The Distant Ocean
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The End
Note from the Author
Historical fiction is a blend of the truth with the made up, and The Distant Ocean is no exception. For readers who would like to understand where the boundary lies between the two, the Titan, together with all the other ships that appear in my book are fictitious, as are the characters that inhabit them. That said, I have tried my best to ensure that my descriptions of those ships and the lives of their crews are as accurate as I am able to make them. Where I have failed to achieve this any errors are my own.
Other characters that appear in The Distant Ocean are historic. George III did spend considerable time in Weymouth in the hope of finding a cure to his bouts of insanity. Earl Spencer was First Lord of the Admiralty in 1797, and Prime Minister William Pitt’s Income Tax was introduced as a temporary wartime measure in the period following the Battle of the Nile. Over two hundred years later its repeal is still awaited.
Thomas Ludlam was the young governor of Sierra Leone as portrayed in my novel. He would have been twenty three at the time, and was a printer by trade. The colony had been created in the way I describe to provide a home in Africa for black loyalist supporters of Britain who found themselves on the losing side in the American War of Independence. Many had been previously resettled on Crown lands in Nova Scotia. The colony’s foundation predated the more famous colony of Liberia by over thirty years. Francois Morliere, the governor of Reunion is also a historical figure, although Captains Sybord, Olivier and the other Frenchmen in my book are not.
The campaign I describe in the Indian Ocean is of my own invention, but is based on the historically possible. The island of Reunion was used by both French privateers and warships to attack Britain’s East Indian trade during the war. Linois operated French ships from Reunion in 1803, including the Marengo, 74. By 1810 four large frigates were causing such destruction amongst British merchantmen that a substantial military expedition was despatched to capture the island.
Places that I mention in the book are as geographically and historically accurate as I am able to make them. The tree I describe in the square in Freetown is still there, if rather larger now. The exception to this rule is Hope Island which comes purely from my imagination, although plenty of such atolls exist in those waters, and many are havens for bird life. The animals I have included in my book are essentially accurate, as are the details of the signaling system used by the survivors of the Rush.
About The Author
Philip K Allan
Philip K. Allan comes from Watford in the United Kingdom. He still lives in Hertfordshire with his wife and his two teenage daughters. He has spent most of his working life to date as a senior manager in the motor industry. It was only in the last few years that he has given that up to concentrate on his novels full time.
He has a good knowledge of the ships of the 18th century navy, having studied them as part of his history degree at London University, which awoke a lifelong passion for the period. He is a member of the Society for Nautical Research and a keen sailor. He believes the period has unrivalled potential for a writer, stretching from the age of piracy via the voyages of Cook to the battles and campaigns of Nelson.
From a creative point of view he finds it offers him a wonderful platform for his work. On the one hand there is the strange, claustrophobic wooden world of the period’s ships; and on the other hand there is the boundless freedom to move those ships around the globe wherever the narrative takes them. All these possibilities are fully exploited in the Alexander Clay series of novels.
His inspiration for the series was to build on the works of novelists like C.S. Forester and in particular Patrick O’Brian. His prose is heavily influenced by O’Brian’s immersive style. He, too, uses meticulously researched period language and authentic nautical detail to draw the reader into a different world. But the Alexander Clay books also bring something fresh to the genre, with a cast of fully formed lower deck characters with their own back histories and plot lines in addition to the officers. Think Downton Abbey on a ship, with the lower deck as the below stairs servants.
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