HMS Amphion

Publisher: Feather Press, 1998 80pp £ 6.00

Captain Hardy took Nelson to the Mediterranean in this frigate. Commanded by a Nelson protege, whose spendthrift, clergyman father squandered his prize money, he led a squadron to victory in the last "line of battle" action before Jutland. This officer had an affair with a colonel’s wife before taking passage home on Amphion but behaved gallantly towards a French lady prisoner, married into the aristocracy, became a baronet and captain of the Royal Yacht. A midshipman escaped from Napoleon’s Colditz walked across Europe and met his old shipmates engaged in an Adriatic cutting-out operation. This and much else is not fiction but comes with original drawings from the Public Records Office.

Parts of the story have been lost to enemy action, the Luftwaffe, not the Marine de Guerre. This excellent book is spoiled by lamentable binding. -JLC