Published by Michael Joseph (1994), price £ 11.99 ISBN 0-7181-3844-9, 275 pages, paperback.

This is a very lively autobiographical account of a British seaman impressed into the Royal Navy at the beginning of the 19th Century, edited and with an introduction by C.S. Forester. This book was first published in 1954.

The work is supposedly a diary of John Wetherell's life. From C.S. Forester's introduction it appears to be part diary, part later- written autobiography relying on memory rather than notes made at the time.

This book uses only a portion of the original account, that is, Wetherell's service on HMS Hussar and his captivity in France. When the book is read it becomes evident that Wetherell was shipwrecked on a number of occasions. As a consequence only those parts of his diary that he had previously sent home were used in his account. The rest was from memory.

The work is a very readable and enlightening account of one man's experience of the Napoleonic Wars. He describes his dislike for the Captain of the Hussar; his experiences when the ship ran aground on the French coast; and his subsequent captivity. Indeed, the bulk of the narrative relates to his story as a prisoner of war. He not only describes life in the prisons, but what he saw on the journey to the prison depot.

POWs

Wagons were provided for the transport of POWs on occasion, but for most of the journey Wetherell marched under escort. He and his companions were billeted in towns along the way; in houses, barns and the local gaols. Most of the time they were well treated by the inhabitants, especially by those Frenchmen who had friends or relatives experiencing captivity in England.

Wetherell was a prisoner of war for eleven years! His account is one of the most detailed on the subject that I have read. He describes life at the depot of Givet on an almost day-by-day basis the hopes and disappointments, the weariness, the amusements, escapes, the treachery and the infiltration of news from the outside world. His story is a vivid one of life as an ordinary man caught up in the war.

While he was a captive he heard snippets of news about such events as Trafalgar, Austerlitz, Wagram, Talavera, and the hopes or otherwise these generated for the exchange of prisoners between Britain and France. He saw French troops marching through Givet on their way to fresh victories, and ragged troops in retreat in 1813-14.

On the advance of the allies into France the prisoners of war at Givet were evacuated. Wetherell was part of the prison band which was used to keep up morale on the march and to entertain the French when required. (Wetherell spent his captivity learning French, navigation and music.) He returned home in 1814.

Some of the accounts of his journeys make for very routine reading, but his story of life as a prisoner of war is one of the most vivid and entertaining that I have come across. His captivity was very like that experienced by other Britons during the same period, and so much of what he relates can be corroborated by others.

His is one of the best works that describes the relationship of the British las POWs) with the French, both military and civilian. The Adventures of John Wetherell is a very informative and entertaining read on a different aspect of the Napoleonic period.

If you like autobiographies of the period, then this one is certainly worthwhile acquiring because of its different perspective of the war.

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