Naval Historical Fiction

Book One of the Nicholas Cruwys Naval Series In the spring of 1774, fourteen-year-old Nicholas Cruwys leaves behind the stone halls of Exeter and the ancestral pride of a faded Devonshire line to join His Majesty's Navy. Quiet, observant, and untested, he enters a world where the rigid structures of Georgian society meet the harsh meritocracy of wooden ships and iron discipline. As a young gentleman at sea, Nicholas must navigate not only wind and tide but the intricate social currents of a naval service where worth is measured in equal parts by birth, connection, and ability. The ship ...

1904. The Russo-Japanese War has been raging for almost a year. When blacklisted former Royal Navy officer Marcus Baxter is offered the chance to spy on a Russian ship passing through the North Sea, he jumps at the chance to regain his commission. Accompanied by young Tommy Dunbar, desperate to earn his sea legs, Baxter is betrayed by the crew and captured by a Russian cruiser, the Yaroslavich, where both he and Tommy are held captive in an attempt to avoid escalating tension with Britain.

Captain Carlisle hails from Virginia, a loyal colony of the British Crown. As the clouds of war gather, Carlisle's small frigate is ordered to Toulon on a reconnaissance mission. If battling the winter weather in the Gulf of Lions is not a sufficient challenge, Carlisle must also juggle the delicate diplomatic issues in this period of pre-war tension while contending with an increasingly belligerent French frigate. But Carlisle has additional problems unique to his colonial origins.

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.

After a devastating attack by a downed Japanese aircraft, Art Turner and the men of Bull Shark try to forget and relax in the rustic Western Australian port of Fremantle. Yet war is never far away, and the battle cry once more draws the submarine into danger. Uncle Charlie Lockwood has a special side mission for Art Turner. A British commando needs to get to Timor and reunite with the Australian guerrilla fighters he’s trained… and who he was forced to leave behind when the Japanese invaded.

The year 1941: Andrew Troost, heir to generations of naval tradition, has just been made admiral, when reports fly in of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Troost's son, Warren, has followed in his footsteps and is one of the men fighting for his country on a PT boat in the Pacific. In New York City, Tony Trapasso hears the call to action and gets ready to join the naval action. With him is Jacob Miller, a young man choosing to become a naval pilot instead of following the rabbinical calling of his Jewish forebears.

"Masterful character development and impeccable historical detail. Ferrier has created something rare—a Pearl Harbor novel that's as much about identity as it is about war." "THE WEIGHT OF WATER delivers on every level—psychological depth, moral complexity, and the kind of prose that reminds you why you fell in love with literary fiction. This is Pulitzer-caliber work." "Ferrier doesn't just write about the USS Arizona—he makes you feel the weight of command, the cost of transformation, the burden of becoming real. Unforgettable." On December 7, 1941, at 0755 hours, Lieutenant Thomas ...

Guadalcanal, the largest island in the Solomons, is being occupied by the Imperial Japanese Navy. As a new airfield nears construction, the United States Navy and Marine Corps know they must act quickly or the entire course of the war could swing in Japan’s favor. As a massive invasion force gathers, Art Turner and the decorated crew of USS Bull Shark are once again sent on a secret mission. The clock is ticking, and Turner, his Marine Raiders, and the Bull Shark herself must face aircraft carriers, marauding Japanese soldiers, and a deadly jungle before time runs out!

In the winter of 1952, New England was battered by the most brutal nor’easter in years. As the weather wreaked havoc on land, the freezing Atlantic became a wind-whipped zone of peril, setting the stage for one of the most heroic rescue stories ever lived. On February 18, while the storm raged, two oil tankers, the Pendleton and the Fort Mercer, were in the same horrifying predicament. Built with “dirty steel,” and not prepared to withstand such ferocious seas, both tankers split in two, leaving the dozens of men on board utterly at the Atlantic’s mercy.

Winner: Readers Favorite gold medal, five-stars. What readers say: "A great read," "Couldn't put it down," "A fast-paced action adventure," "A real page-turner." The story: A mysterious code in an ancient diary ignites a heroic, high-seas adventure in the world of Queen Victoria.

After recovering from a harrowing mission near the island of Timor, Art Turner and the crew of USS Bull Shark have healed their wounds and are ready to face Japan once more. As 1943 begins, Admiral “Uncle Charlie” Lockwood is finally ready to spring a deadly surprise on Emperor Hirohito and Prime Minister Hideki Tojo.

Life has dealt him an unfair hand, leaving him with few options. Will a chance encounter with a caring American colonial family provide a poor English boy with a stable home, or will the boy be lost in events that are spiraling out of control? Peter Smith, a boy of humble beginnings, is a testament to the human spirit. Despite his impoverished upbringing, abduction, and mistreatment, he refuses to be defined by his circumstances. Born into poverty and hopelessness on the streets of Portsmouth, England, Peter is forced into a life of crime just to survive. His resilience is tested when he is...

Reeling from her last knock-down, drag-out with Japan’s mighty combined fleet – the Kido Butai – USS Enterprise limps back to Pearl Harbor for repairs and refitting. And like the battle-hardened warriors who live and work inside her, this gallant lady will return to the fight even stronger… but it can’t happen too soon.

After a series of failed assaults on Guadalcanal and Henderson Field, Japan is rallying for a major offensive. Ground troops, surface bombardment, and a carrier-supported invasion of the island looms darkly on the horizon. Now, Bull Shark must circle the nearby islands to discover and slow down this onslaught long enough for Allied forces to dig in.

USS Bull Shark is running for Pearl Harbor after leaving New London and her victory over the Nazi Q-ship, but all is not well aboard the boat. The Japanese are planning a major offensive and the clock is rapidly ticking – with what will become one of the most decisive battles of the war looming on the horizon, the Navy still doesn’t know exactly where or when it’s going to happen. Can Bull Shark play her part in the Battle of Midway? Or will she meet with Yamamoto’s secret weapon and be swept aside in Japan’s quest for power?

In the long ebb of empire and memory, Aubrey’s Honour charts the final passages of two men who were never merely characters, but forces of nature shaped by war, friendship, and the sea itself. Told with the grace, gravity, and grit that fans of O’Brian’s world have come to revere, this book does not seek to inflate the legend — it seeks to understand the men beneath it. Admiral Jack Aubrey, once the thunder of the quarterdeck, now stalks the halls of power with a sailor’s unease and a tactician’s eye. Dr. Stephen Maturin, naturalist and spy, walks more quietly, but never without...

While Art Turner and the men of USS Bull Shark struggle in the Pacific against the Japanese and against their own inner demons, Captain Pat Jarvis and the men of USs Megalodon have a German tiger by the tail in the Caribbean… and it’s only a matter of time before he rips them to pieces.

Treacherous Moon is the twelfth Carlisle and Holbrooke novel. The series follows the two sea officers through the Seven Years War and into the period of turbulent relations between Britain and her American colonies prior to their bid for independence.

Baltic, Autumn of 1787. A king's ambition. A conspiracy that could drag Britain into war. When Captain Nicholas Cruwys in the frigate Miranda is dispatched to Copenhagen and the Baltic as part of small Royal Navy squadron, he finds the cold northern waters turning towards winter even as events threaten British supply routes through the Sound. King Gustav III of Sweden is spoiling for war with Russia, and powerful forces are moving to ensure that when the conflict comes, Britain will be caught in its grip. Captain Henry Harrington, commanding the frigate Romulus, joins Nicholas in Swedish ...

The two sloops attacking the frigate are like hyenas at the tail of the lion. Donland in command of Oxford, fifty-four guns, joins the fight even though all three vessels are Spanish flagged. He sets himself on a path that risks his career and his ship. What follows is that Oxford is pitted against a French frigate and Spanish third-rate. Treachery and treason rear their ugly heads as France is embroiled in the beginnings of revolution. Gaining command of Oxford came about in fulfillment of a promise. A promise, though made in good faith, is despised by Admirals and Donland suffers the ...