Showing results by publisher "W. F. Howes Ltd" in Sea Adventures

1793 and Europe is ablaze with war. Thomas Paine Kydd, a young wig-maker from Guildford, is seized by the press gang to be a part of the crew of the 98-gun line-of-battle ship Duke William. The ship sails immediately and Kydd has to learn the harsh realities of shipboard life fast. Despite all that he goes through in danger of tempest and battle he comes to admire the skills and courage of the seamen - taking up the challenge himself to become a true sailor.

Scuttler's Cove is a working village, nestling in dramatic coastal scenery in Cornwall, where life has gone on uninterrupted for centuries... until this seaside idyll was discovered by the rich. Now the quaint harbour-front cottages have been snapped up by second-homers and rental companies, and the locals can barely afford to live in their own town. It is a very different place for Merrin Moon, who left for university at the age of eighteen and never looked back. Now in her thirties, she returns to the Cove for the first time since, after the death of her mother.

Thomas Kydd, a hero of Trafalgar, holds the glory of being Post-Captain of the 32-gun frigate, L'Aurore. A Caribbean posting seems a welcome respite for the war hero, but when more and more merchantmen begin vanishing from the sea, fear starts to spread. Kydd must embark on a dangerous game of espionage in order to destroy this new and terrible danger to the Empire.

Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar removed the spectre of invasion and England is now free to seek conquests and colonies in the furthest reaches of the world. Captain Kydd joins an expedition to take Dutch-held Cape Town, a strategic imperative to secure the rich trade-route to India. But even if the British can defeat the enemy and take possession of the capital, there is still more fighting to be done.

September 1810. Raids across the Straits of Messina to disrupt preparations for the French invasion of the island have been repulsed with heavy casualties. George Warne, a bright young British officer, suspects treachery back in Messina, and is ordered to investigate. Warne uncovers a shadowy underworld of spies, traitors and informers where nothing is quite as it seems and where danger lurks around every corner. If the long-threatened French invasion erupts, will Sicily’s defenders be prepared?