In A Brig of War, Nathaniel Drinkwater is promoted lieutenant of the brig HELLEBORE. He finds routine convoy escort duties end abruptly when Admiral Nelson, pursuing the French fleet to Egypt, sends HELLEBORE to the Red Sea with an urgent warning to the British squadron there. However, Nelson's apprehensions over French ambitions in the East are more than justified. Edouard Santhonax, Drinkwater's old enemy, is already preparing for a French descent on India. The hunt for this elusive Frenchman and his frigate is combined with British naval operations on the flank of Napoleon's Egyptian campaign. It is during the attack on Kosseir that Drinkwater is left for dead. His escape and the subsequent desperate attack on Santhonax leads to a still more dangerous situation under Augustus Morris, former tyrant of the midshipmen's berth on HMS CYCLOPS.

In The Bomb Vessel, a young Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater is given command of the old VIRAGO, to be sent to the Baltic as a cargo ship. Drinkwater's ambition is to turn VIRAGO back into a fighting ship, but he is thwarted by Lord Nelson. At the same time, Drinkwater's brother appeals for help in his desperate attempt to escape the gallows. As Sir Hyde Parker's fleet approaches the Danish coast, the VIRAGO is nearly caught in their destructive path. Amid gales and ice, Drinkwater strives to save his ship and his brother.In the spring of 1801, Napoleon had reached supreme power in France and allied himself with Tsar Paul of Russia. Against this hazardous backdrop of the Baltic expedition, Drinkwater's actions in the complex and bloody battle of Copenhagen are crucial. About the Author:As a professional sailor, Richard Woodman has sailed in a variety of ships serving from apprentice to captain. Besides the Nathaniel Drinkwater series, he has written nautical fiction about tea-clippers and cargo liners. A member of the Society for Nautical Research, he lives in England. Woodman is considered one of the strongest voices in nautical fiction today.

In 1792, Nathaniel Drinkwater returns to the Royal Navy with an appointment to the twelve-gun cutter KESTREL, commanded by the inscrutable Madoc Griffiths. Beneath the gathering shadow of the French Revolution, he undertakes dangerous secret operations off the coast of France, including the rescue of emigres and the landing of agents.As Europe plunges deeper into war, KESTREL participates in the struggle for the Channel, and Drinkwater encounters the devious and sinister Edouard Santhonax, who is attracting a great deal of interest from the British government.Drinkwater eventually uncovers a network of intrigue that paralyzes the Royal Navy with mutiny, leading to a bloody confrontation at Camperdown, where Drinkwater and Santhonax come face to face.

From the tide-torn waters of the Thames, where Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater is compelled to hand a deserter, to the seas off Cape Horn, storm-scoured gateway to the Pacific, the great cruiser PATRICIAN is tense with the threat of mutiny.Despite this, Drinkwater captures a Spanish frigate and meets the stunning Doña Ana Maria, daughter of the Commandante of San Francisco. But, having disturbed a hornet's nest of colonial intrigue, Drinkwater finds that the Spanish are eager to humiliate him and the Royal navy. Moreover, a Russian battleship lurks somewhere offshore, pursuing Tsar Alexander's dark plans. Caught between two formidable enemies, Drinkwater's mission is made impossible by treachery.But chance brings the aid of Doña Ana Maria and mysterious mountain man. In the distant waters of this beautiful and remote region, Drinkwater struggles to carry out his mission and is truck with ten most extraordinary twist of fortune in his eventful life.

The second book in the Nathaniel Drinkwater series. Midshipman Drinkwater is back in the Navy in 1792, appointed to the 12-gun cutter Kestral. Off the French coast, the Kestral becomes involved in the secret and dangerous adventures linked with the rescuing of emigres. Drinkwater plays a vital role in the landing of agents.

A thrilling maritime adventure, the first in a new series set against the backdrop of the English Civil War - Bristol, England, 1618. Kit Faulkner is a young vagrant orphan, but his life changes forever when two gentlemen spot his potential and he is taken aboard their merchant ship, the Swallow, to be trained for a life at sea. As he rises through the ranks, he risks all in encounters with pirates and French corsairs. Meanwhile, England edges ever closer to civil war, and very soon Kit must chose which side he will fight for . . .

Captain John Mackinnon and his ship, the Matthew Flinders, are embarking on their last voyage. Both endangered species, they symbolize the irreversible, quiet decline of the British merchant fleet. But this journey to Hong Kong will prove to be anything but quiet. Internal tensions among the crew provoke unrest and lead to a navigation error, steering them right into the violent, destructive path of Typhoon David. Suddenly the crew of the Matthew Flinders are no longer fighting for their livelihood, but for their very lives.Yet on the same sears, other lives are at stake as well. When Mackinnon feels compelled to rescue a boatload of Vietnamese refugees fleeing to Hong Kong, he sets off an explosive chain of events that will lead to mutiny, confrontation with Hong Kong authorities, and the greatest challenge of his career.

England, 1659. Captain Kit Faulkner?s house is prospering; his eldest son, Nathaniel, has recently returned from a profitable trip to Jamaica in the good ship Faithful, and his daughter, Hannah, has made a suitable match with a young sailor. But the resignation of the Lord Protector, Richard Cromwell, throws England into uncertainty. Will the republic flourish, or will a King return to the throne?Kit is content to let matters take their natural course, but his younger son, Henry, is an idealist with political ambitions. It soon becomes clear that Henry is in much deeper than Kit first realised, and Henry?s actions may threaten everything that Kit holds dear . . .

It is 1811 and Napoleon's French Empire dominates Europe. Desperate to stem the encroaching French tide and avert war with the emerging power of the United States, the Royal Navy orders Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater to the Chesapeake Bay to heal the rift between London and Washington.Quite by chance, on the banks of the Potomac, Drinkwater discovers the first clue to a bold plan by which the U.S. could defeat the Royal Navy, collapse the British government and utterly destroy the British cause. Amid personal crisis, Drinkwater takes command of a squadron sent against the Americans in the South Atlantic, audaciously risking his reputation and, in a climactic confrontation, coming face-to-face with the horror of an interminable war.

The frozen splendor of the Arctic Ocean and the absorbing drama of a nineteenth century whale hunt unfold as Drinkwater escorts a whaling fleet to Greenland and meets disaster, treachery and death.

The eighth book in the Nathaniel Drinkwater series. The capture of a Spanish frigate augurs well for Drinkwater, but he has disturbed a hornets' nest of colonial intrigue. The Spanish are eager to humiliate him and he finds himself in solitary confinement and his ship a prize of the enemy.

In the seventh tale of the highly acclaimed Drinkwater series, Captain Drinkwater's frigate, HMS ANTIGONE, is ordered to the Baltic Sea in the Spring of 1807 as Napoleon's grip has begun to reach across Europe to the borders of Holy Russia. As country after country falls under the weight of French domination, Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater is faced with the challenges brought about by military disaster and diplomatic intrigue.On board the ANTIGONE, Drinkwater is threatened by the seething discontent of his crew and the instability of his drunken first lieutenant. Drinkwater's task is to cooperate with his country's allies and intelligence agents. When a coded message is intercepted, his mission suddenly becomes one of extreme personal danger. As the fate of Europe is being decided, Drinkwater must carry out his mission in the face of his old enemy. This final confrontation brings him to the brink of death.