Overview

David Cordingly, a leading authority on pirates and maritime history, The Billy Ruffian is the story of a real-life H.M.S. Sophie, named Bellerophon, or Billy Ruffian as her crew called her, barnacles and all. Under fourteen captains, she played a conspicuous part in three of the most famous of all sea battles.But her crowning glory came six weeks after the Battle of Waterloo, when Napoleon, trapped in Rochefort, surrendered to the captain of the ship that had dogged his steps for more than twenty years. Packed with letters, pictures, and first-hand accounts, The Billy Ruffian is an enthralling account of sea adventure.
David Cordingly is the author of several acclaimed books on the subject of pirates, including Under the Black Flag and Women Sailors and Sailors' Women: An Untold Maritime History. A former Keeper of Pictures and Head of Exhibitions at Britain's National Maritime Museum, he now lives by the sea in Brighton, England.
The story of the seventy-four-gun warship Bellerophon will be familiar to anyone who has read Patrick O'Brian or C. S. Forester. A work of history as detailed as it is exciting, The Billy Ruffian runs from its subject's birth, in a small shipyard in 1782, to her death in a breaker's yard more than fifty years later, after serving as a prison hulk. In the intervening years, the Billy Ruffian (as her crew liked to call her) played a conspicuous part in three of the most famous of all sea battles: the battle of the Glorious First of June (1794), the opening action against revolutionary France; the battle of the Nile (1798), which halted Napoleon's eastern expansion from Cairo; and the battle of Trafalgar (1805), which established British naval supremacy for a hundred years. But this legendary ship's crowning glory came six weeks after the Battle of Waterloo in 1815, when Napoleon, trapped in Rochefort, surrendered to the captain of the ship that had dogged his steps for more than twenty years.
David Cordingly has used primary source materials such as diaries, ship's logs, and personal letters (many of which are reproduced here) to create a fascinating and eminently readable account of life both on ship and off during this pivotal, dangerous, and romantic period of history.
Cordingly knows the sea, writes clearly, and is an honest historian. -- The Washington Post
A fine piece of general history. It will certainly appeal to the Patrick O'Brian fans on your gift list. -- The New York Sun
A thrilling narrative. -- The Independent (U.K.)
A satisfying tale of a mighty ship, and of a half-century under the mast in some of Europe's fiercest wars . . . Solid and well-researched stuff, and a pleasure for fans of Patrick O'Brian, C. S. Forester, and other chroniclers of the fighting sail. -- Kirkus Reviews

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Thrilling...so alive you can smell the cordite of the guns and hear the splintering of mighty masts and spars.

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