Blending a seasoned mariner's expertise, a historian's attention to period detail, and a natural storyteller's gift for creating a cast of vivid characters, James L. Nelson brings to dazzling life a never-before-seen side of America's war for independence. Here is the conflict from the seaman's view, full of the sights, sounds, and sensations of the ocean - and of the thunder of cannons as the new world's freedom fighters vie for liberty. Well before Revere rode, seagoing American merchants were striking the first blows for independence. Drawn by the passion of the almighty dollar, none...

Late summer, 1775, General George Washington discovers that his cache of gunpowder has dwindled to a mere nine shots per man. Desperate, he adopts the plan designed by a group of Rhode Island patriots - send a ship to Bermuda to capture British powder known to be there - as well as their recommendation for the man to lead to the mission: Captain Isaac Biddlecomb. But the plan is a trap, set by a traitor among the patriots, and one from which even Biddlecomb cannot escape. With treachery threatening the revolution, Washington dispatches his aide-de-camp, Major Edward Fitzgerald, to hunt the...