Andrew Wareham

Poor, mad, puzzled Farmer George is in his final decline and an Age is dying with him. He is to be succeeded by his perverse, erratic, deluded elder son, who believes still in the Divine Right of Kings, not appreciating that any respectable god would turn his face away from him.

Nathaniel Perry, once an officer living on his pay, is now becoming accustomed to being addressed as Lord Palfrey. His two grandfathers died in the same year, having separately bequeathed title and fortune, allowing Nathanial to show his face in London, and take a cousin as wife.

War is coming to Europe. After a century of peace, the drums are beating again and the young man may seek honor and glory in service of his King and country.

From the barren rocks of Aden to the west coast of Ireland, the war under the sea is subverting the certainties of the Victorian Navy. While the dreadnoughts hide away at Scapa Flow and Kiel, the submarines and small ships of both sides are taking the war to the enemy coast.

The Navy has its new submarines and must discover what to do with them. They cannot fall back upon Nelson as a precedent, and Their Lordships of the Admiralty are at a loss to create a strategy.

Bloody Nick returns from the Mediterranean tired—he has done too much, seen too much, and needs rest at home. His ship, HBMS Hawke, needs time in the yard. A year of half-pay leaves Nick rested and anxious to get back to sea.

The Mediterranean Fleet under Lord Collingwood is at its greatest ever—more than a hundred vessels—and is far too small for the tasks demanded of it.

Captain Nicholas Turnhouse—Bloody Nick—takes his new experimental Amphion-class heavy frigate out to the Mediterranean to join the command of Old Jervie, Lord St Vincent, immediately after the Battle of the Nile.

Bloody Nick Turnhouse is in fine fettle, a frigate captain and respected by those who know him. He has taken a ship twice to the Bight of Benin and survived both occasions, falling to none of the fevers.

Nick Turnhouse knows how lucky he has been, and has little choice other than to ride the wave of his good fortune, regardless of where it may take him. He has made himself into Bloody Nick and must continue to take risks and hope to survive them if he is to make his fortune at sea.

Nick Turnhouse is captain of his own sloop, and increasingly aware of how rapidly he has been promoted and how much he does not know. He is reliant on the professional skill and goodwill of Master and Boatswain, both of whom are coming close to the end of their seagoing days.

Bloody Nick Turnhouse has returned from Mauritius to Bombay, where he is welcomed with orders received from London by the overland route. He is to frighten the Spanish by showing himself in a powerful ship of war off Manila and then along the Pacific coast of South America, lands which have not...

Nick Turnhouse is now a senior captain, some two thirds of the way up the List, perhaps as little as five years short of automatic promotion to Rear Admiral. As such, he must accept more responsibility, and he will be expected to offer more than blind obedience to his orders. It is time to...

The Royal Navy is larger than it has ever been—nearly eight hundred ships and one hundred and twenty thousand men—and it is too small for the tasks demanded of it if the war is to be won. British hardwood forests have been destroyed, with the exception of the untouchable New Forest. It is...

Captain Turnhouse RN—Bloody Nick—is still in the Mediterranean, nursing his experimental frigate and enjoying the mixed blessings of being favored by Old Jervie, a hard but just taskmaster.

The short-lived Peace of Amiens is over. Entered into in bad faith, the Peace has provided both sides with the chance to take a breath and restock their arsenals.

Nick Turnhouse continues his helter-skelter advance from Dorset farmhand to naval officer, relying on his sword arm and quick intelligence to achieve success. As he progresses, he is increasingly conscious of all he does not know.

Captain Nathaniel Perry has survived the Battle of Waterloo with some slight distinction, and finds himself respected in his fashionable mess on the regiment's return to England. That is a problem, for he has no private income.

Lieutenant Gilbert Maltravers is bored. It is 1912 and he has been promoted as fast as any in his Dartmouth class and is placed in a battleship where he can confidently look forward to promotion to post captain and a battleship of his own by the time he is forty.

Nick Turnhouse is a Dorset farmhand, a third son with nothing to inherit and no future, working his father's land for his keep. He is also tall, powerfully built, and handsome, and crosses the path of Squire's impressionable daughter.