With the flash of cutlass and the roar of cannon fire, this sweeping saga of high-seas adventure continues-as the revolutionaries' fight for freedom explodes into all-out war. It's the winter of 1776, a year that brings with it a fiery new spirit of colonial independence. Tensions simmering over a decade have finally come to a boil, and the rebel government in Philadelphia, determined to cast off the chains of British tyranny, has authorized the creation of the United States Navy-a brazen act of American aggression against the greatest maritime power in the world. Still battered from her fight in Bermudan waters, the brig-of-war Charlemagne, under Captain Isaac Biddlecomb, sets sail on a daring mission to raid the British store of arms on New Providence Island in the Bahamas. But even as the captain takes the lead in the first amphibious assault in American naval history, he discovers that his greatest enemy is an undisciplined crew led to the brink of mutiny by their sectional hatreds. Beset by treachery and betrayal, in danger of losing his command and his ship, Biddlecomb must find a way to unite his men against a cruel and common foe, as the Royal Navy prepares to sink the Charlemagne-and the revolution-under the merciless blasts of its guns. "Nelson…writes characters who burst out of their stereotypes. Isaac Biddlecomb…makes himself a hero…[and] the reader is treated to cameos of Samuel Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and other founding fathers…Nelson's capacious knowledge of sailing and period maritime practices informs the book on every page and…his rounded characters, tense action, and battle sequences will certainly please fans of historical fiction."