Neptune's Needle

Novelist. To prepare for a career in the navy, Cooper shipped before the mast in the Stirling, a merchant vessel, on a voyage (Oct. 1806-Sept. 1807) that took him to London and Águilas, Spain. Commissioned a midshipman on 1 January 1808, he served for several months on the Vesuvius, was stationed at the frontier outpost at Oswego, New York (Aug. 1808-Oct. 1809), and in November was assigned to the Wasp, although he spent most of his time recruiting in New York City.

In December 1809, Cooper found himself financially independent and began to consider leaving the navy, where opportunity seemed limited. His resignation from the navy was finally accepted in January 1813.

To support his growing family, Cooper turned to a literary career. The Pilot (1824) established him as a novelist of the sea, The Water-Witch (1830) followed.

He was hard at work too on his long-projected History of the Navy of the United States of America. During the winter of 1838-1839, the Coopers lived in Philadelphia, where he researched the book. Published in 1839, it is still a valid history, but it too was soon involved in controversy. A feud had long before developed between partisans of Oliver Hazard Perry and those of Jesse Duncan Elliott, his second in command, concerning Elliott's conduct during the battle of Lake Erie. Although Cooper sifted the evidence and tried hard to be impartial, his account did not satisfy Perry's supporters, and Cooper was once again attacked in the Whig press.

In 1842 he published two tales of the sea; The Two Admirals, involving the maneuverings of fleets in the English Channel during the Stuart incursion of 1745, and The Wing-and-Wing, set in the Mediterranean in 1799. In 1844 [he published] Afloat and Ashore and Miles Wallingford, a double novel of maritime adventure and social criticism, for which he was his own publisher, an experiment that was not financially successful. He wrote as well his Lives of Distinguished American Naval Officers for Graham's Magazine between 1842 and 1845 (published in book form in 1846). The Battle of Lake Erie (1843); and a review of the court-martial of Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, who had summarily executed accused mutineers on the brig Somers (1844). In addition, he edited, as he put it, Ned Myers(1843), an account of the life of an old shipmate.

Cooper was to write five more novels, [including] Jack Tier (1848), dealing with treachery at sea during the Mexican War, and The Sea Lions (1849), a novel of seal hunting in the Antarctic.

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Compiler

Peter Richards