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...

March 1806: Napoleon holds Portugal and threatens his old ally Spain. Vice-Admiral Sir Richard Bolitho is dispatched once more to the Cape of Good Hope to establish a permanent naval force.

New York, 1777: As the American revolution rages on the mainland, the British Navy prepares for action at sea. In the turmoil of the battle to maintain a blockade of military supplies to Washington, junior officer Richard Bolitho has to make momentous decisions, decisions which could alter the course of history.

Captain Richard Bolitho is placed in charge of the flagship of a squadron attempting to force Britain's entry into the Mediterranean during the late eighteenth century.

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.

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.

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.

As captain of His Majesty's frigate Unrivalled of forty-six guns, Adam Bolitho is required to assist the senior officer of the patrolling squadron. But all efforts of the patrols to curb a flourishing trade in human life are hampered by unsuitable ships, and by the belligerence of the Dey of Algiers, which threatens to ignite a full-scale war.

In 1793, Bolitho and the British warship Hyperion are trapped by the French in the Mediterranean.

In 1772, sixteen-year-old British midshipman Richard Bolitho undergoes a severe initiation into the game of seamanship, intercepts and destroys a band of vicious pirates, and becomes involved with smugglers.