Escape from the French: a Young Royal Navy Midshipman's Adventures During the Napoleonic War

This is an essential first hand account of the war the Royal Navy fought against Napoleon Bonaparte's France. Truth is said to be often stranger than fiction and this tale of battle, capture and escape could have come directly from the pen of C. S Forrester or one of the other famous authors of life before the mast in the early nineteenth century. While sailing on the frigate Phoebe, Boys was present when she took two ships of the enemy fleet. Boys was subsequently put aboard one as prize-master. His elation was short lived as their little convoy was soon surprised by four French frigates and Boys and his scratch crew taken prisoner. Incarceration within a daunting fortress in France followed but still Boys and his companions planned and effected an audacious escape from their formidable prison that was but the prelude to a flight through enemy held territory in the hope of crossing the Channel to England and liberty.