Richard Woodman

The second instalment of The William Kite Naval Adventures, full of battle and intrigue. The Seven Years War is over, and William Kite is now a successful ship-owner in Liverpool, happily married and gradually taking over the running of the business. But tranquility can only last so long. When deception and tragedy strike, the devastated Kite goes back to sea. Far from recovering his fortune, Kite becomes enmeshed in the beginnings of the American...

The shattering finale to the Kit Faulkner naval adventures. England, 1659. Captain Kit Faulkner's house is prospering; his eldest son has recently returned from a profitable trip to Jamaica in the good ship Faithful, and his daughter is to be married. But the resignation of the Lord Protector, Richard Cromwell, throws England into uncertainty. Will the republic flourish, or will a King return to the throne? Kit is content to let matters take their...

The final thrilling instalment of The William Kite Naval Adventures. The American Revolution is in full swing, with Yankee privateers swarming in British waters. For ship-owners like Captain William Kite of Liverpool, ruin is only a gun-shot away. When providence strikes the embattled Kite yet again, he is desperate to restore his fortune and travels to London for a final throw of the dice. He travels from the smoky air of the city to the thunderous...

A wartime attack on a defenceless merchant convoy brings the intent of the Admiralty into question. Was it merely a bad tactical decision or something more sinister? Why did Admiral Dudley Pound scatter Convoy PQ17 in the Barents Sea on the evening of 4th July 1942? Most of the merchant ships were destroyed while not a single one of the warships assigned to protect them was lost, casting a long shadow over subsequent events. Why did Pound act as...

For the British, the Battle of the Atlantic was a fight for survival. They depended on the safe transit of hundreds of convoys of merchant ships laden with food, raw materials and munitions from America to feed the country and to keep the war effort going, and they had to export manufactured goods to pay for it all. So Britain's merchant navy, a disparate collection of private vessels, became the country's lifeline, while its seamen, officially non-combatants,...

A stirring tale of life aboard ship during the last great days of the Merchant Navy New junior officer Laddie signs on to the cargo liner Antigone on a voyage to the Far East. He finds himself part of a crew who all have their own stories to tell about life at sea. Over the course of the eventful journey to Hong Kong and Singapore, he comes to know them all, from Captain 'China Dick' Richards and the experienced and remote Master to the vulnerable...

Captain John Mackinnon and his ship, the Matthew Flinders, are embarking on their last voyage. Both endangered species, they symbolize the irreversible, quiet decline of the British merchant fleet. But this journey to Hong Kong will prove to be anything but quiet. Internal tensions among the crew provoke unrest and lead to a navigation error, steering them right into the violent, destructive path of Typhoon David. Suddenly the crew of the Matthew...

In the late 18th and early 19th centuries the captains and crews of the world's great sailing ships braved weather, enemies, and disease asea. This volume chronicles the true-life exploits of these men and restores these sea warriors their moment.