Wade G. Dudley

“Drake: For God, Queen, and Plunder” by Wade Dudley is an excellent condensed treatise on the life and daringly adventurous life of Sir Francis Drake. Mr. Dudley consistently and entertainingly portrays Drake as a pirate through-and-through. As a man who imperiled his life and the lives of many others fighting Spain in the old and new world. That Drake was tenacious is an understatement for as Dudley exclaims he would look abysmal failure in the eye and persevere until he did find plunder aplenty and then proceeded to literally burn everything in his wake. It’s military profiles like this one that inspire me to collect more, possibly a great deal more, material on the life and times of Sir Francis Drake.… (meer)

Call this a case study of how friction overcomes the standard operating principles of a nation at war. In theory, the Royal Navy should have been able to shut down American commerce during the War of 1812. In practice, the only action that made a dent in American commerce was the Madison administration's efforts in self-suppression. That such was the case turns out to have been due to a number of factors. At the strategic level the British lacked the ships to cover both France and America in the wanning days of the Napoleonic wars, that there was a need for American trade, and that geography was against London in the New World. At the tactical level, the USN mustered just enough naval power to cover the return of the American merchant marine to safety and so inflammed the RN's sense of honor that a disproportionate number of resources were thrown at the regular American navy; not at the merchant marine or the privateers. Dudley also implies that a more focused commander on the spot might have made a difference, but Adm. Cochrane was overly obsessed with inflicting pain on the hated Americans. Apart from content it doesn't hurt that Dudley brings a certain dry wit to his prose.… (meer)