With Napoleon’s army and invasion craft concentrated around Boulogne, Kydd is withdrawn from normal fleet service to work with the American inventor Robert Fulton. Fulton’s submarine, mines and torpedoes promise to destroy the invasion flotilla without a conventional battle.
Kydd doubts weapons that attack unseen, but the danger to Britain leaves little room for personal ideas of honour. Experiments, secrecy and political pressure make technological innovation as hazardous as combat while the Channel remains the country’s first line of defence.