Admiral Sir Thomas Cochrane

June 24, 2022 1:07 AM

As the UK kicks out a Conservative MP in the constituency of Tiverton and Honiton, Russ Jones published a Twitter thread talking about a very, very colourful former holder of the post: Scot, MP, admiral, swashbuckler, significant inventor, stock market fraudster and crucial figure in the foundation of modern Chile (who spoke no Spanish).
posted by rongorongo (13 comments total)

And this is how I find out the results of the by-elections! Thank you for the post and the wild story--another of those "too unbelievable were it fiction" tales (the life of Cochrane, I mean, though the election results were remarkable too).
posted by Sockin'inthefreeworld at 1:38 AM on June 24, 2022 [2 favorites]

He was the subject of a The Sea Wolf, a supplemental episode in the Spanish American wars of independence season of Mike Duncan's Revolutions podcast.
posted by emmling at 2:11 AM on June 24, 2022 [2 favorites]

Jack Aubrey (one of two main characters in a magnificent series of books by Patrick O’Brian) was heavily inspired by Cochrane.
posted by bouvin at 4:09 AM on June 24, 2022 [4 favorites]

This took me down a wiki rabbit hole, to a point where I was perhaps a little too entertained by the fact that there are a bunch of people of Irish birth or descent who have influenced the independence movements of South America. Particularly amusing are the names Bernardo O'Higgins, Juan Mackenna and Alejandro O'Reilly.

I'm childish, I know.
posted by trif at 4:20 AM on June 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

There are several good biographies of Cochrane. I read this one a number of years ago and enjoyed it a lot.
posted by briank at 4:34 AM on June 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

I’m finding it hard to find out whether Cochran actually invented asphalt concrete, the mixture used to pave roads, or not. Asphalt: A History, doesn’t seem to think his inventions were very important.

Not that I’m wholly ready to discount the possibility, as it’s possible that noone’s done a deep dive into the documentary evidence, or if someone has, that the article is not easily discoverable.

I once spent the better part of a day tracking down reasonably convincing proof that Pierre Choderlos de Laclos, soldier, feminist and author best known for the brilliant 18th century novel Dangerous Liaisons, also invented the modern artillery shell.
posted by Kattullus at 4:44 AM on June 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

Cochrane had realised El Gamo was SO much bigger than his own ship that if he literally bumped hulls with her, she wouldn't be able to fire down onto his decks. But he could fire into her hull, point blank.

Thanks a lot for spoiling next season's finale of Our Flag Means Death.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 5:03 AM on June 24, 2022 [6 favorites]

Irish birth or descent who have influenced the independence movements of South America

Paisanos by Tim Fanning is a pretty interesting look at the Irish influence on South America, starting from Ricardo Wall who was Chief Minister of Spain.
posted by scorbet at 6:01 AM on June 24, 2022 [1 favorite]

Cochrane was also a major inspiration for some of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin novels.
posted by Fuchsoid at 7:04 AM on June 24, 2022 [2 favorites]

If anyone had trouble reading this very entertaining thread as I had here's the threadreader link.
posted by Ashwagandha at 10:52 AM on June 24, 2022

I liked his stuff with Red Rider a lot better than his solo stuff.
posted by stevil at 12:48 PM on June 24, 2022 [2 favorites]

Particularly amusing are the names Bernardo O'Higgins

Then you'll be delighted to know there's a whacking great street through Santiago named after him: Av. Libertador Bernardo O'Higgins.

Thanks for the threadreader link, Ashwagandha - looks like Jones has sadly now protected his tweets, so the original thread has disappeared unless you were already following him. But now I've read the threadreader version and have whiplash. He just sounds so like Boris Johnson ("What ho! I'll just do whatever the fuck I want and do so many terrible things one after the other that people will lose count and won't be able to react to any of them! What ho!") Except that Cochrane actually did some good things as well as the awful ones.
posted by penguin pie at 3:18 PM on June 24, 2022

The Threadreader thing has gone too, but not from the archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20220623115935/https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1539934516478984192.html
posted by scruss at 8:03 PM on June 24, 2022 [1 favorite]