Here is a magnificent novel of the sea, set in the West Indies during the last year so the American revolution. The time of January 1782 and the British captain Richard bolitho is ordered to take command of the frigate phalarope, whose officers have avoided battle, and his crew has been mutinous. Once in the caribbean, where the hard pressed Royal squadrons are fighting for their lives against the french, the spanish, and the americans, he finds he must do battle with his own men as well.