James Fenimore Cooper

THE   TWO   ADMIRALS:
A  TALE  OF  THE  SEA
(1842)

 Paperback: 450 pages
    Publisher: Nabu Press (March 21, 2010)
  
    ISBN-10: 114774209X
   SBN-13: 978-1147742091 

reviewed by Patrick Killough


(1) biblio.com  05/07/2010

Recommend to others?  YES!  * * * * *

In the summer of 1745 a British fleet sails unexpectedly into a minor home country port. It is led by Vice Admiral Sir Gervaise Oakes, with second in command Rear Admiral Richard Bluewater. The two admirals are invited to dine with the local magnate, 84 year old bachelor Baronet Sir Wycherly Wychecombe. News suddenly arrives of Bonnie Prince Charlie's landing in Scotland to restore his father to the throne of England, Scotland and Ireland. The intensely Whig (i. e. loyal to the usurping German House of Brunswick) baronet Sir Wycherly overdoes his toasts to the reigning monarch in London, suffers a stroke of apoplexy and soon dies in the presence of the two admirals, as he struggles in vain to rewrite a will for his entailed estate (there being no apparent legitimate heir).

Thirty years later major players of this novel meet again in Westminster Abbey, London. They assemble at the tomb of Rear Admiral Bluewater who fell in battle in 1745, often affectionately called simply Admiral Blue by his sailors. There ancient and long retired Admiral Oakes falls on his knees before his old friend's monument, after recalling a great victory they won together over the French in 1745 -- one of several in their careers. Oakes then falls dead. Tears flow all about. It is almost the very day of the battle of rebellious colonials against a British army and fleet at Bunker Hill near Boston.

In between the death of the two octogenarian knights, separated of course by 30 years of British and North American history, takes place James Fenimore Cooper's novel of 1842, THE TWO ADMIRALS: A TALE OF THE SEA. Fully 2/3 of the story is on land, in or near terrible cliffs above the little port. A good quarter of the yarn, however, plays out during a storm at sea as the British fleet sails away to search for and try to destroy a more powerful French fleet. On land it is mostly talk: about the dying Sir Wycherly Wychecombe and a young naval lieutenant also named Wycherly Wychecombe who makes no claims either to be or not to be a relative of the baronet. Tom the eldest of three illegitimate but acknowledged sons of the baronet's younger brother, a judge recently deceased, at once claims to be the new baronet. No one, not even the dying baronet wishes this to happen, although Sir Wycherly had written an earlier will in favor of Tom. Meanwhile Vice Admiral Bluewater is drawn powerfully to the beautiful young daughter of a disgraced naval man whose job is to maintain watch on the cliffs above the anchored fleet. She reminds him powerfully of the noble Agnes Hedworth, a woman both he and his Colonel brother (long dead) had wooed decades earlier.  

A political complication: Admiral Bluewater is a secret adherent of the deposed Stuart family. He is strongly tempted to resign his commission and go up to Scotland to fight for his rightful king. Bluewater and Oakes, both bachelors, are the closest of friends and have been since they entered the navy together in their earliest teens. Politically, Bluewater looks back and Oakes looks forward. Will the two friends part company if the French fleet is thought to be at sea in support of the United Kingdom's Young Pretender, Bonnie Prince Charles Edward Stuart? Read this great yarn and find out.   -OOO-

http://www.biblio.com/literature/the-two-admirals-cooper-james-fenimore
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(2) lunch.com

HEADLINE: 1745: when a rope was a sailor's best friend and a seaman put his ship before his wife

Reviewer's rating of THE TWO ADMIRALS  * * * * *

There are a few fairly obvious reasons to read James Fenimore Cooper's novel published in 1842, THE TWO ADMIRALS, A TALE OF THE SEA. This review by contrast singles out one less obvious feature of this great yarn. But first let me mention the more obvious ones.

-- (1) In 1745 American loyalty to the United Kingdom was at its height. Britain's North American colonies were on the way to producing at least eight admirals for the British fleet.

-- (2) Britain was not yet the undisputed mistress of the seas that it would become after coming revolutions and political turmoil had distracted and weakened its main Continental competitors, especially France. In this novel an outgunned British fleet of 16 warships sails bravely to confront a more powerful French armada. And one of the two British leaders, Rear Admiral Richard Bluewater, is tempted to chuck his career and race off north to Scotland to fight for the Young Pretender when he learns that Bonnie Prince Charlie Stuart has boldly landed there without an army and has raised his exiled father's royal standard among the highland clans.

-- (3) A rich young Virginian, newly decorated British naval Lieutenant Wycherly Wychecombe has spent six months recuperating on the southern coast of Devon. He had been wounded while leading a group that captured a French warship. He is now in love with beautiful young Mildred who thinks that she is the daughter of a disgraced, alcoholic British seaman now assigned to signal duties on cliffs high above a seldom used bay. Much of this partially gothic tale goes to teasing out their mysterious pasts and true identities.

And there is more, much more. Take THE TWO ADMIRALS in hand and enjoy a colossal sea battle during heavy winds and seas. Study British attitudes of superiority towards colonials. Grasp why the deposed Stuarts still kept a hold on the imaginations of many British subjects. Admire the intricacy of naval architecture, tactics and strategy.

But there is another aspect of THE TWO ADMIRALS that you might miss: the mind, the culture, the superstitions and the often colorful, wistful language and divided loyalties of men who go down to the sea in ships. Here are some samples:

-- Ropes. At novel's beginning, the young hero has descended a cliff during a thick fog to pick flowers for his young love, Mildred Dutton, who has nursed him back to health. The narrow path gives way under his foot and he is marooned. He calls for a rope to be tossed down and then swings himself to safety on a broader part of the dangerous path. "It is not easy to make a landsman understand the confidence which a sailor feels in a rope. Place but a frail and rotten piece of twisted hemp in his hand, and he will risk his person in situations from which he would otherwise recoil in dread" (Ch. 2).

-- Setting the sails. The standards for minutely aligning masts, sails and rigging are far higher than landsmen are used to. "When I speak of symmetry, I mean the symmetry of a seaman" (Ch. 17).

-- A contented sailor's wife's view of her life. "A good fire, a clean hearth, the children abed, and the husband at sea" (Ch. 17).

-- A sailor husband's view of loyalties.

"'I should be sorry, (Captain) Stowel, to cause a moment's delay in the meeting of husband and wife!'

'Don't name it, Admiral Bluewater; Mrs. Stowel will understand that it's duty; and when we married, I fully explained to her that duty, with a sailor, came before matrimony'" (Ch. 30).

-- A British ship preparing to sail out from anchorage to do battle with the French.

"There was the usual bustle, the customary orderly confusion, the winding of calls, the creaking of blocks, and the swinging of yards, ere the vessels were in motion" (Ch. 20).

Sailors give their commanders nicknames to humanize them. Sailors care naught for politics. If Admiral Bluewater goes over to Bonnie Prince Charlie, why, of course, so will his men. After six months cruising off Spain, sailors descend upon the friendly coast of Devon to buy fresh supplies. The locals are delighted to see the prices soar that their pigs, chickens and eggs fetch. 1745 was a VERY slow time compared with 2010. No motorized ships. Few paved roads. Ships were lucky to sail six or eight miles an hour at sea. Great novelists like Sir Walter Scott and James Fenimore Cooper caught that slow tempo in their works. Savor the sea and its moods. But do not be in a rush to do so.



-OOO-

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(3) epinions.com 

Title of this review: In 1745 England "was a very different country ... from what it is today"
Written: May 09 '10

Reviewer's rating of THE TWO ADMIRALS:  * * * * *

Pros: Britain versus France at sea in 1745. Bonnie Prince Charlie in Scotland. Male bonding.

Cons: An unrushed narrative. Implausiblly obscured family relationships.

The Bottom Line: How slowly things move in 1745 England! What designs naval architecture takes from fishes. 35 years of male bonding between heroic British admirals. How competing political loyalties threaten their friendship

aohcapablanca's Full Review: James Fenimore Cooper - The Two Admirals

Is there a reader among us who does not from time to time engage in mental experiments?

One such experiment is to strip away in imagination all major features which exist in 2010 America and think our way back into a world before the internet or the Pill or telephones, railroads and on and on.

In THE TWO ADMIRALS: A TALE OF THE SEA, a novel published in 1842, American James Fenimore Cooper recreated the coast of and deep blue waters off Devon, England, in the summer of 1745. He wrote:
"It is scarcely necessary to tell the reader that England, as regarded material civilization, was a very different country a hundred years since, from what it is today" (Ch. 6).

Cooper, who lived from 1789 to 1851, with eight years travel in Europe, experienced the quickening pace of the Industrial Revolution. An American naval officer in his youth, Cooper lived to sail up the Hudson river in steam-driven paddlewheelers and to do the same from England to France. But when he died, long distance travel by sea was still done aboard ships with canvas sails suspended from wooden masts.

In THE TWO ADMIRALS, Cooper lavishes loving detail on sailing vessels, their design, their evolution and their power as 80-gun killing machines in a war between Britain and France.

In 1745 technical advances are being continuously made in all the great navies of Europe: of Spain, the Netherlands and especially of France and Britain.

But British Vice Admiral Sir Gervaise Oakes is a conservative when it comes to experimenting with rakishly sloping  masts or other innovations. He thus rebukes one of the captains in his fleet of 16 warships. Ships are machines. They obey their own laws. We build ships with one eye on the fishes:

-- for bulk, the whale;

-- for speed, the dolphin.

Please, no experimenting!

"For what would a man think of a fish to which nature had fitted a tail athwart-ships, and which was obliged to carry a fin, like a lee-board, under its lee-jaw, to prevent falling off dead before the wind!" (Ch. 20).

France and England are at war. Sir Gervaise, supported (he prays -- with less than entire confidence) by his ever faithful friend of 35 years, Rear Admiral Richard Bluewater, sets sail from Devon to confront a larger, better-gunned French armada. But first the two admirals are drawn into a dying local magnate's re-writing of his will. On the margins of this family drama are Wycherly Wychecombe, young British naval lieutentant from Virginia, and beautiful young Mildred Dutton, reputed daughter of a disgraced naval signal officer on land.  Mildred has nursed the lieutenant for the past six months back from the brink of death. And they are in love. Wychecombe had been wounded while gallantly leading forces that boarded and took the surrender of a French warship, and his naval star is about to rise.

There are mysteries about the identity and genealogy of both young people -- as happens in partially late-gothic novels.

For some reason, lifelong bachelor Rear Admiral Bluewater finds that Mildred reminds him of Agnes Hedworth, the long dead, supposedly unmarried, virginal true love of his youth,.

All these elements intertwined in the summer of 1745 when Bonnie Prince Charlie impetuously landed in Scotland, with no army behind him, and raised the highland clans for his father, the Old Pretender. Word of this rising trickles slowly south and reaches the fleet while anchored in a small Channel port in Devon.

Rear Admiral Bluewater supports the Stuart claims to the throne now occupied by the German George II and is tempted to desert his friend Vice Admiral Oakes and go over to his rightful king. This could have disastrous results in the coming engagement at sea with the French during a violent storm. It is worth reading THE TWO ADMIRALS simply to learn how this all turns out.
* * * * *

Also fascinating to me is the sense of how slowly events moved through time in 1745 Europe.

"We are writing of an age of heavy wagons, coaches and six, post-chaises and four; and not of an era of MacAdam-roads, or of cars flying along by steam. ... Scotland was then farther from Devonshire, in effect, than Geneva is now; and news travelled slowly, and with the usual exaggerations and uncertainties of delay" (Ch. 6)

A ship driving along at 6 or 8 knots parallel to a coast could easily be outpaced on land by a rider on horseback. Much of the novel is taken up with signals given by flags from shore to ship and from ship to ship. That procedure works reasonably well by day if there is no fog, and if ships are within a telescope's reading range, not more than three or four miles apart.

But at night? With lanterns? It might take a distant ship a half hour to make out a direct signal, and then that signal would have to go ship by ship all along the line. Nighttime distance between three ships might have to be estimated by the brightness and steadiness of a lantern! Clever Captain Drinkwater thought out a new personal system allowing Rear Admiral Bluewater to read his ship's signals ten minutes sooner than he could make out any other captain's signals at the same distance.

Yes, THE TWO ADMIRALS is one long experiment in mental time travel. And the leisurely pace of writing is synchronized with all other slow moving elements, political, romantic, etc. of 1745 England imaginatively re-created by land and by sea.


Recommended:  Yes

-OOO-


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(4) bn.com  05/07/2010

title of this review: Did James Fenimore Cooper invent the "cliffhanger?"

reviewer's rating of THE TWO ADMIRALS:  * * * * *


Posted 5/7/2010:

We first meet dashing young British Naval Lieutenant Wycherly Wychecombe hauling himself up a cliff by a very thin rope. The time was June 1745. The place, the English county of Devon and its southern coast abutting the English Channel. The Lieutenant (let's call him WW for short), a third generation Virginian, has been six weeks recuperating near the ancient village of Wychecombe which lies back a bit from the high cliffs looking down on a small, little used sheltered bay. WW has fallen in love with beautiful young Mildred, reputed daughter of 40-something Frank Dutton. Lieutenant WW scrambles down a steep cliff in a fog to pick flowers for Mildred. A part of his rocky path crumbles and he is stranded. He quickly procures from above a rope that is part of the naval signaling station run by Dutton and, sailorlike, swings himself to safety.

Meanwhile, masts of a powerful British fleet of 16 ships are glimpsed rising
through the thick fog anchoring in the bay, a sight never seen before. "Twin admirals" and best friends Vice Admiral Sir Gervaise Oakes and Rear Admiral Richard Bluewater, a third generation naval officer, command the fleet. They are greeted by local VIP Baronet Sir Wycherly Wychecombe (same name as our Lieutenant WW, though neither asserts kinship). Word arrives that Bonnie Prince Charlie has landed in Scotland and that the clans are rising to restore the Stuarts and kick out the Hanoverians. Sir Wycherly Wychecombe is up late into the night toasting the ruling German dynasty and suddenly keels over in an apoleptic fit. He will die in not too many hours while begging the two admirals to help him write a new will against his nephew, Tom, acknowledged but illegitimate son of his recently dead brother, a judge.

When Admiral Bluewater's eyes first light on the fair Mildred, it is as if he is looking at his long dead, supposedly, unmarried first love, Agnes Hedworth, whom both his brother, an army colonel Gregory Wychecombe, as well as Admiral Oakes had loved.

The gothic novel craze has passed its peak by 1842 when James Fenimore Cooper wrote THE TWO ADMIRALS, A SEA TALE. But an element or two of gothic are retained in this sea novel: that of mysterious identities, lost heirs and low-born beauties who turn out to be of noble blood. Politically, several strands are woven into the tale: Virginian WW's resentment of being considered inferior by native Britons and the powerful sudden appeal to Tories made by gallant Prince Charles Edward's appearing without an army to raise his father's standard in faraway Scotland. In particular, Admiral Bluewater is loyal to the Stuarts and increasingly tempted to resign his commission in the Hanoverian navy to go north to fight for the rightful King's son. Only about a quarter of the novel's text goes to a mighty battle in stormy seas between the outgunned British and the hostile French who may be trying to help Prince Charles. This is a fascinating story of strained loyalties, inrigue, heroism and derring-do. Enjoy! -OOO-



Product Details
    •    Pub. Date: August 2008
    •    Publisher:BiblioLife
    •    Format: Hardcover, 516pp

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Two-Admirals/James-Fenimore
-Cooper/e/9780554375427/?itm=10&USRI=james+fenimore+cooper
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(5) amazon.com  05/09/2010

title of this review: "'Kiss me, Oakes,' murmured the (dying) Rear-Admiral"

 of THE TWO ADMIRALS:  * * * * *


On any thinking man's short list of great male bonding novels there has to stand THE TWO ADMIRALS: A TALE OF THE SEA.

It plays out mainly on land in or at sea near Devon during the exciting British summer of 1745, though not written and published until 1842. You will not be wrong it you read THE TWO ADMIRALS for its young romance, clouded ancestries, its political intrigue and intricacies of ship building and seamanship, naval warfare, tactics and strategy -- all served up complete with the attitudes and superstitions of seaman and their leaders. But you would miss the forest for the trees if you did not see that this is the story of the warm love that two heroic men bear down the decades one for the other.

Both men, Richard Bluewater and Gervaise Oakes, would have been born into wealth in England around 1690. Fresh from school at ages 12 or 13, they entered the lowermost rung of the Royal Navy, not long after independent Scotland and England had been -- on paper at least -- submerged in a new country, The United Kingdom. From their first meeting until death parted them after a great jointly won sea victory over the French in 1745, the two friends were inseparable, though of notably different physiques, temperaments and, over time, political loyalties.

As young officers their sea colleagues styled them Pylades and Orestes. As they rose steadily through the ranks they became "the Twin Admirals." In youth they had both loved the same woman, who, long dead, now casts her shadow between them in 1745. Possibly because he ardently supports the imported German House that succeeded the native Stuart monarchs, Vice Admiral Sir Gervaise Oakes now outranks Rear Admiral Richard Bluewater (or "Blue" as his men affenctionately style him). For in the court of King George II, Bluewater, although discreetly silent, is suspected, rightly, of wishing the Stuarts back on the throne of the U. K.

In July 1745 the Young Pretender, Prince Charles Edward Stuart, landed in Scotland and soon raised many highland clans in support of the claims of his father, the Old Pretender, James Edward, son of  deposed King James II. Not many days later a fleet of 16 British warships led by the two admirals had dropped anchors in an obscure port on the southern coast of Devon. Its leader, Vice Admiral Sir Gervaise Oakes, in possession of intelligence that the French might soon attempt some mischief in Scotland, had anticipated orders and sailed back from six months patrolling the Bay of Biscay. Almost immediately word comes that Bonnie Prince Charlie is afoot in Scotland, and a beautiful decades long friendship is sorely strained. Rear Admiral Bluewater refuses to accept an honor offered by George II, the Knighthood of the Garter. Only from England's legitimate King, James Edward, could he accept such preferment. Indeed, the junior admiral is all for resigning his commission and racing north to join Bonnie Prince Charles!

Meanwhile Vice Admiral Oakes with half his ships sails out just before a serious storm to confront a superior French fleet. He trusts that his friend Richard's brain will prevail over his political emotions and will fight the French even if the wrong king is on the throne in London. But a wily Jacobite supporter of the Stuarts persuades Admiral Blue that the French are sailing to prevent King George II's son from returning from warring in the continent, and bringing German mercenaries with him to fight the Stuart rising. Blue feels that the coming civil war should involve only Britons. Hence he is tempted not to follow orders at a critical time in the battle, unless his friend Gervaise's ships should bite off more than they can chew -- as they do.

At the last possible moment, Blue throws his ship between his apparently doomed friend and the French flagship. In person, muttering about wiping out personal dishonor, Blue leads boarders onto the French vessel and captures it. He is then mortally wounded by a spiteful throwaway shot from a French marine, whose life he then saves from irate British sailors. Carried back to shore and the cliffs of Devon, the Rear Admiral lingers near death for days. Meanwhile, contrary to law and custom, and never again repeated in British maritime history, the flags of both admirals fly over Bluewater's ship, the Caesar.

On land, the dying hero takes leave of friends, of a just discovered niece whom he causes to be wed beside his deathbed, of the captains of the fleet and, finally, of his oldest and dearest friend, Sir Gervaise Oakes. Over days they had reminisced together over early amours and career. Galleygo, the Vice Admiral's steward, who has known and loved both admirals since they were boys, retells to the dying Bluewater details of their last joint victory over the French.

The personal religion of both heroes had been shaped by the direct impact of God on them made visible in the power and majesty of the sea. Neither was a great churchman or inclined to spend time puzzling over dogmas. Both accepted, however, Sir Gervaise's view:

"'Friends must meet again, hereafter, Bluewater; it is irrational to suppose that they who have loved each other so well in this state of being, are to be forever separated in the other."

The Vice Admiral then "turned aside and wept."  The dying man made one last request of his old friend: "'Kiss me, Oakes,' murmured the Rear-Admiral" (Ch. 30) And Gervaise bestowed a kiss on his friend's cheek.

The next and final chapter of THE TWO ADMIRALS takes place in Westminster Abbey in London. Octogenarian Admiral Oakes, long retired and his mind and memory nearly gone, is led by a young protege and by the faithful steward Galleygo, both of whom had participated in the great sea victory of 1745, to the tomb of Rear Admiral Bluewater. Other players from the summer of Bonnie Prince Charlie, by coincidence, are also present. Along with the feeble old Admiral, all fell on their knees to pray. The old man's heart then stopped.

"He had lived his time, and supplied an instance of the insufficiency of worldly success to complete the destiny of man ... (Ch. 31).

There is much more to this grand tale than a simple retelling of David and Jonathan, of Pylades and Orestes and of Richard and Gervaise. But this dimension: the thoroughly masculine love of the twin admirals, may be more than enough to persuade you to read THE TWO ADMIRALS: A TALE OF THE SEA.

-OOO-

tags:  prince charles edward stuart, the 1745 pro-Stuart rising in Scotland, Devon, naval architecture, naval tactics, naval strategy


    •    Paperback: 450 pages
    •    Publisher: Nabu Press (March 21, 2010)
    •    Language: English
    •    ISBN-10: 114774209X
    •    ISBN-13: 978-1147742091

http://www.amazon.com/Two-Admirals-James-Fenimore-Cooper/
dp/114774209X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272795631&sr=1-1
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EXTRAS:

http://external.oneonta.edu/cooper/writings/plots/walker-two.html

characters: (principals italicized)

Ben Barrel, Captain Blakely, Captain Thomas Blewet, Lord Bluewater, Mildred (Dutton) Bluewater, Rear Admiral Richard Bluewater, Lieutenant Bluff, Jack Brown, Lieutenant Bunting, Lieutenant Bury, Comte de Chelincourt, Lord Geoffrey Cleveland, Captain Comtant, Lieutenant Cornet, Lieutenant Daly, David, Captain Denham, Vicomte des Prez, Martha Dodd, Captain Drinkwater, Frank Dutton, Martha Ray Dutton, Captain Foley, Furlong, David Galleygo, Duchess of Glamorgan, Jack Glass, Captain Goodfellow, Greenleaf, Captain Greenly, Agnes Hedworth, Larder, Locker, Sandy McYarn, Magrath, Lord Morganic, Ned, Vice Admiral Sir Gervaise Oakes, Captain O'Neil, Captain Parker, Record, Richard, Rev. Mr. Rotherham, Soundings, Tom Sponge, Captain Sterling, Captain Stowel, Lieutenant Tom, Comte de Vervillin, Sam Wade, Lieutenant Williamson, Agnes Wychecombe, Mildred Wychecombe, Sir Reginald Wychecombe, Lord Thomas Wychecombe, Thomas Wychecombe, Sir Wycherly Wychecombe, Wycherly Wychecombe, Lieutenant Wycherly Wychecombe, Wycherly Wychecombe [son of the lieutenant], Sam Yoke.