1. Thomas Cochrane: The Real Master and Commander

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

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4.7 • 12.9K Ratings

🗓️ 3 January 2024

⏱️ 41 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Dan tells a story as dramatic, unlikely and exciting as any ever penned by an author about one of Britain's greatest sailors. Thomas Lord Cochrane was a naval commander with an illustrious career in the Napoleonic Wars who once strapped himself to a floating bomb, in a rising storm, in the dead of a moonless night to take out a French fleet. Another time, he convinced an enemy force to surrender to a navy that didn’t exist. Napoleon dubbed him 'The Sea Wolf'.

In part 1 of this 3-part series, Dan delves into Cochrane's early life and career starting out as a young man discovering a penchant for the sea, adventure and war.

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The rest of the series will be available for all listeners from Monday 8th January.

Written by Dan Snow, produced by Mariana Des Forges, edited by Joseph Knight and sound designed & mixed by Dougal Patmore.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm going to tell you a story that is as dramatic, unlikely and exciting as any story ever penned
0:19.0	by an author.
0:20.0	But the best thing about this one is that it's absolutely true.
0:25.0	It's about one of Britain's greatest sailors.
0:28.0	A man who strapped himself to a floating bomb in shoal-infested waters in a rising storm in the dead of a moonless night.
0:40.0	Another occasion he convinced an enemy force to surrender to a Navy that didn't exist.
0:46.7	Byron, the great poet, wrote,
0:49.3	There is no man I envy as much.
0:53.0	The legendary Admiral Collingwood, Nelson's second in command at the Battle of Trafalgar,
0:56.8	the man who succeeded him, called him brilliant, and wrote,
1:01.2	his resources for every exigency have no end.
1:04.7	The Times newspaper wrote that no soldier or sailor of modern times
1:10.0	ever displayed more extraordinary capacity. And I think the greatest praise for him came from the man
1:16.1	whose ambitions he did so much to thought Napoleon Bonaparte, who named him the Lou de Mer, the Sea Wolf.
1:29.3	His name was Thomas Lord Cochran.
1:33.0	He was born into impoverished aristocracy,
1:42.0	the sea as it's done with so many Britons, before and after, was his
1:46.1	route to fame, fortune. His rampages against the enemies of his Britannic majesty are unparalleled, but he had a hot temper.
1:56.2	His decision-making was as poor as sure as it was infallible at sea.
2:01.4	He made enemies way beyond the French and the Spanish. His poor judgment saw him
2:06.4	disgraced and exiled. But that wasn't enough to stop him. And he played a critical role as the new nations of South America threw off the European
2:17.2	yoke.
	...

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