Returning from India in 1805, Richard Sharpe travels aboard a merchant ship and becomes involved in a struggle over its passengers, cargo and loyalties. The voyage brings him into contact with the Royal Navy and places him aboard a British warship as the combined French and Spanish fleets meet Nelson’s fleet off Cape Trafalgar. Sharpe must survive a battle fought at sea rather than on the ground he understands.
Because Sharpe is a soldier, the sea battle removes many of the habits that normally protect him. Gunnery, rigging and shipboard discipline place him under naval professionals just as private intrigue aboard the merchant vessel follows him into the fleet. Trafalgar then gives the story a historical climax in which individual survival depends on a form of warfare conducted at extraordinarily close range between wooden ships.
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