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Admiral Thomas Cochrane, was the inspiration for C.S. Forester’s naval hero Horatio Hornblower or Patrick O’Brian’s, Jack Aubrey (played by Russell Crow in the film, “Master and Commander”).

Largely forgotten to the general public, yet he was one of the Royal Navy’s most audacious and feared commanders during the Napoleonic Wars, known to his enemies as the wolf of the sea and El Diablo (the devil).

In a rollercoaster career, he didn’t just fight in the Royal Navy but also in the navies of Chile, Brazil and Greece in their wars of independence too.

An engineer, who worked with the father of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and whose inventions are still used today; he eloped with a woman 20 years his junior and was humiliatingly thrown out of parliament and stripped of his knighthood after being convicted of serious fraud.

He ended his days, honour restored and is buried in Westminster Abbey.

The life of Admiral Sir Thomas Cochrane (Lord Cochrane / Earl Dundonald) is one heck of a story!

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