John Pearce Books In Order

By the Mast Divided

David Donachie has written a stunning new series of twelve naval history books tracing the heroic career of young John Pearce to Post Captain. London: 1793. Young firebrand John Pearce, on the run from the authorities, is illegally press ganged from the Pelican tavern into brutal life aboard HMS Brilliant, a frigate on its way to war. In the first few days Pearce discovers the Navy is a world in which he can prosper. But he is not alone; he is drawn to a group of men who eventually form an exclusive gun crew, the Pelicans, with Pearce their elected leader. Shipboard life is hard, brutal and dangerous. That anyone chooses it suggest that life ashore is worse. The Pelicans find solidarity in facing together the cruelty of their hard nosed captain, Barclay, and the daily threat of bullying, flogging even murder. The one light on the horizon is the captain’s young, curvaceous wife, Emily. During an action packed two weeks, as HMS Brilliant chases a French privateer across the English Channel, this disparate group of men form friendships that will last a lifetime. David Donachie cleverly weaves these fictional characters into true historical situations to produce a compelling and utterly absorbing introductory novel.

A Shot Rolling Ship

Pressed into King George’s Navy for the second time in a month, John Pearce and his Pelicans find themselves working aboard the HMS Brazen, sailing the Channel from Plymouth to Dover in search of the numerous French privateers that prey on English merchant shipping: her task to stop them and, if possible, to capture or destroy them

The Brazen is a slow and overcrowded ship, having a hard time capturing her prey and so the promised bounty fails to materialize. And Pearce has greater things on his mind he must rescue his ailing father from the dangers of revolutionary Paris and to do that he must somehow leave the ship. He tries mutiny, the crew being readied by failure, but Captain Benjamin Colbourne is quick and smartly promotes Pearce to Midshipman. Pearce is thereby freed to leave the ship immediately which appears to the remaining Pelicans as though their leader has deserted them.

Travelling to France, Pearce discovers that he is late to save his father, who died too weak to survive the rigors of prison. What else is Pearce to do but return to the Brazen and put right the appearance of betrayal with which he left, and to learn his seagoing trade in order to exact revenge…

Entwining historical facts with fictitious characters, David Donachie has once again created a masterpiece of nautical adventure fiction.

An Awkward Commission

Stranded in Portsmouth, John Pearce has once again failed to secure the release of those who depended on him his fellow Pelicans. They have been shipped off to the Mediterranean while he was indulging himself in London. So he must take ship and follow them. His application to William Pitt for a place finds him as 8th lieutenant on HMS Victory, flagship of Admiral Lord Hood. South and ahead of him, his Pelicans are serving under a flogging captain, but all is not lost as each of the gang does what he can to promote himself O Hagan fights to establish his place in the below decks hierarch; Taverner carves out a niche where his trickery can work to the gang’s advantage; Gherson ends up as secretary to Rear Admiral Ralph Barclay. As the action moves to the main French Mediterranean port of Toulon, the tension between crews and captains intensifies, coming to a brilliant head when the HMS Brilliant is detached from the fleet under the orders of Captain Horatio Nelson, bound for North Africa.

A Flag of Truce

John Pearce comes back from Corsica demanding that Captain Barclay of HMS Brilliant, the man who originally pressed him and his fellow Pelicans into the Navy, be tried at home by a civilian court. Against the background of the ongoing siege of Toulon and with the Revolutionary Army massing to attack, no one in authority sees this as a good time to accede to his requests. Barclay’s patron Admiral Hotham contrives a way out of the dilemma. He staffs the ship Pearce captured in Corsica with members of the Revolutionary Navy refusing to serve under the Bourbon flag and gives it to Henry Digby, with Pearce and his Pelicans under him, so that they may transport the renegade French sailors to an Atlantic port and set them free. Whilst Pearce is gone Hotham fixes a court martial where Barclay is found innocent for lack of evidence, a ruse that leads to an open breach with his wife Emily. Pearce eventually returns to the siege having survived conflict on both land and water only to find Barclay acquitted and exempt from further trial under the law of double jeopardy. Despite clear warnings not to do so he begins a romance with Emily Barclay, but mayhem surrounds the evacuation of Toulon and the revolutionary forces, including Napoleon Bonaparte, are closing in to retake the port…

The Admiral’s Game

Since being illegally press ganged into joining King George’s Navy, John Pearce has overcome numerous adversaries, which have secured him a position of command on board HMS Faron. Having successfully overcome the French at the Siege of Toulon, Pearce and his comrades, the Pelicans, now face the on going, bloody battle to defend the port.

Meanwhile, Lieutenant Pearce’s continuing conflict with Captain Ralph Barclay, the man responsible for press ganging Pearce and his companions into the Navy, intensifies as Barclay faces a court martial for his actions. But with Barclay’s superiors, Admiral Lord Hood and Admiral Hotham, in dispute over how to deal with Barclay’s misgivings and with his wife, Emily, struggling to cope with his barbarous nature, Barclay’s future looks uncertain. Pearce’s hope for retribution may occur sooner than he anticipated, but would it be to his advantage?

As Pearce confronts assaults from both the French and his superiors, it becomes clear that Pearce and his comrades are part of a large and potentially fatal plan, where war becomes a calculated game to be won.

An Ill Wind

Toulon, 1793. With the Republican Army at the gates, the citizens of Toulon are panicking, trying to flee the retribution of the guillotine. Amongst this confusion John Pearce and the rest of the Allied forces must put the needs of war before their lives: the Arsenal and dockyard must be destroyed, the ships they cannot get away must be set alight to deny them to the enemy. And Pearce is entrusted with dangerous tasks by Admiral Hotham.

His orders take on a particularly a challenging form when Pearce is tasted with evacuating the hospital and finds himself sailing in close proximity to Captain Ralph Barclay the man he intends to have court martialled and his wife Emily. Matters between the men come to a head, and Pearce is sucked into a web of intrigue and devious politics.

Blown Off Course

Lieutenant John Pearce is in London seeking protection for his friends, the Pelicans, from a reluctant Admiralty. Sat in the Pelican Tavern where they were first press ganged, he wonders what future he has, lacking funds and an occupation if he leaves Navy, and without the evidence that would bring Captain Ralph Barclay to justice for perjury. Problems are mounting for Barclay as well. Emily, his young, estranged wife, is refusing to live under the same roof as him and intends to use the evidence Pearce thinks is lost to get her own way. What action will be necessary to silence those who spell trouble for Barclay? Matters are looking up for Pearce when a smiling stranger offers him employment; the very profitable but illegal task of fetching a ship laden with contraband back from France. But is that smiling stranger all that he appears to be? How much danger is Emily Barclay in and are Pearce and his Pelicans sailing into prosperity or danger?