HE joined the Royal Navy at the age of 14, deserted, was forced back on board a British ship by a press gang, made a prisoner by the French... and ended up an admiral.

The experiences of Admiral George Vernon Jackson, who eventually settled down in Highcliffe, may not have been unique but they were certainly exciting.

The Admiral wrote about his early career in his own memoirs but his remarkable life story has been given a fresh airing by local author Robert Franklin his new 56-page book entitled Admiral Jackson of Verno Christchurch 1787-1876 (Natula £4.50).

In it, Franklin details how the young Jackson went to sea as a midshipman on board the Trent and, soon afterwards, was serving on the Carysfort off Martinique in the West Indies when he first came under fire.

Life in the Navy back then was harsh and Franklin tells of how he caught yellow fever - many crewmen died - recovered, deserted his vessel with another young sailor and joined the crew of an American schooner.

Fate was to play a dangerous hand, however, and Jackson ran found himself impressed back into service on board the British warship, Busy where, it appears the senior officers chose to "turn a blind eye" to his past offence.

Franklin follows Jackson's career through ups and downs. Once he fell from the rigging into the ocean when chasing a US clipper and was saved from drowning by a fellow officer who managed to grab his hair. Later he, too, tried to save a drowning man by, bravely, diving in.

In 1809, during the Napoleonic Wars, Jackson, by now the 2nd Lieutenant on a frigate, found himself captured after his ship was battered into submission by French vessels.

He was put ashore with fellow prisoners at Brest, but escaped with another officer after drugging their guards.

After being in hiding for 14 months, they were caught at Caen, hoping to cross the Channel and soon made to march for two months to the prison at Verdun.

Franklin - whose other books include a study of Lord Stuart of Rothesay - tells the fascinating story of how he escaped once more, climbing down twisted sheets and hiding in lofts, obtained a false passport and eventually made his way back to England to serve once more with the English fleet.

His story didn't end there. Jackson was in the Battle of Algiers in 1816 after the massacre of Christians, was invalided in 1818, given command of his own ship and in1828 ended his career at sea.

How did he find his way to Christchurch? Through family ties. His brother Caleb had married a Poole woman but his sister Betsy's husband was appointed Vicar of Christchurch and he followed them to the coastal town.

By 1834 he acquired Verno, a cottage on Roeshot Hill that he replaced with a larger brick home after it was destroyed by fire.

At the age of 55 he married Jane Oldham Johnson, a watercolourist who was 10 years his junior.

Franklin's account explores not only Jackson's Naval career but his life at Verno.

And how did he become an admiral?

"The Navy wanted to remove the logjam of commanders and make way for younger men," the author writes.

Thus, after he had retired, Jackson became a rear-admiral in 1862, a vice-admiral in 1867 and a full admiral in 1875 - the year before he died.