The Sloop and the Seventy-Four

Frederick Harris means to make his name in the war with Revolutionary France, yet at eighteen he is still waiting for the lieutenant’s commission that would secure him in the Royal Navy. Years at sea have already seasoned him.

Off the French coast, a raid that should have been routine becomes a desperate fight. He seizes the initiative, helps turn the action from disaster toward victory, and is rewarded with promotion and a posting to the captured sloop Athene.

Sent to the West Indies, he enters a service of prize money, disease, and brutal fighting. Privateers must be hunted and enemy shores raided, and each success loads him with more of the unforgiving work of command.

Then Athene meets a French seventy-four, a ship of the line vastly stronger than the little sloop. Outgunned, outmatched, and with nowhere to run, Frederick is drawn into a battle he cannot hope to win.