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Overview: Captain Richard Martin Woodman LVO is an English novelist and naval historian. He is the author of the series ‘A History of the British Merchant Navy’ and the Sword of State trilogy, which recreates the true story of George Monck.
Genre: Fiction > General Fiction/Classics > Action & Adventure > Historical > Naval


The Judgement of His Peers (Tales of the Sea #2):

When four old friends, three of whom are retired ship’s captains, meet for a few days’ sailing and reminiscing, one of them, Mitchell, asks ‘did any of you run across Claude Bastable?’
Early in his seafaring life Mitchell had experienced more of the world than his friends. He had not only been ship-mate with Bastable but had found his life more entangled with Bastable’s than he cared for.
Finding the others know nothing of the man, Mitchell goes on to reveal the terrible story of Bastable’s life, from his birth as the son of a naval hero to the appalling act he had committed and of which he was found guilty, and of what followed afterwards.
But, they find themselves asking, was there anything that could explain Bastable’s perfidious conduct that led him to effectively murder a score of people by an act of gross professional misconduct?
Based on real events, bestselling author Richard Woodman skilfully weaves together fact and fiction to create an engrossing narrative which proves difficult to put down. A novella not just for those who enjoy a tale of men, ships and the sea, but those interested in human motivation, the consequences of human frailty and violent events.

An Absence of Imagination (Tales of the Sea #3):

Captain John Sanford is the Master of the British steamship Da Feng of Hong Kong, plying her trade in the mid-1950s on the China coast. It is a difficult and dangerous time for British seafarers, with a recently victorious Communist regime consolidating its hold on the vast country.
Born in Shanghai with a deep interest in China, the young Sanford is a highly respected shipmaster. He and his ship have become something of an institution on the coast, where Sanford warily treads the ill-defined line between politics and commerce until one day, in a port in northern China, he is ordered by a sinister Colonel in the People’s Liberation Army to embark a passenger.
The person consigned to his care is ‘An Enemy of the People,’ and in the few days that follow, Captain Sanford’s carefully regulated world collapses round him as he finds his own life is threatened and he is subject to appalling consequences.
In an ironic twist, Sanford's fate is to be forced to confront a reality that turned on ill luck and an absence of imagination.

Magnetic Anomaly (Tales of the Sea #4):

1966.
The British vessel, the Weather Guardian, is on a routine voyage in the North Atlantic in winter, collecting meteorological data for the purpose of weather forecasting.
But the voyage soon turns out to be far from routine.
James Childe, the Third Officer, and the enigmatic Second Officer, Charles Pennington, are called upon to help rescue the crew of the Sunrise Victory.
Lives depend on the leadership and heroism of the two officers, with differing backgrounds and belief systems. Childe and Pennington will be tested both personally and professionally.
Magnetic Anomaly explores the courage and contrary natures of men, set against a realistic and dramatic ocean rescue.

Unintended Consequences (Tales of the Sea #5):

Captain John Sanford, the sturdy and determined former master of a British cargo-ship, has spent the last decade imprisoned in Communist China, undergoing a horrific ‘re-education’ after being captured for harbouring an ‘Enemy of the People’ onboard.
When he is finally released and arrives back in Hong Kong, the world is a very different place. The cargo-ship he commanded, the Da Feng, no longer exists, and his place in the company is gone.
When the opportunity to take charge of a small steamship arises, he jumps at the chance to begin a new chapter in his life. The Merdeka quickly becomes a successful inter-island trader, and for Sanford, the ship provides a refuge for his troubled mind.
That is, until a sudden and appalling event shatters the new life he has built when an unexpected enemy causes an accident that puts both ship and crew in peril.