A Sailor of Austria

Džon Bigins (John Biggins)

The Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Navy might have been the smallest of the Great Power fleets, but we were still a reputable firm. Linienschiffsleutnant Ottokar, Ritter von Prohaska - centenarian resident of a South Wales nursing home; ex-Austrian, ex-Czech, ex-Polish stateless person; last surviving Knight of the Military Order of Maria Theresa - relates his fantastic exploits as a First World War submarine captain for the House of Habsburg. It is the story of a brave and competent officer and the terrible death of the country he served with such devotion: that venerable, now almost forgotten multinational empire which once sprawled chaotically across the middle of Europe and perished for ever in 1918.  

His adventures take him from the Adriatic in the spring of 1915, aboard the tiny obsolete U8, struggling with petrol sickness, exploding lavatories and food-poisoning  as well as a crew drawn from a dozen different nationalities; then to the coast of Albania, transporting the ludicrous pretender to the throne and his enormous bodyguard; then to the shores of the Sahara, smuggling silver dollars to the Senussi rebels and returning with a particularly evil-tempered racing camel as a present for the Emperor Franz Josef; finally to the desperate convoy battles of 1918 and a dramatic escape from the coast of Palestine in the closing weeks of the war - only to return to a homeland in the final stages of collapse.  

An extraordinary and vividly convincing novel, A Sailor of Austria will appeal to those legions of readers who enjoy a fine seafaring yarn. John Biggins' novel, however, triumphantly transcends that genre; it is a work of great humour and compassion, immensely exciting and imaginative.

ISBN 0-436-20006-6