1. The King’s Coat
In 1780, seventeen-year-old Alan Lewrie is caught in a family trap and forced out of Georgian London into the Royal Navy. Aboard HMS Ariadne, the inexperienced midshipman confronts seasickness, brutal discipline and officers who expect obedience long before he understands seamanship. Service carries Lewrie to the…
2. The French Admiral
In 1781, Alan Lewrie serves aboard HMS Desperate as the war in America approaches its decisive crisis. Naval manoeuvres off Virginia draw him into the Battle of the Chesapeake, where the French fleet blocks British relief and leaves Cornwallis’s army isolated at Yorktown. Lewrie then becomes…
3. The King’s Commission
In 1782, newly commissioned Lieutenant Alan Lewrie becomes first officer of the brig HMS Shrike and sails for the Caribbean. The promotion gives him authority but also exposes him to an exacting captain, dangerous coastal operations and the temptations presented by Lucy Beaumont. Orders then take…
4. The King’s Privateer
In 1783, peace leaves Alan Lewrie without the familiar purpose of open war, but the Crown soon recruits him for a covert voyage aboard the merchant ship Telesto. Disguised as a trading officer, he investigates the disappearance of British shipping between India and China. The trail…
5. The Gun Ketch
In 1786, Alan Lewrie finally receives an independent command: the small but heavily armed HMS Alacrity. Sent to protect British commerce in the Caribbean, he must make an effective warship from a cramped vessel and a crew operating far from regular naval support. Pirate attacks bring…
6. H.M.S. Cockerel
In 1793, war with Revolutionary France releases Alan Lewrie from an unhappy life as a country gentleman. He joins HMS Cockerel, but the ship is weakened by a sick and tyrannical captain, strained discipline and a crew uncertain whom to trust. Cockerel is drawn into the…
7. A King’s Commander
In 1794, Alan Lewrie commands the fast sloop HMS Jester and takes part in the British victory remembered as the Glorious First of June. He is then sent into the Mediterranean, where operations around Corsica and the French coast place him under senior officers including Horatio…
8. Jester’s Fortune
Alan Lewrie takes HMS Jester into the Adriatic as Britain tries to disrupt French reinforcement of Napoleon’s armies in Italy. A small allied squadron begins by intercepting shipping and raiding exposed positions, but its limited strength becomes increasingly obvious as French power expands along the coast.…
9. King’s Captain
In 1797, Alan Lewrie’s conduct at the Battle of Cape St Vincent earns promotion and command of the frigate HMS Proteus. The reward places him closer to Horatio Nelson’s circle, but it also requires him to recruit, discipline and win the confidence of a new company.…
10. Sea of Grey
Captain Alan Lewrie returns to the Caribbean in HMS Proteus to intercept French and Dutch commerce. His operations bring him close to the collapsing plantation regime of Saint-Domingue, where revolution, racial war and shifting alliances make every harbour politically dangerous. At the same time, anonymous letters…
11. Havoc’s Sword
In 1798, Alan Lewrie and HMS Proteus remain in the Caribbean, where a duel fought for a friend’s honour is only the first of several dangers. Foreign Office agents press him into a scheme against French interests just as relations with the newly created United States…
12. The Captain’s Vengeance
In early 1799, a captured French prize disappears from its anchorage in Dominica together with six of Alan Lewrie’s sailors. Lewrie follows the trail through the Caribbean, uncertain whether the men are victims, deserters or accomplices in the theft. The search leads from Hispaniola and Barbados…
13. A King’s Trade
Alan Lewrie faces prosecution for removing enslaved men from a Jamaican plantation to replace sailors lost to yellow fever. To keep him beyond the reach of the colonial court, the Foreign Office sends him with an East India Company convoy bound for Cape Town and India.…
14. Troubled Waters
In spring 1800, Alan Lewrie returns to England celebrated for his South Atlantic service and prepares the new frigate HMS Savage. His career is threatened, however, by a Jamaican sentence of death for taking enslaved men from a plantation, while the dispossessed owner pursues revenge in…
15. The Baltic Gambit
In January 1801, Alan Lewrie is tried for freeing enslaved men from Jamaica and then left on half-pay despite his acquittal. The formation of the League of Armed Neutrality soon makes his experience valuable again, and he receives command of HMS Thermopylae for a winter reconnaissance…
16. King, Ship, and Sword
The Peace of Amiens leaves Alan Lewrie ashore in December 1801 with no clear place in civilian life. A reconciliation with Caroline leads to a second honeymoon in Paris, but political hostility and Lewrie’s own enemies turn the visit into a flight from France. When war…
17. The Invasion Year
In late 1803, Alan Lewrie and HMS Reliant help French soldiers and civilians escape Saint-Domingue rather than fall to the victorious revolutionary armies. The rescue is followed by an exhausting convoy voyage to Britain, where Lewrie receives an unexpected knighthood from George III. His reward is…
18. Reefs and Shoals
Alan Lewrie is sent to the Bahamas with authority to form a small squadron and fly a commodore’s broad pendant. His task is to protect British trade by hunting French and Spanish privateers operating around Cuba, Spanish Florida, the Keys and the Florida Straits. The assignment…
19. Hostile Shores
In 1805, HMS Reliant joins the expedition that captures the Dutch Cape Colony, carrying Alan Lewrie from the shock of Nelson’s death into a new imperial campaign. Victory at the Cape leads the British force across the South Atlantic toward Spanish South America. The attacks on…
20. The King’s Marauder
In 1807, Alan Lewrie recovers from wounds at his father’s Surrey estate until the Admiralty gives him HMS Sapphire, a slow fifty-gun ship unlike the frigates on which he built his reputation. Ordered to Gibraltar, he discovers that the Foreign Office expects the unsuitable ship to…
21. Kings and Emperors
Alan Lewrie begins 1808 confined to Gibraltar and commanding harbour gunboats while HMS Sapphire lies idle. Napoleon’s invasion of Portugal and intervention in Spain transform the strategic situation, freeing Lewrie to carry arms, agents and troops along the Iberian coast. As Spanish resistance topples old arrangements…
22. A Hard, Cruel Shore
At the beginning of 1809, Alan Lewrie and HMS Sapphire help evacuate the battered survivors of Sir John Moore’s army from Corunna. Lightning and a broken mainmast then threaten to end the ship’s usefulness just as the navy needs experienced commanders on the Spanish coast. Lewrie…
23. A Fine Retribution
In summer 1809, Alan Lewrie returns from victory over four French frigates only to lose HMS Sapphire to battle damage and find himself without another commission. Months in London give him wealth, a new household and the possibility of marriage to the portrait painter Jessica Chenery,…
24. An Onshore Storm
Alan Lewrie’s experimental force raids the Calabrian coast from its base in Sicily, using troop transports, barges and an under-strength regiment to disrupt French communications. Success depends on intelligence supplied by Calabrian partisans and the criminal network of Don Julio Caesare. A new transport and its…
25. Much Ado About Lewrie
In late 1810, HMS Vigilance is ordered home for decommissioning and refit, leaving Alan Lewrie on half-pay while his crew disperses. Ashore with his wife Jessica, he helps his son seek another ship and prepares for his daughter’s marriage, discovering that domestic quiet is more agreeable…