THE BOMB VESSEL It is 1801, and Napoleon is reaching supreme power in France and has allied himself with Tsar Paul of Russia. Drinkwater is in command of an old bomb ship, the Virago, which joins battle off the Danish coast. Amid gales and ice, Drinkwater strives to save his ship and his brother. THE CORVETTE The frozen splendour of the Arctic Ocean and the absorbing drama of a nineteenth-century whale hunt unfold in The Corvette, in which Drinkwater finds himself battling with the enemy, the elements and fiercely independent whalemasters in a three-handed struggle for mastery of icy Arctic waters. 1805 Drinkwater is sent to patrol the Channel coast, helping the Royal Navy maintain a heroic blockade of the enemy’s post, but soon his ship the Antigone is needed elsewhere as everything now hinges on the confrontation that Nelson has forced off Cape Trafalgar.