We discovered Captain Gilles Belmonte after the French Revolution. In this 5th volume, this frigate captain is now sailing for the brand new Emperor Napoleon I. We find him in 1805, in the harbor of Toulon, still aboard the Égalité.
With the French fleet, he will in this 5th volume, once again scour the Atlantic to try to escape the blockade of the English navy. The author Fabien Clauw, leads us in a complete explanation of what led to the naval battle of Trafalgar on October 21, 1805. Certainly the adventure is romanticized, certainly the frigate Égalité and its captain Belmonte never existed, but one could criticize this novel for sticking "too much" to the truth. One can imagine Fabien Clauw running to all the libraries to read about this epic era of Napoleonic conquests. Thus this novel clearly explains how the two navies, the English on one side and the French accompanied by the Spaniards on the other, inevitably clashed off the Strait of Gibraltar.
If the first volumes presented Belmonte as a ship's captain with a communicative spirit, leader of crews and playing the pretty heart with the ladies, this time the historical account takes precedence over the adventure, forcing the author to keep the truth. It is a difficult exercise to add one more frigate in this incredible naval battle..
On the other hand, if the part of adventure and romanticism is not on the front page, Fabien Clauw succeeds in making the art of naval combat accessible and in explaining simply what led the Emperor to guide the French fleet in this way. And how a set of 33 sailing ships that made up the Franco-Spanish fleet failed in front of 27 English units, partly due to a cruel lack of means and men to perfectly arm these vessels. Demonstrating that victory begins in the arsenals and that the English will always be very strong in this field..
Trafalgar the bloody - Fabien Clauw
- Paulsen Publishing
- 410 pages
- 14 x 22 cm
- 22,00 euros
