Admiral Benbow

Product Description

Admiral John Benbow was an English naval hero a fighting sailor of ruthless methods but indomitable courage. Benbow was a man to be reckoned with. In 1702 however when Benbow engaged a French squadron off the Spanish main other ships in his squadron failed to support him. His leg shattered by a cannon-ball Benbow fought on
- but to no avail: the French escaped & the stricken Benbow succumbed to his wounds. When the story of his ' Last Fight' reached England there was an outcry. Two of the captains who had abandoned him were court-martialled & shot; ' Brave Benbow' was elevated from national hero to national legend his valour immortalized in broadsheet & folksong: ships were named after him; Tennyson later feted him in verse; in Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island the tavern where Jim Hawkins & his mother live is called ' The Admiral Benbow'. For the very first time Sam Willis tells the extraordinary story of Admiral Benbow through an age of dramatic change from his birth under Cromwell's Commonwealth; to service under the restored Stuart monarchy; to the Glorious Revolution of 1688; to the French wars of Louis XIV; & finally to the bitter betrayal of 1702. The Admiral Benbow covers all aspects of seventeenth century naval life in richly vivid detail from strategy & tactics to health & discipline. But Benbow also worked in the Royal Dockyards lived in Samuel Evelyn's House knew Peter the Great helped to found the first naval hospital & helped to build the first offshore lighthouse. The second volume in the Hearts of Oak trilogy from one of Britain's most exciting young historians The Admiral Benbow is a gripping & detailed account of the making of a naval legend.