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The Glorious First of June
ISBN-978-0-9906492-1-2
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It all starts here in 1792. Neville Burton and his friend Daniel Watson leave home to become Midshipment in the British Royal Navy. Aboard HMS Castor they begin to learn the awesome power and vagaries of the sea and of naval warfare in the Age of Sail.
He must live through storms and calms and the battles that precede capture and recapture. As he climbs the steep learning curve toward lieutenant, he lives with the daily grind of naval discipline mixed with the roar of cannon and the boom of thunder.
England is at war with France. The two Midshipmen find themselves involved in the blockade of the French harbor at Toulon. Later, when their ship is captured while on convoy home from Newfoundland, they are locked below during the great battle later known as the "Glorious First of June". Neville goes on to heroic action in the capture of other enemy ships, but his friendship with a spy draws him in closer to the intrigue behind war. Even his mentor and family friend may not be who he appears to be...
By the age of eighteen he has sailed from England to the Mediterranean and to the New World and the Baltic and back. He has gained a small fortune in prize money, found a hometown sweetheart, survived the mutinies at Spithead and the Nore, and sailed off to join in the great naval Battle of Camperdown...
Why, then, does he find himself aboard a ship sailing to the Caribbean when his greatest hopes for further promotion lie in the war against France that is raging in Europe?
The Experiment at Jamaica
ISBN-978-0-9906492-3-6
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A serious injury seperates young British Navy Lieutenant Neville Burton from his ship during the English liberation of St. Christopher Island in the Caribbean from French enemies in June of 1690. His life, career, and fortune take a turn for the better.
He is apparently forgotten by the navy and left to the care of Colonel Thomas Fuller, a Jamaican plantation owner, and his beautiful daughter Maria.
When he recovers he is conscripted by the Governor of Jamaica to protect the colony against the French navy, marauding pirates, and privateers by taking command of a stranded frigate in the harbor.
While he patrols, fights, convoys, captures enemy ships, and avoids being controlled by the cowardly fleet commander in Barbados, his love of Jamaica grows.
His new rank of captain, plus his association with Fuller, puts him in a position to acquire a small fortune and the love of Maria - not to mention knowledge of the Caribbean Sea that will be of value to him for years to come.
He is ordered to return a captured ship to Barbados, but when the earthquake hits Port Royal in Jamaica at 10:43 a.m. on June 7, 1692, his life is shattered - but it's not over...
Mutiny at Port Maria
ISBN-978-0-9906492-6-7
When British Navy Lieutenant Neville Burton climbed the accommodation ladder of the 74-gun HMS Elephant in June of 1801, his thoughts were of his deceased lover, not of the treachery that would soon ravage the officer cadre of his new ship. Nor were his thoughts of the mission recently assigned him by his mentor in Whitehall; he had no idea how that could be accomplished – ‘Something always presents itself’’ he was told. Grief surrounds him.
The winds of change soon conspire to send him into enemy France, inshore action in the ports of Spain, and onward to a place he knew well not long before – Jamaica. The relative safety of another 74 – the HMS Vanguard - affords him the opportunity to resume his mentor’s mission, now modified to the Caribbean theater, as well as share in the spoils of war: prize ships. When one of those – the American schooner Superieure - becomes his to command, the dreams of a young officer seem to be achieved – at least until he begins to learn who has come aboard…
The Stillwater Conspiracy
ISBN-978-0-9906492-5-0
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Three years after his life was devastated by the loss of his fiancée, British Lieutenant Neville Burton is back in Jamaica. There he begins the dangerous dual role of spy investigator and “Master and Commander” of the topsail schooner HMS Superieure.
He also discovers another remarkable beauty, but a new romance will not be so simple. The disapproving father of beautiful Marion is the American Chester Stillwater, who is both the owner of the Stillwater Rum Trading Company and the man Neville has been assigned to investigate as a spy. Burton’s desire to grow a romance with Marion is first hindered by an irritating competitor who proposes a duel for Marion’s honor and then thwarted by the war-mongering Napoleon. When the Peace of 1802 is cast aside, England’s war with France resumes. Neville’s ship is ordered to join Admiral Nelson’s squadron and return to Europe.
Pure luck prevails: while Lt. Burton’s ship is in London for repairs, he discovers that the headstrong Marion is also there, waiting for her chance to cross the Channel and sell Stillwater rum to the French Navy. Their dizzying dalliance is only a prelude to disaster. The irritating competitor for Marion’s hand makes his move to gain her hand at a clandestine meeting in Paris; Lt. Burton sails to join Admiral Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar, where he is seriously injured.
During recovery, Burton finds himself under the care of his now-widowed childhood sweetheart, and he receives news that Marion herself may be a spy. Can Burton pull himself up after yet another tragic romance - and what happens to the investigation of Chester Stillwater?
The Atlantic Campaign
ISBN-978-0-99068671-0-8
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The wedding plans of British Navy Captain Neville Burton and Jamaican rum heiress Marion Stillwater are of no interest to the Royal Navy, particularly when the French navy is in the neighborhood. With plans on hold, Burton takes his ship on patrol. The aftermath of victory in a surprise mid-Atlantic encounter sends him with Admiral Warren’s squadron to London, where he finds himself suspected of the abduction of a dear friend. His chase to free the man, before he is handed over to Napoleon’s aides, requires him to enter enemy France on a desperate mission.
Unlike his previous adventures, however, he is not behind enemy lines alone, but with a trusted team of friends. As they search for the hostage, they discover the kidnapper to be an old adversary. The team must watch and wait, and finally take action. Successful or not, they must still escape France, and their attempt to leave by sea – as there is no other way to England – lands them aboard a French ship. Is staging a mutiny the only way to freedom?
The Delirium Passage
ISBN-978-0-9968671-4-6
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British Navy Captain Neville Burton, having secured a leave of absence from the service in order to marry his true love, is aboard a British merchant ship sailing to Jamaica, when he is stricken with a deadly disease. After surviving blockades, convoys, battles and storms, the disease nearly takes his life. Prior to recovery, he lives a dream of sailing with Benjamin Hornigold, Blackbeard, and other pirates of the Caribbean in 1717.
Shortly after recovery, the tables are turned when his ship, en route to Jamaica for his wedding, is captured, in a very similar situation, by a modern foe in the same theater of operations – the Bahamas. Separated from his fiancée, Marion Stillwater, he must find a way to climb back from his rags to rescue her from an enemy Caribbean island and impede the duplicitous plans of the local governor – without the help of the British Navy.
With the assistance of Jamaican Rum magnate Chester Stillwater and Neville’s friend, Captain Joseph Dagleishe, an escape is almost accomplished when bombardment from shore causes serious injury to Marion. Are the doctoring skills learned by Neville during his dream days with the pirates enough to save her life? – to save a limb? – all while using crude tools and the medicine of 1806, and at sea? Are Neville’s dreams of spending the rest of his life with a beautiful bride shattered – for the second time?
