Clowes, W Laird
Entry updated 31 March 2025. Tagged: Author.
(1856-1905) UK author who specialized in naval history, sometimes controversially (usually writing as Nautilus); a nonfiction study, Black America: A Study of the Ex-Slave and his Master (1891), predicts a twentieth-century race war. His work of sf interest is exclusively nautical: The Great Naval War of 1887 (1886 St James Gazette; 1887 chap) with Commander C N Robinson, both anonymous, detailedly depicts a French naval victory in a Future War against Britain; The Captain of the "Mary Rose": A Tale of Tomorrow (1892), also set in the immediate Near Future, reverses the outcome of the previous tale; in his Scientific Romance The Great Peril and How It Was Averted (1893) an American magnate attempts to conquer Britain with the use of Inventions like the Phloisbophone, which demoralizingly projects voices at a great volume, but is defeated in the end; The Double Emperor: A Story of a Vagabond Cunarder (1894), another Satire against America, projects another attempt to take over civilized parts, this time mostly through the use of confidence tricks; and Trafalgar Re-Fought (1905) with Sir Alan Hughes Burgoyne relocates the Battle of Trafalgar in the twentieth century, demonstrating in this fashion the timeless genius of Lord Nelson.
Clowes was knighted in 1902. [JC]
Sir William Laird Clowes
born London: 1 February 1856
died St Leonards, Sussex: 14 August 1905
works
- The Great Naval War of 1887 (London: Hatchards, 1887) with C N Robinson, both anonymous [chap: pb/]
- The Captain of the "Mary Rose": A Tale of Tomorrow (London: The Tower Publishing Co, 1892) [hb/]
- The Great Peril and How It Was Averted (London: Offices of Black and White, 1893) [hb/]
- The Double Emperor: A Story of a Vagabond Cunarder (London: Edward Arnold, 1894) [hb/]
- Trafalgar Re-Fought (London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1905) with Alan H Burgoyne [hb/]
links
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