Sloop of War - Alexander Kent

Hi-ho Hi-ho, it's off to sea we go.....
The year is 1778 and the setting is Antigua during the American Revolution. Richard Bolitho is about to get his greedy little mitts on his first command - HMS Sparrow - the aforementioned sloop. How he does, what he does and how he handles what he does, will be another matter entirely. Isolated from the main fleet because of his duties and virtually on his own, this is going to be a serious test for the newly promoted captain. He used to be one amongst many in the wardroom of a big two-decker. Now he's completely alone.

It's made clear right from the start that Bolitho is a very small cog in a huge great wheel; alongside the larger frigates, sloops and brigs were the smallest warships ever used by the Royal Navy and were vital for patrols, scouting, relaying messages and general poking about places where they weren't really meant to go. Kent, like C.S Forrester before him and Patrick O'Brien after, knows his ships and knows how they sail and perform - there are plenty of intricacies in terms of rigs, lines, wind direction, weather and so on and this is only right and proper for a book about sailing ships - but never does he allow it to get in the way of what you might term the exciting stuff; the crashing broadsides, desperate boarding actions and sneaky little raids that small vessels are so good at.

Bolitho is helped by Sparrow itself, which has the advantage of carrying some seriously big fire-power for such a small ship; historically, normal sloops of the period(those converted from merchantmen) carried nine-pounders as the norm. Sparrow carries twelve pounders which are a load heavier and grants Boltiho's command the ability to out-range and out shoot anything that he can't run away from. Whilst this seems a clear case of what might be termed "super ship syndrome" it's actually not; yes, Sparrow is heavy in the guns department, but the explanation for it is entirely plausible and fits with the character of the Navy at the time. This is fortunate because he's going to need them....

319 pages is what this book weighs in at, which is just perfect for an hour or two of a Sunday afternoon. But despite this, to use a phrase, the book is rammed; petty politicking amongst the ships' officers is mirrored with rather more large-scale politicking ashore with an end result that you're not quite sure of. In the meantime there are Redcoats to rescue, French frigates and American privateers to sink, friends to be made and lost and even the time for a burgeoning love-affair in the middle of it. And the constant question of how a ships' company mostly pressed into service against their will is to be kept from mutiny.

I tell you, Royal Navy captains were a busy lot back then!

8 out of 10