Beneath the Aurora: #12 A Nathaniel Drinkwater Novel

By Richard Woodman

Book Overview

The Year is 1813. Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater succeeds Lord Dungarth as head of the Royal Navy's Secret Department. While the Grand Army of Napoleon faces defeat on the battlefields of Germany, the discovery of a secret treaty with America leads Drinkwater into the forbidding fjords of Norway, and one of the most desperate missions of his career.
Increasingly isolated and affected by the long war with France and her allies, Drinkwater pursues his personal odyssey against often daunting odds. In a compelling narrative the author brings vividly to life conditions at sea during the Napoleonic wars. The fate of one of Napoleon's most charismatic marshals is linked with American privateers, escaped prisoners and the Danish Navy resulting in a violent confrontation set beneath the aurora.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1574091026
• ISBN13: 9781574091021
• Release Date: January 2001
• Publisher: Sheridan House
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 0.86 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.6" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Treachery and Battle

The year is 1813. The United States has entered the war against England, but it is a peculiar war with U.S. merchants still supplying English armies in Spain. Royal Navy Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater is now assigned to the Admiralty in London, occupying the intelligence office previously headed by the late Lord Dalgarth. Napoleon's armies have been losing battles. Some of his allies have been looking towards their own futures as Napoleon's empire crumbles. Napoleon's puppet King of Naples has sent a secret emissary to England. A plan is revealed to supply arms for a rebellion in Canada. Drinkwater obtains orders to take a frigate into waters of Danish occupied Norway. His mission is to intercept the arms shipment. There are complications. French and American agents in England, aided by people with Republican sympathies and people who can be bribed, have obtained the details of Drinkwater's plans. There are also unknown agents who have infiltrated his crew. There is a battle, of course, and victory at a price. The hero survives, of course, as he must be around for the next novel, but others around him are casualties. The end was a bit disappointing. I had thought that guilty parties might be hanged. Perhaps Drinkwater is a bit too sympathetic. And all that gold. Remembering that the young Drinkwater was not averse to helping himself (see Eye of the Fleet), one is left to wonder. Gold sovereigns, at least, were highly negotiable.