Mutiny at Port Maria

Volume 3 of 'The Neville Burton - Worlds Apart Series': British Navy in the Romantic Age of Sail When British Navy Lieutenant Neville Burton climbed the accommodation ladder of the 74-gun Royal Navy ship HMS Elephant in June of 1801, his thoughts were of his deceased lover, not of his duty waiting at the top of the ladder. Depressed and discouraged, he was not ready for the treachery that would soon face him at the hands of the ship's First Lieutenant. Grief surrounds him. Neither were his thoughts on another facet of his service to the Admiralty - a mission of international intrigue. 'Something always presents itself'', he's told by his contact and mentor in Whitehall, when he complains of having no idea how to accomplished the task. The seemingly simple process of getting home to England or serving normal naval duties are not in his cards. The winds of change and the vagaries of battle soon conspire to send him to unusual duties for British Navy officers during the Napoleonic Wars - from Denmark to the North Coast of Africa and on into enemy France itself. Lieutenant Burton combines his courage, resourcefulness, and luck to escape capture when his mission is discovered, only to find himself conscripted into other dangerous duty: inshore action in the ports of Spain. Burton's happy arrival home in England is met with a new twist of his fate: his mentor, Sir William Mulholland, asks his further compliance to continue the mission that began in France. The theater of operation is now Jamaica, however - a place that Burton knows well, but which holds a heavy place in his heart. When he sails there, it is to serve aboard another third-rate ship of the line, the 74-gun HMS Vanguard. His new platform affords him an opportunity to participate in the capture and sharing of prize ships and to begin calculating how he might accomplish his mentor's mission, the investigation of a possible spy. Ashore, an unexpected meeting marks another potential turning point in his life. He encounters Marion Stillwater, a beautiful young girl who is remarkably similar to his lost love. Is another romance, another affair of the heart, even possible so soon after the other? The encounter is sweet, but short, and Burton is recalled to duty. For the second time, he is offered the opportunity to accept a command in Port Royal Bay, and his acceptance bestows upon him the rank of Master and Commander of a prize ship: the unrated schooner Superieure. With this promotion, the dreams of a young officer seem to be achieved - at least until he begins to see who is coming aboard to man his ship... the dregs of humanity from other ships of the fleet. The seeds of mutiny are sown, but his exploits in Jamaica are not complete. Simply being a Commander does not solve problems - only serves up more peril. Sent to find and discourage the ever-present pirates of the Caribbean on Jamaica's northern shore, the smell of mutiny hangs in the air. Georges Carrack serves up the detail of sailing of square-rigged ships into war along with accuracy of historical situation, all enhanced by description from the author's personal experience at sea. His style and stories should appeal to followers of Patrick O-Brian's Aubrey-Maturin Series or C. S. Forester's "Horatio Hornblower". Take a look inside History - Naval - Fiction - early 19th Century