"The Fort" by Bernard Cornwell

[Birdgun Quail, SASS #63663]

Folks I just finished reading The Fort by Bernard Cornwell. Excellent book! It is a historical fiction of the Penobscot Expedition that occurred during the American War of Independence. I had never heard of the Penobscot Expedition until reading this book. What a disaster! Gave me a whole new opinion of Paul Revere. The military incompetence of the two senior American officers (Brigadier General Solomon Lovell and Commodore Dudley Saltonstall) was staggering!

 

I've been a fan of Bernard Cornwell for many years and have read all 21 books of the Sharpe series as well of some of his other historical novels (Agincourt was the last). The Fort is a well written novel where the author takes some small liberties with the actual history as novels do, but it still gave a close account of the actual Expedition and tells a good story that had me almost screaming at the American leaders.

 

I think The Fort would make a great movie. However, since it was such a colossal American debacle (the largest US Navy defeat prior to Pearl Harbor), I doubt it would find a sympathic audience in the USA.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Remember, of course, that it was historical fiction. A few details might have been made up.

 

There is an article on Wikipedia about the Penobscot expedition which pretty much agrees with what you have said and adds a lot of details.

[Marshal Mo Hare, SASS #45984]

Drat, been reading about this all night. I found this

 

In 1953 workmen building the Chamberlain Bridge across the Penobscot River at Brewer, Maine, dredged up four iron cannon. John E. Cayford, the president of International Undersea Services, was helping with the construction of the bridge and so was on hand to see the guns emerge from the silt of the river bottom. The old weapons fascinated him. When Edwin Rich of Massachusetts, an expert on early ordnance, identified them as Armstrong four-pounders that had been part of the ill-fated Continental fleet, Cayford undertook a research project that was to occupy him for the next twenty years. He spent the following winter poring over old records, journals, and maps of the battle. During this time he got master divers E. E. Guernsey, Jr., and James F. Pearson interested in his hobby. At last, with the research finished, they set out to find relics of the fight. Cayford describes his adventure:

 

 

at:

http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/m...1974_6_28.shtml