October 1991. It was “the perfect storm”—a tempest that may happen only once in a century—a nor’easter created by so rare a combination of factors that it could not possibly have been worse. Creating waves ten stories high and winds of 120 miles an hour, the storm whipped the sea to inconceivable levels few people on Earth have ever witnessed. Few, except the six-man crew of the Andrea Gail, a commercial fishing boat tragically headed towards its hellish center.
In the wake of The Guardship and The Blackbirder comes The Pirate Round, the exciting conclusion to the Brethren of the Coast trilogy and the swashbuckling adventures of former pirate Thomas Marlowe.In 1706, war still rages in Europe, and the tobacco planters of the Virginia colony's Tidewater struggle against shrinking markets and pirates lurking off the coast. But American seafarers have found a new source of wealth: the Indian Ocean and ships carrying fabulous treasure to the great mogul of India.Faced with ruin, Thomas Marlowe is determined to find a way to the riches of the East. Carrying ...
Ramage's Touch finds the ever-popular Lord Ramage in the Mediterranean with another daring mission to undertake. He soon makes a shocking discovery, which dramatically transforms the nature of the task at hand. With the nearest English vessel a thousand miles away, Ramage must embark upon a truly perilous and life-threatening course of action. With everything stacked against him, he has only one chance to succeed...
Captain Gilbert Anthony has a lot on his mind. He has just been decorated for extraordinary bravery under fire, been given command of the fourth-rate Drakkar, learned from his father's deathbed that he as a fully grown illegitimate brother, and will soon be dispatched on a special mission chasing pirates in the Caribbean. . .and that's just in the first fifteen pages! Honoring his dying father, the eponymous "Fighting James Anthony," Vice Admiral of the Blue, Gil takes his half-brother Gabriel into the ship's company as a senior midshipman. As Drakkar sails, Captain Anthony soon realizes having his brother aboard ...
It is 1814 and Napoleon has abdicated as Emperor of the French. King Louis XVIII is brought out of his English exile and escorted back to France by an Allied squadron commanded by the Duke of Clarence. The 'Great War' is at an end and Europe prepares to celebrate the return of legitimate monarchy. But the victorious Allies are increasingly suspicious of one another. Alexander I, the capricious Tsar of Russia, believes he is the savior of the world, while Great Britain whose sea-power has guaranteed victory at sea and contributed to the military success of Russia, Austria and ...
Follow the adventures of Naval Lieutenant Otto Prohaska in the waning years of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It is the summer of 1916, and as luck would have it, Otto is assigned to the nascent, unreliable and utterly terrifying Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian Flying Service. Otto’s aerial chauffeur is the self-willed Sergeant-Pilot Toth, with whom he can only communicate in broken Latin—although when all else fails, screaming may suffice!Once again Biggins uses his sharp wit and meticulous research to reveal the humanity behind the history. On the ground the rickety Habsburg Empire crumbles before the onslaught of WWI, while in the air Otto confronts the winds of change heralding the 20th century.
Having survived the bloody Battle of New Orleans and the loss of their ironclad Yazoo River, captain Samuel Bowater, engineer Hieronymus Taylor, and the survivors of their crew are given new orders – take command of an ironclad warship being built in Memphis, Tennessee.Bowater and his men take passage upriver from "Mississippi" Mike Sullivan, one of the wild, undisciplined captains of the River Defense Squadron, only to find, on their arrival, that their ship is not even half built and the enemy is closing fast. Against their better judgment, Bowater and crew join forces with the mercurial Sullivan on board his ad hoc river gunship the General Page. Outnumbered and outgunned, the Confederates once again fling themselves bravely at the overwhelming power of the Yankee invaders. The deadly back-and-forth fight along the Mississippi ends at last in the massive naval battle of Memphis, and the near-suicidal attempt by the Confederates to hold back the Northern flood.
Portsmouth, 1782. His Britannic Majesty's frigate, Phalarope, is ordered to assist the hard-pressed squadrons in the Caribbean. Aboard is her new commander-Richard Bolitho. To all appearances the Phalarope is everything a young captain could wish for, but beneath the surface she is a deeply unhappy ship-her wardroom torn by petty greed and ambition, her deckhands suspected of cowardice under fire and driven to near-mutiny by senseless ill-treatment.
It is the spring of 1800. Captain Alan Lewrie, fresh from victory in the South Atlantic, is back in England and fitting out his new frigate, the HMS Savage. But true to fashion, Lewrie can’t stay ashore too long with out trouble arising. A Jamaican court has tried him in absentia and sentenced him to hang for the theft of a dozen Black slaves. The vengeful slaveowner has made his way to London to seek Lewrie’s end . . . with or without the majesty of the law! To complicate matters further, Lewrie must also deal with allegations that he is ...
In 1809, working undercover for the Admiralty's Secret Department, Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater goes ashore and mingles with the dregs of London's dockland. Disguised as a Merchant Marine shipmaster of low character, he encounters a known French agent in a brothel and advertises his plans to carry military cargo to Russia.Intended to drive a wedge between Napoleon and his new ally, Czar Alexander, Drinkwater's mission is disrupted by tempestuous weather and a lost escort — a gun-brig commanded by his friend and protege. Reaching the British-occupied island of Helgoland, Drinkwater takes great personal risk by resolving on a bold course of action that is not endorsed by the Admiralty.
It is spring 1792 and England is enjoying a troubled peace, with her old enemy France still in the grip of the Terror. In harbours and estuaries around the country, the fleet has been left to rot, and thousands of officers and seamen have been thrown unwanted on the beach. Even a frigate captain as famous as Richard Bolitho is forced to swallow his pride and visit the Admiralty daily to plead for a ship. As the clouds of war begin to rise once more over the Channel, he has no choice but to accept an appointment to the Nore, ...
1777 — Aus der Rebellion der amerikanischen Kolonien ist ein erbitterter Krieg gegen England geworden, der die Royal Navy vor eine harte Bew?hrungsprobe stellt. Als blutjunger Offizier nimmt Richard Bolitho an den gef?hrlichen Eins?tzen des mit 80 Kanonen best?ckten Linienschiffs Trojan und den dramatischen Seegefechten in den Gew?ssern der Bahamas teil. Nach der Eroberung einer Brigg erh?lt er das Kommando ?ber diese Prise und damit die Gelegenheit, sich durch einen weiteren gewagten Handstreich ruhmreich auszuzeichnen.
Die Besatzung ist nicht an Bord, als sich in der Nacht zum 15. Februar 1860 f?nfzehn Z?glinge des Internats Chairman zu einer Ferienkreuzfahrt an Bord des Schoners Sloughi begeben. Ein Ungl?ck geschieht: das Haltetau rei?t, der Schoner treibt ab, ger?t in einen w?tenden Sturm und strandet nach tagelanger Irrfahrt vor einer unbekannten Insel. An baldige Rettung ist nicht zu denken, und die Jungen, allen voran der findige Briant, m?ssen sich nicht nur gegen ?u?ereWidrigkeiten, sondern auch gegen ihre eigene Natur zur Wehr setzen. Einer der besten Jules-Verne-Romane, der den Vergleich ...
