"Set in the early 19th century amid the ships and seamen of a nascent United States Navy, Lieutenant Matty Graves is recovering from his ordeal during the slave rebellion in the French Caribbean colony of Saint-Domingue when he is ordered to Washington to answer questions about the death of his former captain. On home soil he must deal with the mystery and shame surrounding his birth as well as the attractions of his best friend's sister. But when...

A Navy captain near the end of a decorated career, Stephen Rensselaer is disciplined, intelligent, and determined to always do what’s right. In defending the development of a new variant of warship, he makes an enemy of the president of the United States, who assigns him to command the doomed line’s only prototype––Athena, Patrol Coastal 15–– with the intent to humiliate a man who should have been an admiral. Rather than resign, Rensselaer...