This is an account of the life and adventures of the daring seaman Thomas Cochrane, who rose from midshipman to admiral and was called the sea wolf by Napoleon. His exploits were so compelling that the novelist Patrick O'Brian used them as the basis for the character Jack Aubrey, the main protagonist of naval novels set during the Napoleonic War. Thomas Cochrane was framed in a Stock Exchange scandal, sentenced to the pillory, escaped prison by means of a rope and fled the country to become a mercenary admiral fighting for independence. Off the coast of Chile, Peru, Brazil and Greece, always outnumbered and outgunned, he became a legend of daring and courage. On one occasion he chased the entire Portuguese fleet in a single ship.