I saw Monday's but forgot Tuesday's till we wre 3/4 through. But I'd read the book, so I had a rough idea of what I'd missed. I think the ships are excellent, and less wooden than some of the acting; and I recognised the view of Portsmouth before the caption came up. The special effects are more special than they were in the early series, although I began to wonder if I was seeing the same load of planks going up in the air every time a shot went home.

I read some of the Drinkwater books, but I didn't like them as much. Too much like 20th century people in a costume drama. I read one of Woodman's set in the Merchant Navy in WWI, and thought that it would have been a lot better without all the gratuitous four-letter words.

But Brian Callison must take the cake for the all-time crap writer of nautical fiction: Pugwash on speed!. (Runner-up Dudley Pope, but his books are fun in an Errol Flynn sort of way.)

Don't let my jaundiced opinions bias your own, BTW: go out and read 'em for yourselves; you might disagree with me.

Steve