A Shilling on Good Friday: A Lesson Learnt

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A novel based on the short, eventful and tragic life of Englishman William Reynolds as it unfolds against that of Prussian immigrant to the USA, George Atzerodt. Following the death of his father in Gosport’s Haslar Hospital in 1853, a seafaring uncle exerts a paternalistic influence upon the young William Reynolds, deviously arranging his entry into the Royal Navy. This was much against his will since William’s ambition was to become a soldier. Raised by his widowed mother and grandmother, Reynolds’ story shifts from the Hampshire village of Forton - and the kindly Parson Veck - to the boisterous streets of Portsmouth. Come 1862 and while attached to the Navy’s North America and West Indies Station, the disillusioned naval rating finds himself and his ship - the gunvessel HMS Cygnet - moored in Halifax harbour, Nova Scotia. After an abortive attempt to jump ship he is sent ashore to spend four weeks confined in the grim, local penitentiary. Yet it is here, with the connivance of others, that a plan is hatched to desert the Cygnet.When that plan is successfully executed, shortly after returning to his ship from the penitentiary, Reynolds makes his way south, eventually arriving in the city of Baltimore. Here, in the Civil War-torn United States, he seeks a new beginning and realisation of his wish to become a soldier…