Pirates & Privateers: C. Northcote Parkinson's Books

If you enjoy stories of the Royal Navy, chances are you’ve read at least a few that take place during the French and Napoleonic Wars (1793-1815). At some point, the ships, sailors, and officers visit Portsmouth. As much as we may like to visit, this early 19th-century naval base and dockyard is gone. It is only through the pages of stories that it is recreated. But these are modern interpretations. What was Portsmouth Point like back then? How did novelists of yore, those to whom this was a real place rather than a fictional recreation, portray it?

True, history books describe Portsmouth Point, but such scholarly works rarely breathe life into the past. Parkinson believed “there is that to be learnt from fiction which can be learnt in no other way.” (11) Novelists who actually lived or spent time there were far better “guides who understand.” (11) Hence, the purpose of this book, allowing readers to experience the place as they did. All the writers included were members of the Royal Navy, some serving during these wars and some soon after. As much as Parkinson wanted to include only contemporary novels, he found this impossible to do, for the novelists were too engaged in their duties to devote time to fictional accounts of what transpired. Therefore, only two stories were published before 1826. The majority chosen were released between 1826 and 1848, so they are as near to being contemporary recreations of Portsmouth as is possible. Among the selections are The Navy at Home (1831), Frank Mildmay, or The Naval Officer by Captain Marryat (1829), The Naval Sketch Book (1826), Tom Bowling: A Tale of the Sea by Captain Frederick Chamier, R.N. (1841), and Jack Tench, or the Midshipman Turned Idler by Blowhard (1841).

The book is divided into twelve chapters, each covering a different aspect of the navy: The Man-of-War, The Officers, The Midshipmen, The Crew, The Marines, The Daily Routine, The Food, In Harbour, Naval Dialect, Prize-Money, Religion, and Anecdotes. Each chapter begins with a brief introduction about the topic. If additional insight is deemed necessary, Parkinson inserts this between snippets as well. One example where this occurs is in the chapter on The Officers; brief portraits of specific positions are summarized followed by a pertinent excerpt, such as the comeuppance of a surgeon whose go-to treatment for the men was seawater. The chapter on food served in the navy includes “The Logarithm for Making Punch” and a “recipe for a mess of chowder.” The only chapter without the brief insights is the last chapter; the chosen anecdotes are brief, interesting, amusing, and self-explanatory. One concerns a captain who swears his familiarity with the local waters negates the need for a pilot.

Scattered throughout the book are black-and-white illustrations, diagrams, and maps. These are explained in Appendix B, Note on Illustrations. The first appendix, Bibliographical Note, lists the works included in the book, as well as brief summaries of the history of naval fiction and the authors’ naval careers. The final appendix is a Glossary of Technical Terms. The book is also indexed.

First published in 1949, this is an invaluable resource for readers and writers of naval fiction. The snippets and the introductory material are as close to “direct evidence” of Portsmouth Point as it existed in the early 19th century and what life was like in the Royal Navy between 1810 and 1815. Some titles are still in print; others are available online for free. (Readers will have to search for these themselves.) Portsmouth Point also serves as a wonderful introduction to early works of naval fiction.

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Cover Art:
The Life and Times of Horatio Hornblower

The Life and Times of Horatio Hornblower: A Biography of C. S. Forester’s Famous Naval Hero
by C. Northcote Parkinson
McBooks Press, 2024, ISBN 978-1-4930-8409-8, US $24.95
Also available in other formats

When writers create stories and populate them with characters, it’s necessary to also flesh out details about who these people are and why they are as they appear in the books. This allows the authors to craft believable characters and readers to see them as “real” people. One such character who has stood the test of time is C. S. Forester’s Horatio Hornblower, whose life unfolded over thirty years in twelve books. Forester pieced together Hornblower’s life from documentary evidence that the admiral’s descendant donated to the Royal Navy College, Greenwich in 1927.

In 1970, Parkinson discovered that three boxes of new material about Viscount Horatio Hornblower had come to light. The admiral had refused to permit these papers to be seen by others until 100 years after his death. The problem came in tracking down these containers since the companies to which they were originally entrusted had undergone change during that time lapse. What Parkinson eventually found were details that filled in gaps left by Forester’s accounts of Hornblower’s life. So much was new that Parkinson decided to write a biography about this legendary character.

A biography is defined as the history of a person’s life, and that person is someone who actually lived. For all intents and purposes, this book is an actual biography complete with appendices, correspondence, illustrations, a family tree, diagrams, and maps. It is also indexed and one illustration is of a title page of a book that Hornblower owned and signed. The twelve chapters chronicle his life from Schoolboy to Midshipman to Lieutenant all the way through his achieving Admiral of the Fleet. Much of the book focuses on his naval career, but there are also personal moments, such as his marriage to his landlady’s daughter, his children, and the loves of his life, one of whom was related to Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington.

This book is a compelling read and a must for those who have enjoyed the Hornblower novels, or those unfamiliar with the first edition published in 1970, and those who know Horatio Hornblower only through the movies that illustrate his early exploits. You will not be disappointed and you will most likely learn new details about this fascinating, though fictional, admiral.

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