The admiral - Nigel Tranter

As a boy, Andrew Wood's greatest ambition was to be a merchant-trader like his father before him. He was also determined to avenge his father, who had been murdered by English pirates. Andrew's chance came when he was asked to join his kinsman, Henry Lindsay, in a trading venture with the Baltic states. During this voyage they were attacked, and Andrew's great courage during this and subsequent skirmishes led to his national renown as a pirate-slayer, and brought him to the attention of King James III. At the king's invitation, Wood built up a number of captured vessels to form the nucleus of a national fleet. Such was his success that James eventually promoted him to become Baron of Largo and Lord High Admiral of Scotland. But Admiral Wood's bold defence of Scottish waters against the marauding English privateers was to incur the wrath of King Henry VII of England. .