the big question was how long the Treaty of Amiens would last and Britain’s seemingly endless war with the Napoleon’s France start again.
Convoy duty to Newfoundland and Canada follow with a vital diplomatic mission to Washington DC to try to avert another war with the United States. In company with his friend master gunner Toby Smeeton, the West Indies are the next destination with many adventures on the way.
Wharton is next posted first lieutenant of the grand 74-gun third rate HMS Goliath, but not before Wharton renews his friendship with the striking heiress Lady Penelope Marwood and her influential father Lord Paignton.
With the Treaty breaking down, Goliath is ordered to patrol between Jamaica and Haiti to disrupt the French navy and the prospect of valuable prizes soon becomes a reality.
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