Will I Am
Henrik F. Christensen
(Reviewer - Rebecca Brown)
2003 RockBySea Books
ISBN: 8798869213

Three American merchant seamen are impressed into service by the English Royal Navy after the American Revolutionary War.

While Will I Am is written in a novel form it contains verbatim log entries & letters home from American Merchant Seamen William Watson, John Brown & Amos Stevens, penned between 1805 & 1812, during their forced service & incarcerations.

Henrik F. Christensen has taken on an intriguing labor of love from a forgotten time when the United States was a fresh & untried nation in a world of Old Foes -- England & France -- both with long histories of the best & worst of imperial habits.

From his rocky home in Denmark, this author has stitched together a remarkable patchwork of what life was like for this new nation's merchant seamen, where suddenly they find themselves abducted by the enemy, & transported around the Atlantic to ports & battles, until they are shipwrecked on Denmark's shores intent on re-gaining their freedom.

This author has re-submitted his long, unique & interesting book to both a good proofreader & linguistic editor making the second edition a superb read. There are several maps indicating locations of interest re: where the three Seamen came from, where taken; the battles fought, & the retreats made. Readers must then dive in as there is no Contents page.

I relished the authentic language & idiosyncratic spelling in the letters & logs Watson, Brown & Stevens wrote, & the author's segments in the story are fascinating.

Henrik F. Christensen's Afterwords are impeccable, with photos of actual letters, paintings, & a long list of archived documents from which he drew his story.

Why would a Dane write about impressed American Merchant Seamen? Because two of those brave & articulate men landed on Henrik Christensen's peninsula to survive & recover there Two centuries ago.

For a detailed recreation of life at sea during one of the great ages in naval history, Will I Am is a fine historical read of a unique episode in the United States' story

Read an interview with this author HERE
(11/02/03)

Rebecca