Nathaniel Drinkwater is a fictional character

Fictional character

A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...

, the protagonist of a series of novels by Richard Woodman

Richard Woodman

Richard Woodman is an English novelist and naval historian who retired in 1997 from a 37 year nautical career, mainly working for Trinity House, to write full time. His main work is 14 volumes about the career of Nathaniel Drinkwater, and shorter series about James Dunbar and William Kite, but he...

. In the series, he is an officer in the British Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

 during the Napoleonic Wars

Napoleonic Wars

The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...

.

Life

According to Woodman, Drinkwater was born on 28 October 1762 to a poor family. His naval career started in 1779. His patron, Lord Dungarth, encouraged him to keep out of the larger ships of the line

Ship of the line

A ship of the line was a type of naval warship constructed from the 17th through the mid-19th century to take part in the naval tactic known as the line of battle, in which two columns of opposing warships would manoeuvre to bring the greatest weight of broadside guns to bear...

to indulge in smaller, and more interesting fictionally, engagements, with a series of secret missions later in his career. His French enemy, Edouard Santhonax appears in several books.

The Nathaniel Drinkwater novels

The novels, in chronological order

1. An Eye of the Fleet
2. A King's Cutter
3. A Brig of War
4. The Bomb Vessel
5. The Corvette
6. 1805
7. Baltic Mission
8. In Distant Waters
9. A Private Revenge
10. Under False Colours
11. The Flying Squadron
12. Beneath the Aurora
13. The Shadow of the Eagle
14. Ebb Tide

External links

http://www.sheridanhouse.com/

• Author website (inactive)