(click to email the author)

 

 Following his return from the Barbary Coast, Oliver Baldwin is assigned in USS Chesapeake just in time for her epic and disastrous meeting with HMS Leopard outside the Virginia Capes. He testifies at Commodore James Barron’s court martial in 1808 and then sails, again under Captain Steven Decatur in Chesapeake, to enforce the Jeffersonian Embargo. Reassigned, with Decatur to the heavy frigate United States, Baldwin experiences the start of the War of 1812 and the capture of HMS Macedonian, one of the most thrilling single-ship engagements of the war.

In this historically accurate, colorful, and carefully crafted tale, 14 year-old midshipman Oliver Baldwin tells the story of our fight with the corsairs of the Barbary Coast from the deck of Captain Stephen Decatur’s ship as the young man, like the young nation he represents, struggles to find his way on the course to manhood. Gunboat battles, duels, and storms encourage his personal growth and challenge his maturity as he learns his role as an officer-in-training of the United States Navy. More than a “sea story,” it is a coming of age story of both a young man and the fledgling navy he serves.

Isaac Biggs of Marblehead, Massachusetts, sails from Boston as captain of the foretop aboard the bark Anne, bound for St. Barts in the West Indies in the fall of 1810. When the Anne is stopped by a British Royal Navy frigate, Isaac and several shipmates are forcibly pressed into service aboard HMS Orpheus, actively engaged in England's long-running war with France.

The young Isaac faces the harsh life of a Royal Navy seaman and a harrowing war at sea. His new life is hard, with strange rules, floggings, and new dangers. Then the United States declares war on England and Isaac finds himself in an untenable position, facing the possibility of fighting his own countrymen.

Isaac Biggs ships as Third Mate on the Salem privateer General Washington in February 1813. At the same time, his friends from the British frigate Orpheus and the Baltimore schooner Glory find berths on the American warship USS Constellation and, eventually, they wind up on the USS Chesapeake in Boston just in time for her disastrous meeting with HMS Shannon. Throughout the spring of 1813, Isaac and the General Washington roam the waters between Massachusetts and Nova Scotia, taking prizes and harassing the British. When the American survivors of the Chesapeake / Shannon battle are confined in Melville Island Prison in Halifax, the General Washington and Isaac play an important role in securing their freedom.
With the Atlantic seaboard closed by the blockade, the action shifts to Joshua Barney's gunboats where Isaac and Jack Clements find themselves commanding sloop rigged raiders assisting the effort in Maryland. They witness the British landing at Benedict MD and the burning of our capital. Sent to Baltimore to assist with the preparations for the expected British invasion, they witness the bombardment of that city and the writing of the Star Spangled Banner.