It is 1777, the Year of the Hangman, and Captain Isaac Biddlecomb is bound for Philadelphia with his wife and child in the Continental brig Charlemagne. His orders are to take command of the newly built twenty-gun frigate Falmouth and get her out to sea before she is taken by General Richard Howe's invading army.Unbeknownst to Biddlecomb, the entire British fleet stands between him and the new nation's capital. Forced to run his beloved Charlemagne...