Thomas Cochrane born in Fife Scotland

Thomas Cochrane was born in 1775, and came from an ancient Scottish family with a large house at Culross, on the banks of the Firth of Forth, Fife, Scotland. Cochrane the Dauntless: The Life and Adventures of Thomas Cochrane. Patrick O'Brian, C. S. Forester and Captain Marryat all based their literary heroes on Thomas Cochrane, but as David Cordingly shows, Cochrane's own real life exploits were far more daring and exciting than those of his fictional counterparts. Cochrane was a man of action, whose impulsive nature meant that he was often his own worst enemy. It was this that lay behind his early success, and also behind the stock exchange scandal that saw him blackballed from the City and his beloved country. Taking his wounded pride and his undiminished abilities as a naval commander to South America, he helped liberate Chile, Peru and Brazil from their colonial masters, before returning home to restless retirement. Drawing on his own travels, wide reading and the kind of original research that distinguished Billy Ruffian, David Cordingly tells the rip-roaring story of the ultimate Romantic hero who helped define his age. Cochrane the Dauntless: The Life and Adventures of Thomas Cochrane.