A Rough Guide to the Ripping Yarn

Nautical fiction set during the time of Nelson is very popular and I am a great fan. This sort of story is, I think, a gift to authors and readers alike. You are guaranteed plenty of action and placing your main protagonists in a small, confined location allows for plenty of scope for friction and conflict. The author can easily control the action and let events unfold at a pace dictated by him.

The greater number of these novels forms part of long running series of books based around a particular character. This allows the author to develop long running plots and sub-plots over a number of books and a long series of book will presumably be a source of regular income.

However, it must be admitted that as a genre it does have its limitations and as you read more and more of it you do begin to see patterns and certain conventions and devices or tropes.

Our Hero

Our hero will usually come from either minor aristocratic stock or from a good solid middle-class professional family. The latter is preferable as it will allow his nemesis and others to look down on and despise because his family is in trade.

Making our hero an orphan isn’t a bad idea. This will make it easier to give him a good kicking as his character is forged in the hell of the orlop deck of a 74 before being spotted by a dashing frigate captain who rescues him from none too gentle attentions of his nemesis who has taken an irrational dislike to him. If the author doesn’t want to go that far, our hero could have recently lost his father, leaving a mother and sister behind at home (who will be a constant source of worry) – his uncles having nobly offered to take him off her hands and make a man of him. After all, getting the youngster out of the way will make it easier to control his dead father’s money.

Whether he comes from the quality (a younger son, naturally – the eldest son would inherit the estate and the money) or from trade, it is important that there is not too much money sloshing around (the widowed mother option, perhaps). Going into the Navy will make the lad’s fortune for he will of course be very, very lucky in the way of prize money and so on.

Our hero could, of course, start out as a foremast jack. However, he will have to be promoted in fairly short order as there is no point in having a hero who will never rise above Quartermaster, Master’s Mate or Gunner. No, our hero must be a dashing officer.

If our hero is to make is way up from before the mast, he must first have been taken up by the press (unjustly, of course), preferably as a young innocent visiting town from his parent’s farm looking for a lost brother or something. A missing sweet heart would be even better. Volunteering just won’t do it. Starting as a pressed man will also allow him to quickly gather a band of loyal forelock tugging followers who will in various mysterious ways follow him from book to book (see below)

Nationality – now here we have quite a wide choice, so long as our hero’s native language is English. I am sure that excellent books have been written from the Spanish or French point of view. Perhaps someone has written a series of books about a cousin of Napoleon who joins the navy as an aspirant and progresses through to be a contemporary of Villeneuve, fighting alongside him at Trafalgar. However, I have not come across him or any others. If you know of any (and I am sure there are some out there), please let me know.

Most heroes in this genre tend to be either British or American. They are mainly English, but fun could be had by making them Scottish, Welsh or Irish. This will allow the nemesis and other snobs to look down on him and generally treat him abominably.

No matter how he first arrives on the deck of one of ships of the Royal Navy, he must at first be totally clueless so that the author can explain things to the reader as our young hero is taken round the ship by a future sidekick or other friendly character.

And although initially clueless, our hero should be nothing if not a fast learner and he will soon be spotted as a likely lad and be favoured by the Captain and First Lieutenant, much to the annoyance of the nemesis. He will quickly be given charge of small cutting out parties, and perhaps the command of a prize.

A natural and gifted seaman, our hero will also be a born leader of men which will bring him to the attention of potential patrons whilst this admirable trait will, of course, serve only to annoy the nemesis. Of course, he will be wracked with self doubt and uncertain of his abilities, despite all the evidence to the contrary.

Our hero will have rather enlightened ideas about discipline. He will not be a flogger, although his nemesis naturally will be a sadistic bastard and happy to flog the hide of any hapless sailor at the slightest excuse. This does not mean that our hero is a soft touch – by no means. He will flog his men but only when they really, really deserve it and it will be more in sorrow than in anger.

The Sidekick

Early on in his career our hero will (because of his natural charm and outstanding leadership abilities) begin to acquire a small circle of friends, at least one of whom will become the sidekick. This character’s role in the books will be that of a faithful companion and friend, usually serving as our hero’s lieutenant or second in command. This will allow the author to have someone the hero can explain things to and confide in (or not, depending on the character of the hero). The sidekick should himself be a first rate seaman and leader of men in his own right.

The perfect example of hero and sidekick is of course the pairing of Nelson and Collingwood.

The Lower Orders

As our hero progresses he will attract a number of followers – he will need a steward and a coxswain and perhaps a few more faithful forelock tugging retainers. These will normally be picked up fairly early on and will follow our hero from book to book. They are there mainly for a bit of comic relief and to do the running round and all necessary lifting and carrying.

For fun, the author should feel free to kill one of these from time to time.

The Patron

It is important that our hero have a patron who can help him climb the greasy pole (a winning personality and competence are never going to be enough). A senior officer looking out for him is as important to the story as the Nemesis and others who are not on our hero’s side. This also reflects real life. In the 18^th Century Navy a man could go far, but only if he had connections and influence – someone to look after him in other words.

Even Nelson had the patronage of his uncle, Thomas Suckling. Nelson’s early career was fairly meteoric – he had been promoted to Post Captain and took command of the Hinchinbrooke on 1 September 1779 when he was not quite twenty-one.

The Nemesis

Every hero needs his archenemy, his nemesis. A Moriarty to our Holmes, he will meet him in the first book. The nemesis may be a fellow Midshipman or officer who takes an irrational dislike to our hero. This could be because our hero is brave whilst the nemesis is a coward or because our hero has virtues the nemesis lacks and knows he lacks them. The nemesis should have powerful friends who are able to protect him whenever our hero unmasks him for the toad he is.

Should the author decide to dispose of the nemesis, in a duel perhaps (certainly it would be traditional), it is important that he be replaced by another.

The Fair Sex

It is fair to say that women do not generally feature in this sort of novel. Generally, our heroes do not tend to have over complicated love lives. Nevertheless, although they do not take major roles on the page, the womenfolk can be important because they can affect the character and motivation of our hero. Also, a love life gives our hero a more rounded personality.

Generally however, it is probably best if he is quickly married off. Mind you, there can be fun to be had in making things a little interesting for our hero. Perhaps the love of his life spurns his advances or is unfaithful to him, or maybe it is he who strays. It shouldn’t be too complicated though, as this can detract from the business at hand, which is giving the French and Spanish a good thumping.

Life Ashore

Life ashore can be a problem for the author. This is after all, nautical fiction, and too much time spent ashore will take us away from the main purpose of these novels – magnificent sailing ships battling each other and the elements.

It can be tackled in a number of ways. The author could perhaps decide to essentially ignore our hero’s life ashore, and deal with it in a fairly perfunctorily manner. On the other hand the author might decide to give our hero a spectacularly complicated private life – perhaps an interesting mix of an interesting love life, financial disasters and

However, our hero can spend the odd bit of time skulking round enemy territory playing at spies or rescuing a captured sidekick.

The Plot

This should be fairly simple. Each book should, ideally, take our hero from one career stepping stone to another whilst making sure that he is present at the odd historically important event – Trafalgar, the Nile, that sort of thing. For example a book could open with our hero first standing on the quarterdeck as a junior lieutenant and end with his promotion to Commander or Captain. He, of course, is promoted because of an act of extreme bravery (preferably showing up his nemesis for the cur he is at the same time).

The Ships

Generally in nautical fiction, smaller is better. This is because smaller ships tend to be given interesting jobs. Small cutters and schooners can be sent on spying missions; frigates can be sent out on reconnaissance missions or on other detached service gibing the author plenty of opportunity for fun and games. Frigates also make good commerce raiders, which in turn will mean plenty of prize money for our hero.

Larger ships generally form parts of large squadrons or fleets, and this will cramp our hero’s style until he reaches flag rank when he will be commanding a number of larger ships. In this case the size of the ships is irrelevant. The number however is. Our hero’s fleet must always be outnumbered in any battle with the enemy.

Our hero will have a favourite ship; usually his first command and this ship can almost become a character in its own right. There will also be a couple of how shall we put it? Floating death traps? Yes, floating death traps will do. Nevertheless, our hero will overcome any problem, any hardship that these horrible excuses for ships can throw at him; usually over the course of a couple of books.

Maps, drawings and glossaries

Whilst these are optional, it is recommended that the adding a plan and elevation of the ship helpfully pointing out what a mast is and what a where the guns go. The map will helpfully explain the events of the climactic battle at the end of the book. Some readers will find these helpful but true aficionados may find them slightly patronising and will have fun spotting the errors.

The author (or more probably and fairly the publisher) can further patronise the readers by adding a glossary of nautical terms at the back of the book. This will explain in detail what a sail does and so on.

Maps, drawings and glossaries can be useful in helping pad out a book if it comes up a little short in the word count.

Speech and Language

This can be a tricky subject.

It can be very difficult to get speech right – especially for the lower orders. Get it wrong, and your jolly jacks end up sounding like James Robertson Justice’s character Quist in the Gregory Peck movie ‘Captain Horatio Hornblower RN’. The problem is that if the author went for authentic speech patterns for the lower deck it would end up sounding far too odd to our modern ears, so a difficult balance has to be struck.

There is a similar problem with the quality. Should the author have the characters speaking like characters from a Jane Austen novel? Tricky as this can be difficult to pull off without the book reading coming across as some sort of parody.

The best bet for the author is to probably not try too hard and to reach some sort of compromise. Putting clearly modern characters in 18^th century naval uniforms is not going to work, but neither will an obsessive attention to the slang speech patterns of the time. Either will take away from the reader’s enjoyment of the book.

Historical and Technical Accuracy

This is vital. There are many, many anoraks and nerds out there and any howlers will be spotted, and will doubtless rebound to embarrass the author. So the author must do his research and a good reference library is essential.

Style

The books can be written in a number of styles:

• Literary. Patrick O’Brian set the standard here. Very tricky, and not easy to pull off.
• Brutal. Here the author takes the line that war is hell and the men on board the ships are all of a brutal disposition. The past master of this was Adam Hardy. Not a popular style.
• First Person. The stories can be told from the hero’s point of view, but it is probably best done in the form of an autobiography, with the old, retired admiral looking back on a life of adventure. This is not often done as it can be difficult to get the voice right.
• Straight narrative. This is by far the most popular style. It is told in the third person, and allows the author the most flexibility. It allows for the greatest flexibility when telling the story.

The first book will set the tone for the whole series. Chopping and changing styles is probably best avoided.

Conclusion

So there you have it. A quick, rough guide to writing ripping yarns. As seen from the reader’s point of view at least. I recognise that I speak on the subject much as a virgin does on the subject of sex – with a great deal of enthusiasm but no direct knowledge or experience.