Nathaniel Drinkwater Novels

1843: Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater’s career concludes as he is drawn from retirement and embarks on the paddle-steamer Vestal for a final mission to inspect lighthouses on the west coast of England, where he is faced with a tragic incident and must confront his past.

It is 1814 and Napoleon has abdicated as Emperor of the French. King Louis XVIII is brought out of his English exile and escorted back to France by an Allied squadron commanded by the Duke of Clarence. The "Great War" is at an end and Europe prepares to celebrate the return of legitimate monarchy.
Attending King Louis, Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater is alarmed to receive secret intelligence that a new and imminent threat exists to peace.

While the Grand Army of Napoleon faces defeat on the battlefields of Germany, the discovery of a secret treaty with America leads Drinkwater into the forbidding fjords of Norway, and one of the most desperate missions of his career.

Amid the internationally acrimonious atmosphere of 1811, Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater stumbles upon a bold conspiracy by which the U.S. could defeat the Royal Navy, collapse the British government, and utterly destroy the British cause.

Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater brings the frigate Patrician to the Pearl River on the China coast and finds himself caught up in bizarre events.

In the eighth story in the highly acclaimed Drinkwater series, Capt. Nathaniel Drinkwater confronts formidable enemies, mutiny, and a beautiful and mysterious ally.

Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater is preparing for battle off the French coast and as the fleets draw together, Drinkwater is unprepared for the irregular role destiny deals him when he becomes a prisoner of the French and takes the brunt of the British bombardment in the orlop of an enemy ship.

Drinkwater, in his fight to bring a half-armed ship safely to the Cape of Good Hope, is beset with personal enmity, the activity of the French, and the violence of the sea.

Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater is caught up in the complex bloody Battle of Copenhagen, and must save his ship and help his brother escape the gallows.

The frozen splendor of the Arctic Ocean and the absorbing drama of a nineteenth-century whale hunt unfold as Drinkwater escorts a whaling fleet to Greenland and meets disaster, treachery, and death.

It is 1792 and Nathaniel Drinkwater is back in the Royal Navy. He is involved in secret and dangerous operations off the French Coast, including the rescue of émigrés and the landing of agents.

Acting for the Admiralty's Secret Department, Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater advertises his cargo of Russian military stores, thus embarking on a scheme to flout Napoleon's Continental System and antagonize the French Emperor's new ally, Czar Alexander.

"Packed with exciting incident worthy of wide appeal to those who love thrilling nautical encounters and the sea." —Nautical Magazine

"Much of the enjoyment of Under False Colours is the fact that Woodman writes with such authority. His mariner's lingo is flawless, and at times, the reader is befuddled with his sheer virtuosity in the area. But the action fills in the terms that the reader may be unaware of, and there is no doubt that Nathaniel Drinkwater rates up there with the best of the nautical world." —Midwest Book Review

In the seventh tale of the highly acclaimed Drinkwater series, Captain Drinkwater's frigate, HMS Antigone, is ordered to the Baltic Sea in the spring of 1807 as Napoleon's grip has begun to reach across Europe to the borders of Holy Russia. As country after country falls under the weight of French domination, Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater is faced with the challenges brought about by military disaster and diplomatic intrigue.

Action in Admiral Rodney's dramatic Moonlight Battle of 1780, when Cyclops' capture of the Santa Teresa plays a decisive part, is the start of Nathaniel Drinkwater's life at sea. HMS Cyclops is involved in pursuing American privateers who are a danger to British trade and Drinkwater finds himself part of a prize crew when initiative and courage in a critical situation enable him to survive a dangerous encounter.

When the frigate is detached on special service to the swamps of South Carolina, grim actions are fought at sea and by a detachment of the ship's company on land, resulting in violent deaths before Cyclops arrives in New York in 1781 and is sent back to Spithead with the news of Lord Cornwallis' surrender at Yorktown.

Through his experiences both in action and in the hard life on Cyclops, Drinkwater matures and gains the ability to stand up against...