Aboard the frigate Destiny, Lt. Richard Bolitho is astounded when he learns of the ship's mission: travel 5000 miles to recover a fabulous treasure for His Majesty. As the swift ship moves into the warm seas of Rio, Bolitho sails into an adventure that will alter his career and his heart.

In 1782, when the British frigate Phalarope is ordered to assist in the Caribbean, her new commander Richard Bolitho must deal with greed and ambition among the officers, and cowardice and impending mutiny among the seamen.

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 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.

Richard Bolitho, British commodore of a small Mediterranean squadron in 1798, faces danger from the weather, the enemy, and his own men as he attempts to discover the intentions and strength of the French armada.

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...

Vice-Admiral Sir Richard Bolitho finds himself the new master of the Argonaute, a French flagship taken in battle. With the Peace of Amiens in ruins, he must leave the safety of Falmouth.

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. While the admiral's enemies pull strings behind the scenes to bring him down, his nephew Adam rises to the grueling challenges of command.

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 frigate-sleek, fast, and heavily armed.

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...