Naval Historical Fiction

The year 1809 starts out badly for Captain Alan Lewrie, Royal Navy, and his ship, HMS Sapphire. They've extracted the sick, cold survivors of Sir John Moore's army from disaster at Corunna, got hit by lightning while escorting the army to England, and suffered a shattered mainmast which may end Lewrie's active commission if a replacement can't be found or fashioned soon. Admiralty needs troopships, not slow, old Fourth Rate two-deckers, so Lewrie must beg, borrow, steal, and gild the facts most glibly if he wishes to keep her and her skilled crew together.

Three mismatched troop transports, lots of 29-foot barges, and an under-strength regiment of foot - a waste of Royal Navy money, a doomed experiment, or a new way to bedevil Napoleon's army in Italy? Either way, it's Capt. Sir Alan Lewrie's idea, and it seems to be working, with successful raids all along the coast of Calabria. But it depends on timely information, and Lewrie must trust Don Julio Caesare, a lord of a Sicilian criminal underworld, and his minions, or the amateur efforts of a disorganized network of Calabrian partisans.

The death of Alexander the Great was the signal to begin the greatest war in human history - a war that swept like a firestorm from one end of the known world to the other, as his former generals fought like jackals to make his vast empire their own. By 305 BC, the most powerful players in this deadly game faced each other across the Mediterranean: Ptolemy, the master of Egypt, and Antigonus One-Eye, master of Asia. And between them, the island of Rhodes, a strategic fortress city that neither could afford to cede to the enemy.

It has been six years since army nurse Jenny Bennett's heart was broken by a dashing naval officer. Now Lieutenant Ryan Gallagher has abruptly reappeared in her life at the Presidio army base but refuses to discuss the inexplicable behavior that destroyed their happiness. Ryan is in an impossible situation. One of the few men in the world qualified to carry out a daring assignment, he accepted a government mission overseas.

After a century of war, revolutions, and imperial conquests, 1790s Europe is still embroiled in a battle for control of the sea and colonies. Tall ships navigate familiar and foreign waters, and ambitious young men without rank or status seek their futures in naval commands. First Lieutenant Alexander Clay of the frigate Agrius is self-made, clever, and ready for the new age. But the old world, dominated by patronage, retains a tight hold on advancement.

Lieutenant Peter Sinclair, R.N., Captain of H.M. Submarine Rugged and the youngest Commanding Officer with the famous "Fighting Tenth" Submarine Flotilla, sets sail. His mission: to destroy the enemy. In the Turkish city of Istanbul the discovery of a murdered agent reveals a cryptic message; a message which, once deciphered, reveals the existence of an enemy fortress producing a lethal weapon.

The French called it La Forteresse Maudite, the Cursed Fortress. Louisbourg stood at the mouth of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, massive and impregnable, a permanent provocation to the British colonies. It was Canada’s first line of defence, guarding the approaches to Quebec, from where all New France lay open to invasion.

The year 1807 starts out badly for Capt. Alan Lewrie, Royal Navy. In The King's Marauder, his frigate HMS Reliant has a new captain, he's living at his father's estate at Anglesgreen, among spiteful neighbors and family, and he's recovering from a wound suffered in the South Atlantic. At last, there's a bright spot. When fit, Admiralty awards him a new commission; not a frigate but a clumsy, slow two-decker fourth-rate 50. Are his frigate days over for good? Lewrie's ordered to Gibraltar, but Foreign Office Secret Branch's spies and manipulators have use for him, again!

After a series of failed assaults on Guadalcanal and Henderson Field, Japan is rallying for a major offensive. Ground troops, surface bombardment, and a carrier-supported invasion of the island looms darkly on the horizon. Now, Bull Shark must circle the nearby islands to discover and slow down this onslaught long enough for Allied forces to dig in.

Lewrie loses his ship and his command when he receives news that Vigilance must return to England to be decommissioned and turned over to the dockyards for a complete refit. Lewrie is grounded, put on half-pay, and his crew disperses to look for new positions. It's late autumn, and being ashore is heavenly, after a time. Lewrie spends time with his wife, Jessica, helps his son Hugh find a new ship, and happily marries off Charlotte. Life onshore is quiet until Lewrie finds himself once again in the headlines of the city papers.

Rocks and Shoals is the seventh of the Carlisle & Holbrooke naval adventures. The series follows Carlisle and his protégé George Holbrooke through the Seven Years War and into the period of turbulent relations between Britain and her American colonies in the 1760s.

After enjoying two weeks of well-deserved R and R at Pearl Harbor, Art Turner, his crew, and his boat are once again asked to go out and do the impossible…and to make it snappy, already! Webster Clayton has uncovered a Japanese plan to send a major invasion force to Guadalcanal. In order to soften up the marines there, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto intends sending in a battleship to bombard Henderson Field and obliterate the Cactus Airforce.

The year 1941: Andrew Troost, heir to generations of naval tradition, has just been made admiral, when reports fly in of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Troost's son, Warren, has followed in his footsteps and is one of the men fighting for his country on a PT boat in the Pacific. In New York City, Tony Trapasso hears the call to action and gets ready to join the naval action. With him is Jacob Miller, a young man choosing to become a naval pilot instead of following the rabbinical calling of his Jewish forebears.

USS Bull Shark is running for Pearl Harbor after leaving New London and her victory over the Nazi Q-ship, but all is not well aboard the boat. The Japanese are planning a major offensive and the clock is rapidly ticking – with what will become one of the most decisive battles of the war looming on the horizon, the Navy still doesn’t know exactly where or when it’s going to happen. Can Bull Shark play her part in the Battle of Midway? Or will she meet with Yamamoto’s secret weapon and be swept aside in Japan’s quest for power?

Captain Alan Lewrie, Royal Navy, is still in Gibraltar, his schemes for raids along the coast of Southern Spain shot to a halt. He is reduced to commanding a clutch of harbor-defense gunboats in the bay while his ship, HMS Sapphire, slowly grounds herself on a reef of beef bones! Until Napoleon Bonaparte's invasion of peaceful Portugal and his so-called collaborative march into Spain change everything, freeing Sapphire to roam against the king's enemies once more!

It is 1801, and President Thomas Jefferson has assembled a deep-water navy to fight the growing threat of piracy, as American civilians are regularly kidnapped by Islamist brigands and held for ransom, enslaved, or killed, all at their captors' whim. The Berber States of North Africa, especially Tripoli, claimed their faith gave them the right to pillage anyone who did not submit to their religion.

On a routine patrol, HM Submarine Searcher strikes an unidentified moving object where no obstruction should have been and sinks to the bottom of the sea. Her Captain, Lieutenant Peter Sinclair, RN, is court-martialed.

Carrying out wartime patrols from Malta with the famous "Fighting Tenth" Submarine Flotilla, HM Submarine Rugged has orders to disrupt Axis supply convoys. Deep in enemy waters, Rugged encounters deadly mines, depth-charges, and torpedoes! Hunted down by the remorseless destroyers of the Trapani First Eleven, the crew of Rugged, fast running out of oxygen and slowly poisoned by carbon dioxide, must call on every ounce of their reserve if they are to evade the enemy and escape with their lives.

Art Turner and the crew of USS Bull Shark are about to become the spearhead in a new offensive in the Pacific. As an island nation, the Empire of Japan depends on the sea to maintain its vital supply chain… and it’s into this jugular that Admiral Nimitz intends to plunge his knife. On the other side of the world, Pat Jarvis is given command of his brand new submarine – the Megalodon. And like her sister, this new shark is being sent on a special mission. To find and sink a rogue Nazi spy ship commanding U-boat forces in the Caribbean.

Captain Alan Lewrie and his small squadron defeat four French frigates off northern Spain, winning honor, glory, and renown. So, why is such a successful captain suddenly without a ship, or another active commission? Why do rumors swirl that jealous foes' powerful patrons are blighting his career? Months on end ashore, even in entertaining London getting his portrait painted, put him in serious sulks. Well, the artist is the sister of one of his midshipmen, a delightful and talented young lady of a modern outlook, but not modern enough to become Lewrie's lover.