Free Download | Form Line of Battle! (The Bolitho Novels) (Vol 9) | Alexander Kent

Kent also stretches credulity at times, and makes a number of historical errors. This book shows Bolitho in command of a 74 gun ship of the line, supposedly armed with 18 and 24 lbs cannon. The two deckers of the late 18th Century, however, usually carried 18 and 32 pounders as their primary armament, a fact that Kent is well aware of because he says so in his own newsletters. It is reminicent of a similar blunder in "Sloop of War," where Kent mounts 32lbs cannon as chasers on an 18 gun sloop, HMS Sparrow. I doubt very much that any sloop ever commissioned ever carried armament even remotely as heavy as the Sparrow. In this novel, the connectionless Herrick is promoted from lieutenant to full captain, skipping commander entirely. While not outright impossible, given that Herrick is utterly lacking in political influence such a promotion streches credulity to the breaking point. Kent's clumsy historical blunders wound the well-informed and alert among his readers.