In this fascinating account of Thomas Cochrane's extraordinary life, David Cordingly (Under the Black Flag and The Billy Ruffian) unearths startling new details about the real-life "Master and Commander"-from his heroic battles against the French navy to his role in the liberation of Chile, Peru, and Brazil, and the stock exchange scandal that forced him out of England and almost ended his naval career. Drawing on previously unpublished papers, his own travels, wide reading, and original research, Cordingly tells the rip-roaring story of the archetypal Romantic hero who conquered the seas and, in the process, defined his era.

On a winter's day in 2002, a bottle shaped like a tear washed up on the Kent coast. It contained a letter written in French, a lock of hair, and a mystery. Only one thing could be known for certain—that the writer of the letter was a mother, grieving for her lost child, Maurice. Moved by the woman's heartache, Karen Liebreich sets out on an epic journey to piece together the mother's story. Her book is the amazing true story of one woman's search for another, and a poignant reflection on love, loss, and motherhood. In this revised edition Liebreich concludes her epic quest, finally meeting the woman who sent the bottle years before, and coming to understand the loss that was at the heart of one mother's impulse to communicate with the unknown.

The real Master and Commander . 'There is no man I envy so much as Lord Cochrane.' - Lord Byron.

When it was first published The Complete Yachtmaster proved immediately popular with a wide range of readers, from skippers and crew to Yachtmaster students, bringing together as it does all the essentials of modern cruising within one volume. Although the boat-handling and seamanship sections of this book have required only minor alterations, other areas of the book have evolved to keep in line with the revolution in navigation. Tom Cunliffe is not only an examiner of RYA Yachtmaster Instructors; he is very much an active sailor who runs up a heavy annual mileage in his own cruising yacht. This combination has enabled him to communicate the ever-advancing potential of electronic navigation techniques better than most. In this fourth edition of what has become a standard work, he shows the modern skipper how to use today's exciting equipment to refine a philosophy of navigation which has not changed since the beginning of seafaring. Throughout the book Tom Cunliffe never lets the reader forget that no single skill can be divorced from the wide range of knowledge that makes up the armoury of the complete Yachtmaster. The latest edition of The Complete Yachtmaster is required reading for anyone skippering a yacht. For examination candidates, whether on board or in the classroom, it guides the reader as authoritatively and reassuringly through the syllabus as a sea pilot bringing a ship to harbour. Book jacket.