"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. He is close to the top of the Captain's List and automatic promotion to Rear Admiral must be due in two to four years—the actual date varying at the Admiralty's convenience. Captains sitting at home without a command are more likely to be yellowed, made without squadron, and never employed again.
Nick has his baronetcy—which he values greatly—but knows a successful command as an admiral may turn that into an Irish peerage. He cannot realistically hope for more than that, a title without a seat in the House of Lords, but would dearly love to become Lord Turnhouse. He begs the First Lord for a ship and is given Saturn, an unusual razee, to take out to the Mediterranean . . . provided he can man her.
His first task in the Mediterranean is to attempt to tidy up a problem in the Aegean where the French are taking bases on some of the islands, the Ottomans are losing control of others to rebel Turks and unruly Greeks, and the British are enemies to some, friends to others, and allies to none. As Commodore with a small squadron, Nick has a free hand to create peace—quite possibly the peace of the grave."
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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.
The French have invaded Spain, their former ally, and are ravaging the land in a fashion unseen since the Thirty Years War in the Germanies. The Barbary Corsairs are resurgent, slaving and raiding across the whole Sea. The Two Sicilies, an ally, has collapsed into corrupt desuetude. Turkey is rumbling in the East, and there is a renewed Russian interest in the old aim of achieving access to warm waters from the Black Sea.
Nick Turnhouse in Hawke is being used as a fireman—sent to put out conflagrations as they appear, to perform particular tasks, to respond to needs as they arise. Initially, he is to respond to the pirates of the western shores of Africa with a demonstration of force that will hopefully frighten them into avoiding British interests in the Mediterranean . . ."
"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.
The country is in turmoil, everything changing since the long wars ended. Only the Land seems still to be the same.
Major Nathaniel Perry, Lord Palfrey, believes even the fields of old Dorset must succumb to modernity. His tenantry seems to disagree. The scene is set for a long, slow dispute."
"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.
Gilbert Maltravers is given a new E Class boat and sent off to the Mediterranean, in the hope that the Admiral Commanding there will find something useful for him to do. He leaves his new wife behind and sails off to do his duty, hoping that somebody will know what his duty should be.
It is the end of 1914 and the Navy has suffered humiliating defeats. Something must be done."
"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.
He has a large estate, as is necessary to maintain the status of a lord, but soon discovers that his paternal grandfather had run it into the ground, screwing out every penny, putting nothing back.
If Nathaniel is to make himself significant in the peerage, and create an inheritance for a son to use to become powerful in the country, then he must make something of his land. That, he discovers, is far more easily said than done."
"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 Royal Navy is at war with itself and, as in any civil war, the conflict is merciless.
Gilbert Maltravers takes his tiny E Class boat to war against both navies in this final book of the trilogy."
"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 replace Bloody Nick with Sir Nicholas.
Bonaparte is committing the error of trying to place his brother on the throne of Spain, currently occupied by a madman and his erratic queen.
The Spanish are divided into at least four different factions nationally, and a dozen more in each separate province.
Sir Nicholas sails out to the Mediterranean to offer assistance to those Spaniards who will serve British interests best.
It is not a straightforward task."
"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 seen an enemy in a generation.
Unfortunately, the expected ration carrier has failed to arrive and is presumed lost and there are no barrels of beef and bags of biscuit to fill his depleted hold.
Nick sets off on a year-long voyage with less than six months of stores to hand. He has to scavenge food that his conservative crew will eat, from lands that do not grow wheat and where the beef cow is a rarity. The best hope, he suspects, must be to capture Spanish ships and garrisons and rob them of their rations.
He makes sure that the spirits room is stacked high with rum."
"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 impossible to build enough ships to make up for losses, let alone to expand. At least twenty of the ships at sea are unfit for service, may well sink in the next storm.
The sole answer is to find an ally with a large fleet, or to capture the ships required, which is easier said than done.
Denmark has a large ocean-going fleet, but is neutral and terrified of France. Nick Turnhouse is tasked to find a way of taking the Danish fleet, laid up in Copenhagen, intact and immediately usable.
There is a way—provided he and the government of the day are prepared to sacrifice honor and decency. Perfidious Albion may yet prevail."
"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.
General Griffin's sons welcome the chance to leave the tedium of Oxford to pursue a manly existence for a few months—not for too long, the war will be over by Christmas.
Two are regulars, the other three join as second lieutenants, using their father's influence to cross the Channel with the very first of the British Expeditionary Force. They are soon at the front of the first, confused probes into Belgium and the scattered action spread piecemeal about the little country . . ."
"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.
Sir Nicholas Turnhouse, Bloody Nick, has recovered from his wound and is ready to go to sea again, supported by his lady. Only at sea will he be able to achieve the promotion in rank and honors that both believe to be his due. He is given Hawke, 44, again and sets out for the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea to tidy up the remnants of Napoleon's Army of Egypt, if they should exist, and to make a general nuisance of himself around the Mauritius.
It is a long way from home, and the new happiness he has created for himself. It is back at sea, where he truly belongs. He sets sail, torn between domesticity and adventure, and wondering if he has taken the wiser choice."
"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 French are still reeling from the shock of the Battle of the Nile, the Ottoman Empire is hastening into decline, the Spanish are in their customary disarray, and the Barbary Rovers are enjoying a resurgence. The Mediterranean is in a state of chaos—ideal for a predatory young captain, even if at first in an unreliable ship.
Bloody Nick makes his somewhat erratic way from the coast off Barcelona to the Siege of Acre and the equally erratic Sidney Smith, touching the shores of Egypt and Malta en route before being brought up short off Venice. In process, he adds a little to his store of prize money and more to his reputation as a wild and often lucky captain. He also discovers there is such a thing as bad luck, that it is possible to take too many chances."
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