Introduction - Life Upon the Exchange: Commodifying the Victorian Subject

Summary

In 1859 at the venerable age of eighty-four, Lord Thomas Cochrane, tenth Earl of Dundonald and Rear-Admiral of the United Kingdom, contracted George Butler Earp to write his Autobiography of a Seaman (1860) recounting his early life and experiences as a naval commander during the Napoleonic Wars. There was much to tell. Having begun in 1793 as a midshipman aboard his uncle’s ship the Hind, Cochrane quickly earned a reputation for daring, and received his first command, the Speedy, in 1800. By mixing unconventional tactics with clever deceptions – he once had the Speedy painted like a Danish brig and hired a Danish quartermaster to complete the masquerade – Cochrane captured fifty ships and more than 500 prisoners in fifteen months while developing a penchant for brutally effective coastal assaults. His crowning achievement came in 1809 at Basque Roads when he led a night foray that drove much of the French fleet aground.