It is 1811 and Napoleon s French Empire dominates Europe. Desperate to stem the encroaching French tide and avert war with the emerging power of the United States, the Royal Navy orders Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater to the Chesapeake Bay to heal the rift between London and Washington. Quite by chance, on the banks of the Potomac, Drinkwater discovers the first clue to a bold plan by which the U.S. could defeat the Royal Navy, collapse the British government and utterly destroy the British cause. Amid personal crisis, Drinkwater takes command of a squadron sent against the Americans in the...

Wrenched by tragedy from a peaceful and respectable middle-class home in Victorian London, Hannah Kemball finds herself accompanying her father, Captain "Cracker Jack" Kemball, aboard the tea-clipper Erl King on a voyage to China. It is 1869. In shanghai and Foochow, the crack British tea-clippers are loading the season's tea, preparing for the annual race to bring their valuable cargoes and the fortunes of their swaggering crews halfway around the world to the London market. Unfortunately for Hannah, only one thing matters t the iron-willed captains about to pit their skills against the...

A young captain Nathaniel Drinkwater is given command of an old Ship, the Virago, to be sent to the Baltic as a bomb vessel. Drinkwater s ambition is to turn it back into a fighting ship, but his plans are thwarted. At the same time, Drinkwater s brother appeals for help in his desperate attempt to escape the gallows. As Sir Hyde Parker s fleet approaches the Danish coast, the Virago joins the battle. Amid gales and ice, Drinkwater strives to save his ship and his brother. It is 1801 and napoleon is reaching supreme power in France and has allied himself with Tsar Paul of Russia. Against this...

The frozen splendor of the Arctic Ocean and the absorbing drama of a nineteenth century whale hunt unfold as Drinkwater escorts a whaling fleet to Greenland and meets disaster, treachery and death.

The Year is 1813. Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater succeeds Lord Dungarth as head of the Royal Navy s Secret Department. While the Grand Army of Napoleon faces defeat on the battlefields of Germany, the discovery of a secret treaty with America leads Drinkwater into the forbidding fjords of Norway, and one of the most desperate missions of his career. Increasingly isolated and affected by the long war with France and her allies, Drinkwater pursues his personal odyssey against often daunting odds. In a compelling narrative the author brings vividly to life conditions at sea during the Napoleonic...

It is 1843 and Captain Nathaniel Sir Drinkwater embarks on the paddle-steamer Vestal for an inspection of lighthouses on the west coast of England. Bowed with age and honors, the old sea officer has been drawn from retirement on half-pay to fulfill his public duty. The following day, tragedy strikes, and Drinkwater is confronted with his past life: his sins and follies, his triumphs and his disasters. Drawing on a true incident, Richard Woodman deftly concludes the career of his sea hero. Drinkwater s complex character is revealed in its entirety. Far from being the reminiscences of an old...

In A Brig of War, Nathaniel Drinkwater is promoted lieutenant of the brig Hellebore. He finds routine convoy escort duties end abruptly when Admiral Nelson, pursuing the French fleet to Egypt, sends Hellebore to the Red Sea with an urgent warning to the British squadron there. However, Nelson s apprehensions over French ambitions in the East are more than justified. Edouard Santhonax, Drinkwater s old enemy, is already preparing for a French descent on India. The hunt for this elusive Frenchman and his frigate is combined with British naval operations on the flank of Napoleon s Egyptian...

During the last four years of the Second World War, the Western Allies secured Russian defenses against Germany by supplying vital food and arms. The plight of those in Murmansk and Archangel who benefited is now well known, but few are aware of the courage, determination and sacrifice of Allied merchant ships, which withstood unremitting U-boat attacks and aerial bombardment to maintain the lifeline to Russia. In the storms, fog and numbing cold of the Arctic, where the sinking of a 10,000 ton freighter was equal to a land battle in terms of destruction, the losses sustained were huge. Told...