The combined fleet of Turks and Egyptians, in numbers greater than that which Nelson faced at Trafalgar, approaches the vulnerable Greek island of Samos to seek retribution for their humiliating defeat of August 1824. The seafaring patriots of Hydra, Spetses and Psara employ the most terrifying of weapons, fireships, against the Ottoman armada in the greatest, the most climactic battle fought at sea in the Greek war of independence.
Captain Patrick O'Connor leads HMS Surprise and her battle-weary crew of tired veterans once more into the fray to support their Greek brothers-in-arms. Doctor Simon Ferguson, traumatised by an intense summer of conflict and casualties, struggles valiantly to cope with the rising and bloody burden of killed and wounded shipmates.
The author, Alan Lawrence, pays literary homage to the stories and the genius of Patrick O'Brian, and brings HMS Surprise alive once more in a tale which illuminates the intolerable strain endured by the fighting man.