In 1774, Richard Bolitho is a newly appointed Third Lieutenant, joining the 28-gun frigate Destiny. Dispatched on a secret mission, Destiny and her company face the hazards of conspiracy, treason, and piracy. It is amidst the broadside battles and clashes of swords that Bolitho learns to accept his new responsibilities as a King's officer.

In 1778, British Navy Captain Richard Bolitho must fight the rebellious American colonists while steering clear of a treacherous woman, an incompetent senior officer, privateers, and marauding French warships.

Spithead, 1784. His Majesty's Frigate, Undine, sets sail for India and the seas beyond. Europe may be at peace-but in colonial waters the promises of statesmen count for little and the bloody struggle for supremacy still goes on.

It is 1792, over ten years since Britain's defeat by the American colonies, and the bitter humiliation still sticks in the Admiralty's craw. Now brutal smugglers, many of them naval deserters, occupy the Channel, plying their trade between England and France. Richard Bolitho's mission: to take three speedy topsail cutters and fight the treacherous raiders off the coast of Kent.

Aboard the Hyperion, Richard Bolitho sets sail with an untrained crew for blockade duty off France. Unfortunately, his superior, Commodore Mathias Pelham-Martin, is an incompetent egotist whose petty hostilities jeopardize the operation of an entire fleet.

he year is 1798. Napoleon's naval forces are amassing in the Mediterranean, preparing to annex Egypt, and it is there the newly-promoted Commodore Richard Bolitho is sent with a small squadron of ships under his command.

Plymouth, July 1801: Richard Bolitho's small squadron, still repairing the scars of battle earned in heavy action at Copenhagen, has been months away from the sea. But the Admiralty needs Bolitho. After eight years of war with France, Britain must make a gesture that will show her strength and determination-and one which will dramatically weaken the French cause. The Admiralty wants an attack. Rear-Admiral Bolitho must follow his flag's tradition...

In this 16th volume of the adventure series of Richard Bolitho in the British Navy, Bolitho is called upon in 1803 to anticipate the strategies of the French fleet, leading to one last, potentially fatal rendezvous with the French Admiral, Jobert, who once commanded the "Argonaute."

In 1806 Vice-Admiral Sir Richard Bolitho "carries the news of Trafalgar to southern Africa, where he is to aid British ground forces in any way he can to retake Cape Town from the Dutch. ... [Then] he undertakes a secret mission to Denmark, which nearly ends in disaster and further damages his sight."--Cover.

June 1809. Soon after taking part in the dramatic capture of Martinique in the Caribbean, Vice-Admiral Sir Richard Bolitho is next despatched to the African coast to gather a flotilla and stop French attacks on British trade routes. But Bolitho must contend with more than Britain's old enemy - he must also face the hatred of his flag captian and betrayal by a man he once counted on as his friend. In the dangerous waters off South Africa, Bolitho hunts...

February 1813: As American privateers pick off British and Canadian ships in the wake of the War of 1812, Admiral Sir Richard Bolitho returns to Halifax to defend Crown property. In the cold waters off Nova Scotia, he fights fruitless skirmishes with men of the frontier, all the while longing for peace.

June 1815. In the days immediately following Waterloo, the British fleet confronts a new threat: Algerian pirates preying on hapless merchant ships. Adam Bolitho, Admiral Richard Bolitho's nephew and heir, finds himself in command of Unrivalled, a new kind of frigatesleek, fast, and heavily armed. To defeat the pirates, Adam must forge a strong crew and win their respect. But can he also face down his own ghosts and the bittersweet temptation of another...

Captain Adam Bolitho, of the 74-gun Athena, sails to the West Indies as flag-captain to Vice-Admiral Sir Graham Bethune, who had been a friend of Adam's uncle, Richard. In the torrid waters of the Caribbean, they take on a renegade foe that knows no honor, offers no quarter, and traffics in human life.--Publisher description.

Filled with high-seas intrigue and sharp tensions, this nautical novel takes an intense voyage into the heart of Napoleonic-era Africa. The year is 1819 and Captain Adam Bolitho has been sent on an urgent but risky mission to make a fast passage from Plymouth to Freetown, West Africa, with secret orders for the senior officer stationed there. Due to the slave trade being declared illegal, ships in every harbor are waiting to be scrapped and officers...