Adventures Great and Small
The Non-Battle of The Narrows
July 8, 1778, Admiral Lord Richard Howe, in New York, learned that a powerful French fleet under Count D'Estaing was probably headed for New York. The French fleet was significantly stronger than Howe's. How was he going to stop them?
The admiral had a plan. The Narrows is a thin body of water between Staten Island and Brooklyn, the entrance to New York harbor. Across it runs a sandbar. Although this bar is now dredged to a depth of sixty or more feet, it was, at the time, normally less than thirty feet deep. Because Howe's ships were relatively small, they could get across the bar. but a number of D'Estaing's more powerful ships drew considerably more water and could only cross the bar on very high tides.
Howe spent the next few days carefully resurveying the bar. After the survey was complete, the admiral knew he had D'Estaing. There was only one place where the largest French ships could possibly cross the bar, and they could only do so one at a time on the next high spring tide.
Viscount Howe promptly formed his thirteen largest ships in a "U" just inside The Narrows. As each French ship entered, she would be blown to pieces. Or so Howe hoped.
On the morning of July 21, with the tide near spring, the French fleet approached The Narrows. Admiral D'Estaing studied the positions of the British ships and his own chart and decided an attack on Newport looked more promising.
Me
I was born in 1944 in Yonkers, NY. Since then I’ve spent far too much time messing around with books and boats -- big ones, little ones, here, there.
I’ve published six contemporary nautical thrillers (three under my own name and, under a pen name, a series about sea-going terrorists and the team with the guts and wits to neutralize them), one nautical historical, one murder mystery and hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles on all subjects. I spent my junior year of high school aboard a square-rigged school ship where I learned, if nothing else, to hang on for dear life when aloft in the rigging; majored in Spanish literature at Dartmouth College; did my foreign study at the University of the Andes in Bogota, Colombia; served as a naval salvage diving officer (a ‘Bubblehead’); devoted twenty years to educational publishing; started several other business ventures of questionable success; traveled and raised two daughters (the greatest and most nerve-wracking adventure of my life).
When I write I aim for entertainment, accessibility, intense but plausible action and interesting, fleshed-out characters. In order to take full advantage of rapidly advancing technology and to attract new readers I’m currently reaching out in new directions. The basics, however, remain the same.
FLASH - Flash Fiction and other short items now posted on RANDOM SHORTS Page - CLICK ON MENU ABOVE
THREE SHORT STORIES TO ENTERTAIN YOU
- CLICK ON MENU ABOVE
The Islander - A Stormy Night - A Magical Anchorage - Things That Shouldn't Be Seen
The Corregidor Rodriguez - Martina Experiences Evil Both Ancient and Modern High in the Andes Mountains
The Pirate Who Got Away - Piracy is a Dirty Business, Especially when Julius Caesar is Involved
An Ancestral Puebloan Thriller Petrograph at Mesa Verde
While often overlooked in favor of larger, grander vessels, small coasters such as this not only held the colonies together but also ventured to the Caribbean and beyond. Most colonial era seafaring thrillers focus on sea-going ships but there was more than enough action, suspense and romance to be found among the adventures of the coastal trade to drive great stories.