1. Richard Bolitho, Midshipman
In October 1772, sixteen-year-old Richard Bolitho joins HMS Gorgon at Portsmouth after four years in the Royal Navy. The seventy-four-gun ship is crowded with inexperienced men, and Bolitho must learn how to exercise authority without losing the trust of sailors enduring storms, harsh discipline and the…
2. Midshipman Bolitho and the ‘Avenger’
In the winter of 1773, Richard Bolitho returns to Falmouth while HMS Gorgon is refitted, bringing his friend Martyn Dancer home for Christmas. Rumours of smuggling and wrecking are followed by a murder near the Bolitho estate, and the promised leave becomes an investigation into violence…
3. Band of Brothers
Early in 1774, Richard Bolitho and Martyn Dancer await the lieutenant examinations that could end their years as midshipmen. A routine passage from Plymouth to Guernsey aboard an unfamiliar schooner appears to offer a final test of seamanship before promotion. The voyage instead exposes divided loyalties,…
4. Stand into Danger
In 1774, newly promoted Third Lieutenant Richard Bolitho joins the frigate Destiny at Plymouth. Still grieving a personal loss, he must adapt to wardroom politics and to a captain who insists that his first loyalties are to commander, ship and Crown. Destiny sails on a secret…
5. In Gallant Company
In 1777, the American rebellion has become a full-scale war, and Lieutenant Richard Bolitho serves aboard the eighty-gun Trojan. The ship is ordered to intercept supplies bound for George Washington’s forces and to counter French and American privateers operating between New York and the Caribbean. Bolitho…
6. Sloop of War
In 1778, Richard Bolitho receives his first command: the fast, heavily armed sloop Sparrow. The American War of Independence is widening into an international conflict, and the small vessel is sent from one urgent task to another as Britain and France contest the western Atlantic. Command…
7. To Glory We Steer
In January 1782, Captain Richard Bolitho takes command of the frigate Phalarope in the Caribbean. The ship has been driven close to mutiny and carries a reputation for indiscipline just as Britain confronts French, Spanish and American forces in the final phase of the American Revolutionary…
8. Command a King’s Ship
In 1784, Richard Bolitho sails from Spithead as captain of the frigate Undine, bound for India and the East Indies. Britain is officially at peace, but the aftermath of the American war has left commercial rivalries, colonial expansion and local power struggles unresolved. Far from any…
9. Passage to Mutiny
In 1789, the frigate Tempest reaches Sydney after years of policing Britain’s new southern trade routes. Captain Richard Bolitho expects to return home, but instead receives orders to investigate a threatened trading concession among the islands of the South Pacific. The recent mutiny aboard HMS Bounty…
11. Form Line of Battle!
In June 1793, Richard Bolitho arrives at Gibraltar to command the ageing seventy-four-gun Hyperion as war resumes with Revolutionary France. He joins the British occupation of Toulon, where royalist hopes and coalition politics are already collapsing under French pressure. Bolitho is more comfortable commanding a frigate…
12. Enemy in Sight!
At the end of 1794, Richard Bolitho takes the repaired Hyperion from Plymouth to join the blockade of Revolutionary France. The ship’s new company is largely untrained, while the British commodore commanding the squadron repeatedly underestimates the French admiral Lequiller. When Lequiller escapes into the Atlantic,…
13. The Flag Captain
In 1797, Richard Bolitho brings the hundred-gun Euryalus home to serve as flagship of a squadron returning to the Mediterranean. As flag captain he must manage an inflexible admiral, a politically motivated civilian adviser and a fleet unsettled by the recent mutiny at Spithead. Rumours of…
14. Signal – Close Action!
In 1798, Commodore Richard Bolitho leads a small squadron back into the Mediterranean to discover the purpose of a growing French armada. Without secure British bases and with unreliable officers inside his own command, he must gather intelligence while avoiding a battle on terms chosen by…
15. The Inshore Squadron
In 1800, newly promoted Rear-Admiral Richard Bolitho takes command of an inshore squadron operating from European waters into the Baltic. Years of fighting have taught him how to win battles, but not how to manage alliances, diplomatic pressure and the rival ambitions surrounding an admiral’s flag.…
16. A Tradition of Victory
In 1801, Britain and France begin manoeuvring towards peace after eight years of war. Rear-Admiral Richard Bolitho’s squadron is still repairing the damage suffered in the Baltic when the Admiralty gives him a mission intended to strengthen Britain’s position at the negotiating table. Bolitho longs to…
17. Success to the Brave
In 1802, the Peace of Amiens requires Britain to return colonial possessions captured from France. Newly promoted Vice-Admiral Richard Bolitho leaves his pregnant wife to sail in the sixty-four-gun Achates from Boston to the Caribbean, where he must transfer the island of San Felipe to French…
18. Colours Aloft!
In 1803, the Peace of Amiens collapses and Vice-Admiral Sir Richard Bolitho raises his flag aboard Argonaute, a captured French flagship. He is ordered to assemble an inexperienced squadron and determine the intentions of a French fleet preparing for renewed war. The campaign becomes a personal…
19. Honour This Day
In 1804, Britain expects invasion by France and Spain, and Vice-Admiral Richard Bolitho returns to the restored Hyperion for a royal mission in the Caribbean. His failing marriage, damaged eyesight and memories of men lost aboard the ship make the command feel less like promotion than…
20. The Only Victor
In February 1806, Vice-Admiral Richard Bolitho arrives off southern Africa only months after Trafalgar and Nelson’s death. He is ordered to support the British expedition attempting to seize Cape Town from the Dutch, despite the belief among some officers that the great naval victory has already…
21. Beyond the Reef
In 1808, Richard Bolitho is ordered back to the Cape of Good Hope to establish a permanent naval command while Napoleon’s armies occupy Portugal and threaten Spain. Estranged from his wife and facing possible blindness, he travels with Catherine Somervell and several officers aboard the merchant…
22. The Darkening Sea
In 1809, Vice-Admiral Richard Bolitho returns to England after the capture of Martinique and briefly considers a life away from war. The Admiralty instead sends him to the Indian Ocean, where French activity and rising tension with the United States threaten Britain’s trade routes. Memories of…
23. For My Country’s Freedom
In 1811, Admiral Richard Bolitho is recalled after only a short peace in Cornwall. Relations with the United States are collapsing, and he is ordered to lead a fast squadron from the Caribbean to Halifax in an attempt to protect trade and prevent political confrontation from…
24. Cross of St George
In 1813, American privateers are attacking convoys from Canada and the Caribbean, and Admiral Richard Bolitho returns to Halifax during the War of 1812. The campaign forces British and American sailors with a common heritage into close combat across cold and poorly supplied waters. Bolitho tries…
25. Sword of Honour
In 1814, Admiral Sir Richard Bolitho returns from the North American coast as news arrives of Napoleon’s defeat and abdication. He expects the end of European war to offer retirement and a future with Catherine, but the Admiralty immediately sends him to Malta. The Mediterranean appointment…
26. Second to None
In June 1815, Britain waits for the outcome of the Waterloo campaign while the Royal Navy begins preparing for peace. Captain Adam Bolitho commands the frigate Unrivalled and watches experienced officers and seamen face discharge from the service that has shaped their lives. Still mourning Admiral…
27. Relentless Pursuit
In December 1815, Captain Adam Bolitho takes Unrivalled to Freetown to support the Royal Navy’s campaign against the Atlantic slave trade. The patrol is weakened by unsuitable ships, political indifference and merchants who regard the loss of human cargo as an acceptable business risk. The mission…
28. Man of War
In 1817, the post-war navy is filled with laid-up ships and unemployed sailors, but Adam Bolitho receives the seventy-four-gun Athena as flag captain to Vice-Admiral Sir Graham Bethune. Their squadron sails to the Caribbean to confront a renegade force operating beyond national authority. The enemy’s trade…
29. Heart of Oak
In February 1818, Adam Bolitho takes command of the new frigate HMS Onward while hoping to marry and establish a life ashore. His first mission is diplomatic: escorting the French frigate Nautilus along the North African coast in a demonstration of cooperation between former enemies. Ambition…