Stephen W. Meader, master storyteller, takes the reader in four separate books across fifty years of American life upon the sea. Cleared for Action! begins in the spring of 1812 when Jeff Robbins is forced from a Yankee merchant schooner to serve on a British frigate--only weeks before war with England is declared. In Whaler 'Round the Horn, Rodney Glenn runs away to sea on a whaler, only to be left the sole survivor of a rampage by a monster whale. Voyage of the Javelin catches the reader up in the breathtaking race of the square-riggers of the 1850's, as young Bob Wingate circles the globe. In Phantom of the Blockade, Anse O'Neal, and the crews of the small Confederate blockade steamships, must come to grips with the Confederate's losing plight but not before a last few hair-raising voyages are made between North Carolina and Bermuda.