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Admiral Horatio Nelson

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About 8 years ago, I discovered that I shared my birthday with a famous battle in which a man who was soon to become my hero, died. It's hard to explain just what the draw to Admiral Horatio Nelson is for me, but as any of my friends will knowingly point out, I am obsessed. Who is the great man? It would take and in fact has taken, hundreds of pages to describe his enormous contribution to England's history. The following are some of the best sites to learn more about the great man.

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Patrick O'Brian
1914-2000

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If there ever was an admiral to this great fleet of nautical fiction, that man would be none other than Mr. Patrick O'Brian, the author of the 20 Aubrey/Maturin novels which have enthralled myself and thousands of others for years with dreams of sailing the seven seas and fighting the French. The novels are about Jack Aubrey, an outspoken, brave and daring British sea captain, and his sidekick, Stephen Maturin, a naval surgeon/naturalist/espion.

In the twenty novels, O'Brian takes readers all over the globe in search of enemy ships which dare challenge Britain's supremacy of the waves. He has also written two books, The Golden Ocean and The Unknown Shore about Commodore Anson's voyage into the Pacific Ocean through the eyes of a pair of young Irish boys. He has authored many other novels as well but the greatest of his writing is shown in the novels he wrote about the sea.

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C.S. Forester
1899-1966

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A few years before discovering Nelson, I discovered C.S. Forester's book, "Admiral Hornblower in the West Indies." The excitement of the storms, and chase ignited in me a desire for more nautical fiction to fill my need. I read my way through the book as quickly as I could and was soon begging for more on the subject. C.S. Forester is rightly considered the father of modern nautical fiction. His books have captivated the imaginations of millions of readers around the world and are a must read for anyone entering this field of literature.

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Fletcher Christian

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One of the greatest works of historical fiction ever created by man is the Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall novel, Mutiny on the Bounty This is one of my very favorite books of all time about a mutiny which happened in 1787 and led to nineteen men being cast adrift in the middle of the Pacific Ocean in a open boat and nine mutineers ending their lives on a tiny, remote island in the Pacific, an island whose history is today preserved at the Mutiny on the H.M.S. Bounty Page. This page is maintained by P.J. Lareau and contained great amounts of information on the HMS Bounty and its crew. A must see for all who have any interest in the story of Mutiny on the Bounty.

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Nautical Fiction

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As in any part of the past, there's the historical truth and the historical fiction. Aside from Patrick O'Brian and C.S. Forester, there have been many other authors who've brought the past to life in the lives of fictional characters. There are literally hundreds of authors writing on every angle of life at sea, and these links only just touch on the infinite amount of resources out there.