Dean King

Chronicles the 1815 ordeal of the captain and crew of the American cargo ship "Commerce" after the brig wrecked off the northwest coast of Africa, during which the men were sold into slavery and forced on a torturous trek across the Sahara.

More than 50,000 devoted Patrick O'Brian fans have made A SEA OF WORDS their companion book of choice. In response to passionate reader demand, Dean King adds hundreds of new definitions and new illustrations and background essays referenced in O'Brian's clipper ship adventure sagas, including two new novels.

Every Man Will Do His Duty presents the voices of the officers and seamen who fought and lived at sea during the French Revolutionary War (1793-1802), the Napoleonic War (1803-1815), and the War of 1812 (1812-1815). Here are the true-life stories that inspired the work of such great historical novelists and writers as Patrick O'Brian, C. S. Forester, Alexander Kent, C. Northcote Parkinson, and others. Dean King and John B. Hattendorf, authors of the acclaimed volumes A Sea of Words and Harbors and High Seas, have combed the historical archives, including memoirs, diaries, and letters, to serve up this distinguished collection of firsthand pieces from the great Age of Nelson. The remarkable narratives in this meticulously researched reader are by turns thrilling and touching, hilarious and terrifying, poignant and majestic. In addition to eyewitness accounts of most of the critical events of the period - the Glorious First of June, the Battle of Cape St. Vincent, the Battle of Trafalgar, and the death of Nelson - you will also find revealing insights into the nature of life and war at sea aboard a man-of-war: not just the heroic moments, but the deprivations, the monotony, the pleasures, the pain, the justices, and the injustices. There are fleet battles, frigate duels, fire-ship missions, cutting-out missions, shipwrecks, pursuits by the press gang, and deadly encounters with gales and cannibals, all told in the words of the men who actually lived through them.