Año 1798. Las fuerzas navales de Napoleón están concentrándose en el Mediterráneo, preparándose para anexionarse Egipto, y es allí donde es enviado el recién ascendido comodoro Richard Bolitho con una pequeña escuadra de barcos bajo su mando. Solo en aguas hostiles, tiene que conseguir toda la información que pueda y entablar combate con el enemigo siempre que sea posible. Y cuando Bolitho coloca su escuadra entre el Nilo y toda una flota francesa, el destino de sus hombres y la libertad de su país dependen de las decisiones que debe tomar en medio del fragor del combate.

Not a review, really; just a few comments.

In this book, Richard Bolitho is Commodore commanding a small squadron in the Mediterranean Sea in 1798, tasked with figuring out what the French fleet is up to and making recommendations. The squadron consists of three 74s, a frigate, and a sloop; most are commanded by folks we've encountered in earlier books. Thomas Herrick's the flag captain, George Probyn and Charles Farquhar command the other line-of-battle ships, and Francis Inch has the sloop. All in all the assignment's a frustrating experience; while they know there's an enemy fleet in the Med, they can't pin down its location. (I'm leaving out a lot of detail, here, as the story's largely about personality conflicts between the characters I've just mentioned.)

The alert reader will have recognized this plot is a small-scale version of Horatio Nelson's 1798; indeed, Bolitho's well aware of Nelson's efforts, but circumstances--not to mention the frustration of an apparently-failed search effort--prevent the two from actually meeting. Francis Inch manages to ferry messages between the fleets, to his delight, but they're inconsequential.

Bolitho eventually manages to communicate his belief (not quite knowledge) that the French fleet is at Aboukir Bay, so Nel can chase Admiral Brueys (and Napoleon) down and win the Battle of the Nile. Bolitho's ships have an encounter with the French just before the main battle and are therefor too damaged to actively participate in the victory.

Incidentally, this is the novel where Herrick's wife-to-be, Dulcie, first appears.





This review has also been published on a dabbler's journal.
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Now Commodore of a newly formed squadron, in a British fleet stretched to the limit, Richard Bolitho faces one of the toughest commissions of his career: to ascertain the fighting strength of the French - then seek, find, and bring them to battle.