Historic Naval Fiction The Home of Naval Fiction Set in the Age of Sail

In the 1650s the Spaniards consider the Caribbean their private sea - but England, France and Holland are determined to keep it open. These are the days of piracy and bitter fighting as galleons struggle home with cargoes of gold and silver.

Ned Yorke is one of the few Royalist planters in Barbados - outnumbered, hated and harried by their Roundhead rivals. Cromwell has already confiscated the family estate in England, and now the Barbados estate is being seized. It seems destined to go to the sadistic, rum-swilling husband of Aurelia, the woman Yorke loves and will carry to freedom.

Yorke has a small ship and a loyal crew. But they have thousands of miles to sail and no safe refuge hunted by Roundheads and Spanish alike.

The King is back! - and news of his dramatic restoration hits Jamaica like a hurricane. While the Governor appointed by Cromwell anxiously waits to learn his fate, he depends for the island's defence on Ned Yorke's buccaneers supplying him with captured Spanish guns.

And what will be the future of Yorke himself, a Royalist planter turned buccaneer and his second-in-command, boisterous Sir Thomas Whetstone?

However, Charles Ii's return from exile brings no immediate peace to the Spanish Main, and
Yorke and Whetstone find scores more adventurers joining them for profitable raids on the enemy - the most desperate forays yet.

Cromwell is dead! - Now King Charles II has been restored to the throne of faraway England. And in Jamaica, Ned Yorke, the leader of the Buccaneers, and his second-in-command, Sir Thomas Whetstone, can begin building fine new houses on their plantations.

But fresh trouble soon brews in their Caribbean paradise, for the new Governor sent out from
England views Ned's Brethren of the Coast as a gang bloodthirsty pirates. And he promptly puts them outside the law.

The Governor ignores Ned's warning that peace in Europe has not changed Spain's aggressive policies in the West Indies - the Spanish king regards the islands as his private estate, and any foreign trespassers risk death.

Ned and Sir Thomas refuse to remain idle while the self-satisfied Governor weakens their defences and wrecks the currency. They are soon off on a dangerous but profitable skirmish along the Spanish Main...

Jamaica was thrown into turmoil in the years following Charles II's restoration. The exiled Charles had promised the island to the Spanish King, and for all the non-Spanish settlers in the Caribbean there was 'No peace beyond the Line'.

Admiral of the Brethren, Ned Yorke, and his deputy, Sir Thomas Whetstone, discover the Spanish are drawing together a Caribbean fleet. Was this a move to protect their treasure ships from the Buccaneers, the Brethren of the Coast - or were they plotting to carry an army against Jamaica?