Qu arte rd eck

Author
Interviews:
Julian Stockwin March/April 2009
William H. White
 CONTENTS
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FEATURES
PUBLISHER
6 Julian Stockwin Alexander Skutt
English author Julian Stockwin follows Nelson’s footsteps in alex@mcbooks.com
as he prepares to write his new Thomas Paine Kydd novel,
QUARTERDECK EDITOR
Victory.
George Jepson
269-372-4673
11 William H. White gdjepson@gmail.com
American novelist and maritime historian William H. White EDITORIAL DIRECTOR
discusses When Fortune Frowns, his latest work of fiction. Jackie Swift
jackie@mcbooks.com
RECENTLY LAUNCHED CUSTOMER SERVICE DIRECTOR
Robin Cisne
15 War for All the Oceans by Roy and Lesley Adkins robin@mcbooks.com

Nelson’s Trafalgar by Roy Adkins IT DIRECTOR

chris@mcbooks.com
Sword Song by Bernard Cornwell

Prices are subject to

IAIN GALE change without notice.

16 For Queen and Country

Waterloo

Cover photo of Julian Stockwin at the starboard bow of HMS Victory

by Kathy Stockwin.

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2
SCUTTLEBUTT
N EW B OO K
P UB LI C ATI O N D ATES
2009 - 2010
US (United States)
UK (United Kingdom)
PB (Paperback)
TPB (Trade Paperback)
HC (Hardcover)

April

When Fortune Frowns (USHC)

by William H. White

HMS Cockerel (USTPB)

by Dewey Lambdin

May
Her Royal Highness Princess Anne was recently shown a model of the little
brig-sloop HMS Teazer, Thomas Kydd’s first command, by English novelist
Julian Stockwin (right) during a visit to the Ivybridge Library in Devon. Teazer The Frigate Surprise (USHC)
was built over the course of 2008 by British master modeller John Thompson, by Geoff Hunt and Brian Lavery
who presented it to Julian and Kathy Stockwin. The model was on loan to the
library. (Photo by Kathy Stockwin) The Tide of War (UKHC)
by Seth Hunter
LOUIS ARTHUR NORTON
Captains Contentious - The Dysfunctional The Hawk (UKPB)
Sons of the Brine (right) by American naval by Peter Smalley
historian Louis Norton offers original
insights into a quirky quintet of naval Captains Contentious (USHC)
by Louis Arthur Norton
heroes of the American Revolution. The
book is scheduled for publication on May
June
31, 2009. A native of the old seaport of
Gloucester, Massachusetts, Norton is a The Glory Boys (UKPB)
professor emeritus at the University of by Douglas Reeman
Connecticut. Among his previous books is
Joshua Barney - Hero of the Revolution and July
1812.
The Gathering Storm (UKHC)
ALEXANDER KENT by Peter Smalley
English novelist Alexander Kent’s new
Adam Bolitho novel, In the King’s Name, is now scheduled to be published Ship of Rome (UKPB)
in 2010 in the UK. It follows Heart of Oak in the Bolitho series. by John Stack

October
WILLIAM C. HAMMOND
Publication of For Love of Country by William C. Hammond, the second
Invasion (USHC)
title in the Cutler Family Chronicles following A Matter of Honor, has been by Julian Stockwin
delayed. A new launch date has not been announced.
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BY GEORGE!

Sweetwater Heritage
S
ailing our wooden cat-ketch Jane shipped to European fashion houses.
Ann along the sugar-sand beaches Growing up near the shorelines of the
and dunes on Lake Michigan’s Great Lakes and studying maritime histo-
ry, I gained a great respect for the legacy
eastern shoreline, it’s not difficult
to imagine the same waters a century and left behind by generations of courageous
more ago, when white sails were common mariners. My great-grandfather, Captain
sights on the horizon. George Jepson, was the skipper of a small,
During the 1800s, schooners were the two-masted schooner in the late 1800s,
dominant vessels sailing the Great Lakes, sailing out of Manistee, Michigan, a mar-
itime community that a few years earlier
had consisted of three sawmills servicing
the burgeoning lumber industry.
Manistee was typical of the many
towns and villages that flourished at the
mouths of rivers running into the Great
Lakes, which had been founded and
began to grow because of trade carried on
under sail and, later, steamers. Not sur-
prising, most of them were involved in
building boats and ships.
Now, to the uninitiated, the Great
Lakes are woefully misnamed. These
inland seas are not anything like the
placid lakes many believe them to be.
South Haven Pier Light on Lake Michigan ... They’re notoriously unpredictable, and
threatening to vessels of all sizes, includ-
delivering goods from port to port, as ing freighters like the Edmund Fitzgerald.
maritime communities along the shore- Several years ago, I crewed aboard a
lines began to prosper. Travel under sail 30-foot sloop sailing south from
was easier and more economical in a time Charlevoix, Michigan, to Holland on the
when railroads had yet to expand their western shore of the state’s lower peninsu-
lines to small towns and villages, and la. After clearing the Charlevoix piers, we
“highways” were often little more than had a lovely sail as the sun set across the
mud tracks. lake in Wisconsin. We overnighted in
Long before the schooners, Native Leland, and sailed to Pentwater the fol-
Americans paddled and sailed the same lowing day. A front moved into the
waters in birchbark canoes. And then region, and we were weathered-in for two
came the French-Canadian voyageurs, who days. Believing the forecast that the worst
carried furs from the northwestern fron- was over, we embarked once again, hop-
tier through well-travelled routes on the
Lakes to Montreal, where they were CONTINUED ON PAGE 18

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BOOKSHELF
When Fortune Frowns
By William H. White
“... great historical fiction – a fascinating (and true) story, scrupulously
researched and fleshed-out with characters who have the ring of authenticity.”
James L. Nelson
I
t is autumn 1790 when Captain
Edward Edwards takes command of
HMS Pandora, a 24-gun Royal Navy
Porcupine-class frigate bound for the
South Seas. Her mission: locate and cap-
ture the mutineers who seized His
Majesty’s Armed Vessel Bounty, set
Captain William Bligh and eighteen loyal
officers and seamen adrift, and recover the
lost vessel.
In When Fortune
Frowns, William H.
White skillfully tells the
story of HMS Pandora
through the eyes of
Lieutenant Edward
Ballantyne, a fictional
character, who joins the
ship’s company under
Captain Edwards in
Portsmouth Harbour as
she is about to sail.
Ballantyne’s English-
dialect voice adds an
authenticity to his narra-
tive, which White says
came “from spending a great deal of time
with British people in Cayman – learning
phrasing and expressions that they used,
and that an American would likely not.”
Although technically a novel, When
Fortune Frowns sticks to documented facts
concerning Pandora, Captain Edwards,
and the actual historical figures who took
part in the Bounty mutiny and the ensu-
ing events over a period of five years.
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Weaving fact with fiction has produced a
wonderfully engaging yarn of the sea and
the era of wooden sailing vessels.
Early on, as Ballantyne strolls through
the Georgian-period Royal Dockyard in
Portsmouth in search of Pandora, the
aroma of Stockholm tar and canvas wafts
off the pages. “It’s all coming back,” the
young lieutenant says to himself. “... the
smells, the language, the hustle and bustle
of a busy yard. Like coming home again!”
And indeed it is for readers of the sea.
White’s research travels unfurled from
England to Australia to Tahiti, as he col-
lected historical minutiae with which to
color his story. The Royal Dockyard scene
had been written prior to his visit there to
read Pandora’s original log in the Naval
Archives. “After I walked through those
huge wooden gates and toured the yard,”
White recalls, “I realized I had to rewrite
the whole scene to ‘get it right,’ thus stir-
ring the memory of people who had also
visited.”
The events surrounding the Bounty
mutiny continue to resonate well over
two centuries after Fletcher Christian and
his band of mutineers disappeared with
the ship in the Great South Seas. William
White’s detailed and vivid account of
HMS Pandora’s adventures is a delightful
addition to the Bounty’s literature and
legend. GDJ
HARDCOVER | 343 PAGES | $29.95
5
 JULIAN STOCKWIN

In Nelson’s Footsteps
Thomas Kydd’s creator journeys back in time aboard HMS
Victory and in the Historic Dockyard at Portsmouth, England.

S SINCE THE THOMAS PAINE KYDD sea stories were launched nearly
a decade ago, English novelist Julian Stockwin has journeyed to far cor-
ners of the world in which the Royal Navy sailed during the French
Revolutionary War and the Napoleonic Wars. Stockwin and his wife and
literary partner Kathy have visited Gilbraltar, the Caribbean, Brittany,
Malta, the Channel Islands, and the former smuggling village of Polperro
in Devon, as they have sought to create
the fabric of Kydd’s life.
The new Kydd sea story, Invasion,
which follows The Privateer’s Revenge
(Treachery in the UK), will be published
simultaneously in America and the
United Kingdom in October 2009. In
October 2010, a new novel – with the
working title Victory – will be published
in the US and UK.
Soon after the manuscript for Invasion
was sent to their publishers, the
Stockwins embarked on another research
expedition, this time to Portsmouth, fol-
lowing in Nelson’s footsteps as he pre-
pared for the Battle of Trafalgar on 21
October 1805.
During 10 days in Portsmouth, Julian
was allowed complete access to HMS
Victory, and the Historic Dockyard and
environs, from which Nelson embarked
for the last time. As the new novel devel-
ops in the coming months, Trafalgar will
play a significant role.
Julian Stockwin (left) aboard HMS Victory with Keeper and Curator of HMS While in Portsmouth, the Stockwins
Victory Peter Goodwin (Photo by Kathy Stockwin). also met with Ken Yalden, past president

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of the International Guild of Knot
Tyers, in Julian’s ongoing quest for
authenticity in his books.
The author recently chatted with
Quarterdeck about his time in
Portsmouth, researching his new
novel.
Julian, how were you able to arrange
for such intimate access to HMS
Victory ?
I have known Peter Goodwin,
Keeper and Curator of HMS Victory
for a number of years. We both
served in the [Royal] Navy at about
the same time, although in different
areas of the Service (Peter was a
nuclear submariner). A few months
back, I rang Peter to see whether it
might be possible to obtain special
access to Victory, and he very kindly
arranged this for my location
research visit to Portsmouth in early
December, 2008. Although I did
know the ship pretty well after many
visits over the years I was amazed at
how much more work Peter has
done to bring this iconic ship back
to how she was in Nelson’s day. To
give just one example he has reeved
nearly all the running rigging. Most
display ships from that era around
today only have standing rigging –
i.e. the stays, shrouds etc., holding
up the masts. The main reason for
this is that rigging for the standing
rigging is tarred and preserved, and
lasts a long time. Running rigging –
the operating machinery of the ship
– used for braces, sheets, etc., is not
tarred and as such is costly to main-
tain. It also makes the ship
look extremely complex. With what
Peter has done for all intents and
purposes you could bend on sail on
Victory and go. Along these lines I
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JULIAN STOCKWIN
was impressed with what he has
done with one of Victory’s boats,
which sits on the dock alongside. It
is rigged with full fore and main
yardarm stay tackles for launching
exactly as it was in Nelson’s day
(there are no davits for the big boats
on the skid beams amidships, and
up to two hundred men would be
needed in swaying up and out the
four-ton boat and crew).
Did ghosts from the ship’s past
“speak” to you as you walked her
decks in ways that will enhance the
“If any reader
and lover of the
great age of
fighting sail has
not visited this
historic ship in
the last five
years or so, I
urge you to do
so ...”
writing of your new novel?
Of course! From Nelson and the
captain, Hardy, right down to the
powder monkeys. I stepped out
where they all would have worked
and lived, even to inspecting the
heads in Captain Hardy’s cabin. The
work Peter Goodwin has done has
really brought the ship alive in a way
that is hugely atmospheric – his
attention to detail includes locating
surviving iron foundries to cast real
shot and finding a master rigger to
ensure the breeching for the massive
32-pounders is not only left-hand
lay [direction in which its strands
are twisted], but also properly dou-
bled with a cut splice [weaving the
ends of two lines] around the casca-
ble [aft end of the gun, with an
opening in the line passing around
the button].
Did you make new discoveries dur-
ing your time aboard Victory , com-
pared to previous visits?
The 2005 [bicentennial] anniversary
of Trafalgar concentrated minds
wonderfully on this precious piece
of heritage, and since then Peter, as
curator, has been encouraged to
research and discover all kinds of
fascinating detail about life aboard
and how the “machinery,” simple
and complex, all came together in
the most powerful expression of
naval might for three generations.
He will not accept things merely
because a book says so – he’ll go to
the specific fitting and test and work
it until he has it understood. In
another field, I suppose he’d be
recognised as an experimental
archaeologist.
Was there anything different about
this time aboard Victory than your
previous visits?
If any reader and lover of the great
age of fighting sail has not visited
this historic ship in the last five
years or so, I urge you to do so. She
is now in as handsome a condition
as at any time in the last two cen-
turies, and must now be close to
when she sailed against the
7

Combined Fleet in 1805. It will be
the scale of the old battleship that
will take the breath away – with all
the rigging in place now you can see
blocks so big they need four men to
lift them, ropes as thick as a man’s
leg, and cleats fully the size of an
adult! Do tarry until dusk and take
in the breath-taking view of the
great black tops and soaring rigging
lined against the sky – the very pic-
ture of arrogant grace and fighting
splendour! And then into night
when the admiral’s lanthorn is lit
(she is still the flagship of
Commander-in-Chief, Home
Command) and the ship’s floodlit
with a blaze of light upwards which
brings out her warlike beauty to per-
fection.
What did you learn from knot
expert Ken Yalden that will be help-
ful as the new Kydd novel evolves?
A chief boatswain’s mate of the old
school, Ken meets up with fellow
old salts to actively promote the arts
of the seaman around the world,
and specifically the knots and splices
that were so essential to keeping the
seas in Kydd’s day. Ken scolded me
for having Teazer’s seamen tricing up
their hammocks with half hitches
when the marline hitch was more
preferred for the regulation seven
turns. This is because due to the lay
of the rope the marline hitch does
not dig into the shoulders when car-
rying a hammock. Ken presented
my wife with some ingeniously
worked tiny rosebud knot earrings,
and for me there was a puzzle – a
stout stopper knot joining two
lengths of rope. But this one joined
a three stranded right-hand lay
hawser-laid rope over three inches in
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JULIAN STOCKWIN
circumference with a four stranded
equivalent, the place of join con-
cealed under whipping, so I can
drive myself witless wondering how
it was done.
Did the artist William Wyllie’s
panorama of the Battle of Trafalgar
in the Royal Naval Museum provide
new insights into the action?
Not really new insights, but his
splendid panorama does give you an
excellent overview of the battle.
Wyllie chose to set the scene at 2:00
“... take in the
breath-taking
view of the great
black tops and
soaring rigging
lined against the
sky – the very
picture of arro-
gant grace...”
PM on the afternoon of 21 October
1805, at the height of the battle
when the British had broken the line
of the combined French and Spanish
fleets. The Royal Naval Museum has
now incorporated the Wyllie
Panorama into “Trafalgar!” – a
multi-media presentation where you
can stand on the gundeck of a man-
o’-war and feel what it must have
been like in battle. I highly recom-
mend a visit. Wyllie was nearly 80
when he started this monumental
work!
Tell us about your thoughts as you
viewed the new Nelson bust in the
Nelson wardroom.
First, it was a trip down memory
lane, for as a naval officer I had
stayed at the Royal Navy base at
Portsmouth, Hampshire, HMS
Nelson, on numerous occasions
when I was working on a software
project for NATO. The bust itself,
let me tell you, is a splendid rendi-
tion of my great hero. It has pride of
place in the wardroom, and was
commissioned by an anonymous
donor to mark the 250th anniver-
sary of the birth of Nelson. The bust
is apparently based on a life mask of
Nelson produced in Vienna in 1800.
It seemed such an appropriate set-
ting, and after we had admired it we
were taken to lunch in the historic
mess with mighty paintings and
Nelson memorabilia on all four
walls, a wonderful place for a naval
officer to dine, believe me.
You also visited the Mary Rose, the
Royal Marines Museum and the
Historic Dockyard. What did you
learn that will be helpful in your
writing?
These other venues were largely to
do with research-checking material
for my non-fiction book project,
Stockwin’s Maritime Miscellany,
which covers the Golden Age of Sail
from the voyages of discovery in the
fifteenth century through the
Napoleonic wars to the era of the
clipper ship. However, I also took
away various facts and anecdotes
from the Royal Marines Museum
and the Dockyard to salt away for
future Kydd books. I am never with-
out my little dictaphone, and I can

quickly note down material to be
transcribed later into my
historical/sea relational database,
which is quite sizeable now, and
which is constantly referenced when
I am writing.
Is there anything else you would like
to share about your time in
Portsmouth?
Kathy and I were delighted to renew
a number of naval friendships.
Admiral Paul Boissier kindly took
time out of his very busy schedule to
talk to us in his office at Whale
Island, with its view of Portsmouth
Harbour overlooking the very spot
mentioned in the new Kydd book
coming out this year (Invasion). We
also looked up Commander Richard
Morris, who had invited us to spend
time aboard his destroyer previously,
sailing from Plymouth to
Portsmouth.
We stayed at Gunwharf Quays, a
vibrant commercial/residential com-
plex right on the harbour. The site
was established as a naval ordnance
yard in the late seventeenth century.
Gunwharf (previously known as
HMS Vernon) was the home of the
Royal Navy’s Mine Countermeasures
training facilities. The present site is
a sympathetic mix of twentieth cen-
tury buildings and older ones from
Kydd’s day, including the Vulcan
Building, where we stayed. It has
been converted into loft-style apart-
ments. Ironically, it is, as well, where
I studied for promotion to lieu-
tenant quite some years ago, and
initially I felt quite disoriented to be
within what I remember as a proper
Royal Navy shore base.
Of course Portsmouth has a long
tradition of the Navy and the sea.
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JULIAN STOCKWIN
But not everyone always thought
highly of the town – Jack Tar could
be quite boisterous on the ran-tan
ashore! Nelson himself is on record
for once calling it “a horrid place.”
However, visits to Portsmouth punc-
tuated Nelson’s career, and the town
saw him develop from an awkward
midshipman to a great national
hero. It was from Portsmouth that
he first went to sea to join his uncle
Captain Suckling aboard
Raisonnable in 1771, and it was at
Portsmouth that he took his last
steps on English soil in 1805.
“After Nelson
embarked in his
barge, men and
women ran knee
deep into the
water. Then
came the cheers
as he was rowed
out to Victory ...”
One of the most poignant aspects
of our visit was reconstructing that
last walk of Nelson. Although the
hotel in which he stayed, George
Inn, was bombed during the Second
World War, it is possible to find the
location of the hotel and trace his
steps, as we did.
Nelson arrived at the George at
6:00 AM on the morning of 14
September 1805, had breakfast, and
then paid a call on the Dockyard
Commissioner. Meanwhile Victory
had gone to single anchor in St.
Helen’s Roads, not far from
Spithead, and at 11:30 AM hoisted
Nelson’s flag. News had quickly
gone around Portsmouth that the
sea hero had arrived in town and
great crowds gathered in front of the
George.
Nelson decided to leave by the
back entrance of the hotel, in Penny
Street, to avoid the huge press of
people. He walked along the north
side of Governor’s Green, by the
King’s Bastion to Spur Redoubt, and
then down to a little shingle beach
away from Sally Port, the usual place
that naval officers embarked.
Crowds flocked all along the route,
and Nelson had to push his way
through the throng. He greeted
them with great good humour and
said he wished he had two arms so
he could shake more hands.
Perhaps the people had some
sense of the future as there was no
cheering, but a respectful quiet.
Men doffed their hats and women
were seen to be in tears. A fortune
teller in the West Indies had once
told Nelson that she could see no
further than his forty-seventh birth-
day, and at this stage this birthday
was only a few weeks away.
After Nelson embarked in his
barge, men and women ran knee
deep into the water. Then came the
cheers, as he was rowed out to
Victory. Nelson, touched, said to
Hardy in the barge, “I had their
huzzas before, I have their hearts
now.” Victory sailed at 8:00 AM on
Sunday, 15 September 1805, and
Horatio Nelson met his death at one
bell in the first dog watch, 21
October.
Visit Julian Stockwin online at
www.julianstockwin.com.
9
 THOMAS KYDD NEW NAVAL FICTION
SEA ADVENTURES
The Time of Terror
By Julian Stockwin By Seth Hunter
This is the first in a trilogy
featuring Nathan Peake,
British naval officer and spy
during the war with
Revolutionary France. It is
1793, and Peake, com-
mander of the brig-sloop
Nereus, based at Rye in East
Sussex, is patrolling the
south coast of England in
the war against smugglers.
Unhappy with his commis-
sion and desperate for real
action, he gets his chance
Julian Stockwin when Revolutionary France declares war on England.
The French have killed their king and are about to
embark on that violent period of bloodletting known as
1 - Kydd the Terror. Peake is entrusted with a vital mission to
$15.00 | Trade Paperback wreck the French economy by smuggling millions of
French banknotes across the Channel and into the heart
2 - Artemis of Paris. As he embarks on his mission, opposition to
$15.00 | Trade Paperback the Terror mounts, and he is soon forced to leave Paris
and find the storm-tossed British squadrons in the
3 - Seaflower Atlantic.
$15.00 | Trade Paperback
Trade Paperback | 439 pages | $17.95
4 - Mutiny
$14.00 | Trade Paperback
Seth Hunter is the pseudonym of the author of a
5 - Quarterdeck
number of highly acclaimed novels. He has written
$16.00 | Trade Paperback
and and directed many historical dramas for televi-
sion, radio, and the theatre, and has adapted and
6 - Tenacious
directed films by playwrights such as Arthur Miller
$14.00 | Trade Paperback
and Mikhail Bulgakov.
7 - Command
$14.00 | Trade Paperback
Coming in the May/June
8 - The Admiral’s Daughter issue of Quarterdeck ...
$16.00 | Trade Paperback

9 - The Privateer’s Revenge Marine artist Geoff Hunt

$24.00 | Hardcover Historians Roy and Lesley Adkins

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 WILLIAM H. WHITE

After the Bounty

“I have long held an interest in the Bounty mutiny and
marveled at how many of the accounts of it,
along with the movies, got it wrong.”

W
ILLIAM H. WHITE – American novelist
and maritime historian best known for his
naval fiction set during the War of 1812
and the Barbary Wars – sails on a new tack
in his new book When Fortune Frowns. The story of the 1789
Bounty mutiny has long intrigued historians, novelists, and
readers of sea adventures, including White. The
author’s latest work of fictionalized history
recounts the story of HMS Pandora, dispatched
by the Admiralty to apprehend the mutineers
and recover the Bounty.
White discusses When Fortune Frowns
and his journey to get the story right in
this interview with Quarterdeck.

What motivated you to write about the

Bounty mutiny?

I have long held an interest in the

Bounty mutiny and marveled at how
many of the accounts of it, along with
the movies, got it wrong. The worst
movie, of course, was the first, with Clark
Gable as Fletcher Christian. There was little
right about the story, being totally
Hollywoodized, with complete disregard for the
history. But that’s Hollywood, and the subsequent
films were almost as bad. In fairness, the most recent,
with Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins, was the best.
William H. White
But none of them gave the follow-up.

What drew you to write about the mission of HMS Pandora?

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When I read Caroline Alexander’s
fine effort on the Bounty story [The
Bounty], I discovered in her pro-
logue, the story of England’s efforts
to capture the mutineers. Without
taking anything away from her bril-
liant book, well-researched and well-
written, I realized that here was a
great tale which no one had written.
So, while all of my books to date
have been on the American Navy
(and of a somewhat later period), I
decided that people might be inter-
ested in hearing the conclusion to
the well-known story of the Bounty
and the mutineers. I was, and con-
tinue to be, of the impression that
most people think all the mutineers
went to Pitcairn Island, while in
fact, there were only nine, including
Fletcher Christian, who sailed off to
find an out-of-the-way-place to
hide, leaving sixteen men in Tahiti.
Why did you decide to fictionalize
the story of HMS Pandora, rather
than write a straight history of the
events?
All of my stories have been fictional-
ized, while remaining true to the
history about which I write. I find
that more people enjoy reading fic-
tion than non-fiction and, as an
added bonus, they also learn some-
thing. An additional benefit of writ-
ing fiction is that I can add some
interesting characters and dialogue
which, of course, one can not do
with non-fiction. Basically, it just
makes the book more fun to read,
and allows the reader, by personaliz-
ing the story, to place him or herself
into the action.
How did you research When Fortune
Frowns?
12 QUARTERDECK | MARCH/APRIL 2009 | 1-888-266-5711 | www.mcbooks.com
WILLIAM H. WHITE
The research was great fun. Due to
my compulsion about using primary
sources for research, I had to travel
to where the information resided.
That included Portsmouth,
England, where I held and read the
original log of Pandora, the captain’s
notes and the record of his court-
martial, along with related docu-
ments concerning the wreck and
events that occurred along the way.
Since the wreck was discovered in
“All of my stories
have been fictional-
ized, while remaining
true to the history
about which I write. I
find that more people
enjoy reading fiction
than non-fiction and,
as an added bonus,
they also learn
something.”
1979 and artifacts recovered from it,
I then went to Australia, where Peter
Gesner, chief archeologist, diver, and
curator of the exhibit relating to
Pandora at the wonderful Museum
of Tropical Queensland in
Townsville, Australia spent a great
amount of time discussing the
recovery, the story, and, most impor-
tantly, correcting some of the
assumptions I had made relative to
the incident. He gave me a behind-
the-scenes look at artifacts not on
display, as well. Then, since a large
part of the story takes place in Tahiti
and I find it difficult to describe
places I have not seen, I traveled to
Tahiti for a look at Matavai Beach,
the mountains surrounding it, and
the neighboring islands. I was lucky
enough to be asked to lecture on
one of the Star Clippers sailing
through the islands about the
Bounty/Pandora story, and so, com-
bined the two quite neatly! While
time-consuming, the research was
most rewarding!
Did you uncover any surprises in
your research?
Well, I guess I would say my discov-
eries about Captain Edwards’ tyran-
nical behavior and the dichotomy
that existed between him and Bligh
would be high on the list. Also the
number of mutineers that survived
the wreck and the open boat voyage
to Indonesia was a bit of a surprise.
Reviewing both Pandora Surgeon
Hamilton’s and Bounty mutineer
James Morrison’s differing accounts
provided a few interesting contrasts,
as well. And finally, the fact that
nary a soul in the British Admiralty
ever said a documented word about
Edwards regarding his treatment of
his prisoners, but allowed Bligh’s
permanently besmirched reputation
to go unchallenged, seemed a trifle
surprising to me.
What was your greatest challenge in
researching and writing the book?
The amount of time required for the
research and, of course, while “get-
ting there is half the fun,” it was also
a significant challenge. Another dif-
ficulty I experienced was keeping
true to the facts of the events while
adding a few interesting fictional
events to further involve the reader.

Determining, by researching the
scant material on the real individuals
in the story, actions they might have
done or words they would have been
likely to say presented a different
kind of challenge. I hope I have
been true to them and presented an
accurate image of the players.
As you researched the history, did
you sympathize with either the
mutineers or Bligh and the party
with whom he had been set adrift?
Given the treatment the mutineers
received once captured, I would
have to say my sympathies, though
somewhat limited, lay with the
mutineers. Not because of any mis-
treatment they received from Bligh,
but primarily because, given the lim-
ited space in Bligh’s boat, not all of
the men who stayed in Tahiti were a
part to the mutiny; they had little
choice but to remain with the ship
after Christian had taken it over. But
of course, Edwards had no way of
knowing who was and who was not
a real mutineer, so all were treated as
criminals. This was based on his
orders, which were quite explicit.
Did the extensive Bounty art by
marine artist Paul Garnett assist in
visualizing the story?
Paul is a Bounty connoisseur. His
collection of Bounty memorabilia,
both relative to the original story
and the reproduction of Bligh’s ship
on which he served as shipwright for
seven years, is extensive, and he is a
veritable mine of information about
both Bounty and Pandora. His art-
work is accurate to a fault and is
based on his own research, much of
which paralleled my own. He paint-
QUARTERDECK | MARCH/APRIL 2009 | 1-888-266-5711 | www.mcbooks.com
WILLIAM H. WHITE
NAVAL FICTION
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The year is 1803, and young Oliver Baldwin
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Midshipman Oliver Baldwin, recently back
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fifty-gun HMS Leopard outside the Virginia
Capes. The British vessel is seeking Royal Navy
deserters, and when Commodore James Barron
refuses the British captain’s orders to produce
them, fires into the ill-prepared American
frigate with disastrous results. The incident was
a major contributor to the War of 1812, which
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William H. White is a former United , States naval officer, with combat
service. He is also an avid, life-long sailor. As a maritime historian, he
specializes in Age of Sail events in which the United States was a key
player, and lectures frequently on the impact of these events on America’s
history. He lives in New Jersey with his wife.
13

ed the scenes depicted in the log and
other primary writings, while I
wrote them. I can only say in some
cases, his art provided me with a bit
of a shortcut to my telling the tale
and describing some of the major
events. And the cover painting, done
expressly for the book, gives the
reader a graphic look at the ship-
wreck in case my words don’t con-
jure up a suitable image on their
own.
What more is there for historians to
learn about the Bounty mutiny and
the aftermath?
WILLIAM H. WHITE
tainly a different approach for me, nificant event in maritime history,
as all the participants in my previous and sheds light on a final chapter,
stories have been long dead! which has been neglected by writers,
both in the fiction as well as in the
Is there anything else you would like non-fiction genres for far too long.
to say to our readers?
Visit William H. White online at
I can only hope they will read this www.seafiction.net.
story and enjoy it. It closes out a sig-
NAVAL FICTION
War of 1812 Trilogy
By William H. White

There is a host of details which I

chose not to include in my book,
because they added little, in my
opinion, to the story I was telling.
But there are many interesting facts
relative to the mutineers’ lives in
Tahiti, their relationships with the
islanders, and the follow-on regard-
ing what happened to the families
they started while there, which, to
my knowledge, no one has yet told.
1 - A Press of Canvas
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BY GEORGE!
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 4
ing to make Holland in one run.
As we tacked south out of Pentwater, we were beating
into a southerly that was kicking up the waters in the
Manitou Passage, making life aboard uncomfortable. By
mid-afternoon, after tacking farther out into the lake,
the sky turned a yellowish pea green – at least that’s my
memory of it – and the winds increased to thirty miles
per hours. Suddenly, there was a loud snapping sound,
and our boom was swinging wildly after breaking loose
from the mast. The gooseneck fitting had failed. There
was nothing to do but drop the mainsail. Motoring was
an option, but in the building seas we were making
minimal headway. The jib (or foresail) was left flying in
an effort to stablize the motion of the boat. As the light
dimished at dusk, we were in seas that towered over us.
The boat climbed the crest of one wave and then rapid-
ly slid down into the trough. By midnight, the wind
had shifted to the north, and we were sledding south-
ward with a somewhat easier motion. At about 4:00
AM, the light on the pierhead at Muskegon was visible
off our port bow, and within minutes we were motoring
into the calm harbor. Although this adventure occurred
over 30 years ago, I can still feel the movement of the
boat and the power of Mother Nature.
So on a sunny summer day, standing on a bluff in
South Haven, Michigan, overlooking one of the Great
Lakes once called “sweetwater seas” by those who sailed
them, I can envision a horizon dotted with white sails.
Down below, on the Black River which flows into Lake
Michigan, the wharves of 125 years ago would have
been loaded with lumber, waiting to be shifted aboard
the schooners tied up alongside. An inward-bound pas-
senger steamer might have slipped past the piers extend-
ing into the lake, belching black smoke, and announc-
ing its arrival with a throaty whistle. On the shore, a
scow schooner, with a square bow and stern, might be
on the stocks, with a crew of shipwrights working to
finish the vessel as quickly as possible. South Haven
then was a thriving maritime town, along with many
others that populated the shores of the Lakes. Today, the
small city is a tourist mecca, with beautiful beaches,
well-appointed marinas, and quaint shops. But the mar-
itime legacy created by courageous sailors – a great
many of them imigrants from Scandinavian countries –
over a century ago has all but vanished.
As the railroads and motor transportation evolved in
18 QUARTERDECK | MARCH/APRIL 2009 | 1-888-266-5711 | www.mcbooks.com
the twentieth century, Americans looked inland, away
from the Lakes. Schooners that had survived the ele-
ments slowly rotted away in backwaters, their bleached
bones disappearing under shifting sands. In places like
the Manitou Passage, Thunder Bay off Alpena,
Michigan, and the Shipwreck Coast along the southern
shore of Lake Superior, the lake bottoms are the final
resting places for thousands of wrecked vessels, victims
of violent storms, shoals, and sometimes bad luck.
These days, a small dedicated band of historians and
archeologists work to document middle America’s mar-
itime heritage. Since the early 1960s, C. Patrick
Labadie, historian at the Thunder Bay National Marine
Sanctuary and Underwater Refuge has collected rare
photographs and the histories of ships and boats dating
back to the nineteenth century. Pat’s collection, which
now belongs to the Marine Sanctuary, can be viewed
online at www.greatlakesships.org. It’s a window back in
time to an era when the Great Lakes were seaways for
commerce in America’s heartland.
So when we raise Jane Ann’s sails in the South Haven
channel, and tack northward or southward just beyond
the barn-red lighthouse on our port side, we journey
back to another time. The only sounds are the pop of a
setting sail, the creak of a wooden spars, wind in the rig-
ging, the cries of gulls, and the gurgle of sweetwater
along the hull.
George Jepson
ID Booth Building
520 North Meadow Street
Ithaca, NY 14850