Showing results for title "WAR" in Sea Adventures

The H.M.S. Leopard pulled into the bay of Pulo Batang looking more like a shabby merchant ship that a man-of-war. The crew had endured a calamitous voyage plagued by gaol-fever, pursued by the Dutch Waakzaamheid, and struck by an iceberg. Suffice it to say, Jack Aubrey was ready for home.

A Navy captain near the end of a decorated career, Stephen Rensselaer is disciplined, intelligent, and determined always to do what’s right. In defending the development of a new variant of warship, he makes an enemy of the president of the United States, who assigns him to command the doomed line’s only prototype­—Athena, Patrol Coastal 15­­—with the intent to humiliate a man who should have been an admiral. Rather than resign, Rensselaer takes the new assignment in stride.

She was a monster, sleek and gleaming, designed to strike without warning like the dreaded shark. She was the USS Mako, as fearless and bold as any submarine that ever prowled the blue Pacific. Her mission: seek out and destroy the hitherto invincible ships of the Japanese Imperial Navy - and revenge the earlier defeats of a long and dirty war. Here is the story of the men who pitted their lives against impossible odds in the most dangerous branch of the American armed services.

The time is World War II. The place is a brutal prison camp deep in Japanese-occupied territory. Here, within the seething mass of humanity, one man, an American corporal, seeks dominance over both captives and captors alike. His weapons are human courage, unblinking understanding of human weaknesses, and total willingness to exploit every opportunity to enlarge his power and corrupt or destroy anyone who stands in his path.

At the opening of the War of 1812, the British control the most powerful navy on earth, and Americans are again victims of piracy. Bliven Putnam, late of the Battle of Tripoli, is dispatched to Charleston to outfit and take command of a new 20-gun brig, the USS Tempest. Later, aboard the Constitution, he sails into the furious early fighting of the war.

Punk’s War reveals the inner workings of the US Navy as only an insider can. An authentic and riveting thriller, it is a highly acclaimed novel of a fighter pilot’s experience in the era just before 9/11. As the US military enters another postconflict period, the themes of leadership during crisis and accomplishing the mission make Punk’s War more relevant than ever.

As they listened to the death throes of their sister ship Mako sinking in the Pacific where the waters were six miles deep, the crew of USS Eelfish suddenly came of age. They were a new breed: a brand-new fleet submarine crewed by draftees and reservists. Hidebound regular Navy officers believed they wouldn't fight. But fight they did with reckless abandon, proving themselves on two fronts - against the Japanese at sea, and against their own Admirals, who clung to outmoded concepts of how to wage war under the sea.

It was an unprovoked attack, a deliberate act of aggression. When Vice Admiral Mike Brannon of the US Navy received word that the wreck of the Sharkfin had been found, with a gaping hole in its stern, he could only conclude that the Soviets had, without warning, attacked and destroyed a US nuclear submarine. He could not let the incident pass without retaliation. Yet whatever steps he took, he risked leading the two superpowers into a state of war.

Commanding a combined US-South Korea force, the newly promoted US Navy hero Dan Lenson wonders if his embattled group can possibly keep sea lanes open in the Central Pacific as he tries to turn the tide and buy time for the Allies to regroup. But when his own flagship comes under ferocious attack, he must leave it to assume command elsewhere - without knowing when he'll be able to return. In the meantime, SEAL operator Teddy Oberg, escaping from a hellish POW camp, heads west through desolate mountains toward what he hopes will be freedom.

War is brewing between England and France. Impressed into the Royal Navy, Lieutenant Merrick, against all odds, advanced through the ranks to become an officer, but he is not a gentleman. A man with a tainted past from a traitorous family, cast down by King George—a stain no man can remove. Merrick’s thrust into the role of captain, when the HMS Boudica is attacked by pirates off the coast of Nova Scotia. On a captured enemy vessel, he discovers a king’s ransom in treasure and a woman chained in the hold from a passenger ship that mysteriously disappeared at sea.

A Sloop of War, the second novel in the Alexander Clay series, is set on the island of Barbados, where the temperature of the politics, prejudices, and amorous ambitions are matched only by the sweltering heat of the climate.

Admiral Lenson leads Operation Rupture, the invasion of South China, in a bid to finally end the war and restore peace. Meanwhile, Captain Cheryl Staurulakis fights to take a radical new “super ship” to sea, even though its power and capability may introduce more risk than reward.

By the spring of 1945, the once mighty Japanese fleet has been virtually destroyed, leaving Japan open to invasion. The Japanese react by dispatching hundreds of suicide bombers against the Allied fleet surrounding Okinawa. By mid-May, the Allied fleet is losing a major ship a day to murderous swarms of kamikazes streaming out of Formosa and southern Japan.

In The Commodore, the navy in 1942-1943 is fighting a losing battle against Japan for control of the Solomon Islands. Vice Admiral William "Bull" Halsey is tasked with changing the course of the war. Halsey, a maverick, goes on the offensive and appoints a host of new destroyer commanders, including a wild card named Harmon Wolf. An American Indian from a Minnesota reservation, Wolf has never fit in with the traditional navy officer corps. But under Halsey, Wolf's aggressive tactics and gambling nature bring immediate results.

While Admiral Dan Lenson motorcycles across a post-Armageddon US in search of his missing daughter, his wife, Blair Titus, lands in a spookily deserted, riot-torn Beijing to negotiate the reunification of Taiwan with the rest of China and try to create a democratic government. But a CIA-sponsored Islamic insurgency in Xianjiang province is hurtling out of control. Andres Korzenowski, a young case officer, must decide whether ex-SEAL Master Chief Teddy Oberg - now the leader of a ruthless jihad - should be extracted, left in place, or terminated.

Captain Jack Aubrey, RN, arrives in the Dutch East Indies to find himself appointed to the command of the fastest and best-armed frigate in the Navy. He and his friend Stephen Maturin take passage for England in a despatch vessel. But the War of 1812 breaks out while they are en route. Bloody actions precipitate them both into new and unexpected scenes where Stephen's past activities as a secret agent return on him with a vengeance.

With his cold, steely-eyed focus on killing Japanese ships, Malachi Stormes is an enigma to his officers and crew - especially when it becomes clear he is willing to take huge chances to achieve results. Firefish sinks more ships than any Perth boat on her first war patrol, but Stormes’ unconventional tactics literally frighten his crew. His crew members are proud of their boat’s accomplishments but wonder if their iron-willed skipper will bring them home alive.

He saw his father executed in battle. He spent his youth avenging that death. And now Henry "Hal" Courtney is a man with a ship - and a family - of his own. But fate has not finished with Hal. On a voyage along the eastern shore of Africa, a powerful enemy abducts his wife, the fearless warrior Judith...and with her Hal's unborn child.

Having survived the bloody Battle of New Orleans and the loss of their ironclad Yazoo River, captain Samuel Bowater, engineer Hieronymus Taylor, and the survivors of their crew are given new orders—take command of an ironclad warship being built in Memphis, Tennessee. Bowater and his men take passage upriver from “Mississippi” Mike Sullivan, one of the wild, undisciplined captains of the River Defense Squadron, only to find, on their arrival, that their ship is not even half built and the enemy is closing fast.

In late 1944, America’s recapture of the Philippines is jeopardized by what seems an insurmountable threat from Japan: immense Yamato-class battleships, which dwarf every other ship at sea. Built in total secrecy, these 76,000-ton warships seem invincible. American military intelligence knows of two such ships, but there are rumors of a third, built not as a battleship but as an aircraft carrier. Now ready to go operational from Japan’s heavily defended and mined Inland Sea, a carrier of that size could disrupt the entire invasion effort.