"The classic first novel of the epic Aubrey/Maturin series, widely considered "the best historical novels ever written" (Richard Snow, New York Times). Ardent, gregarious British naval officer Jack Aubrey is elated to be given his first appointment as commander: the fourteen-gun ship HMS Sophie. Meanwhile-after a heated first encounter that nearly comes to a duel-Aubrey and a brilliant but down-on-his-luck physician, Stephen Maturin, strike up an...

The navy created by the people of Athens in ancient Greece was one of the finest fighting forces in the history of the world and the model for all other national navies to come. The Athenian navy built a civilization, empowered the world's first democracy, and led a band of ordinary citizens on a voyage of discovery that altered the course of history. Its defeat of the Persian fleet at Salamis in 480 B.C.E. launched the Athenian Golden Age and preserved...

The Sea Warriors is the true story of the great frigate captains of the Nelsonic Royal Navy who spent long and arduous years away from their homes fighting for king and country, to win and hold control of the seas. Richard Woodman skillfully dissects the events of the war years, focusing on the cruiser war, that war between opposing frigates which entailed the blockade of enemy ports, the interception of enemy trade and the protection of Britain's...

In the wake of a humbling incident aboard a canal boat in the Cotswolds, young Captain Horatio Hornblower arrives in London to take command of the Atropos, a 22-gun sloop barely large enough to require a captain. Her first assignment under Hornblower's command is as flagship for the funeral procession of Lord Nelson. Soon Atropos is part of the Mediterranean Fleet's harassment of Napoleon, recovering treasure that lies deep in Turkish waters and...

"Captain Jack Aubrey is ashore on half pay without a command--until Stephen Maturin arrives with secret orders for Aubrey to take a frigate to the Cape of Good Hope under a commodore's pennant, there to mount an expedition against the French-held islands of Mauritius and La Réunion. But the difficulties of carrying out his orders are compounded by two of his own captains--Lord Clonfert, a pleasure-seeking dilettante, and Captain Corbett, whose severity...

As commander-in-chief of His Majesty's ships and vessels in the West Indies, Admiral Hornblower faces pirates, revolutionaries, and a blistering hurricane in the chaotic aftermath of the Napoleonic Wars.

"It's 1802. The Treaty of Amiens has brought an end to the hostilities between Great Britain and France. Captain Jack Aubrey and his friend, naval surgeon Stephen Maturin, are enjoying the respite in the English countryside, besotted with two beautiful cousins, Sophie Williams and Diana Villiers-until Aubrey loses his fortune and they flee to France to escape his creditors. While in France, Napoleon smashes the Peace of Amiens and war begins anew....

This acclaimed World War II psychological courtroom drama was the sensation of 1954. The play reveals the destructive madness of Lieutenant Commander Queeg and his questionable behavior aboard the USS Caine Mutiny during a typhoon in the Pacific. An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring James Avery, Chuma Hunter-Gault, Ian Lithgow, Scott Lowell, Frank Muller, Michael Rivkin, David Selby and Grant Shaud.

An explosive chronicle of history's greatest sea battle, from the coauthor of Gibraltar: The Greatest Siege in British History. In the tradition of Antony Beevor's Stalingrad, Nelson's Trafalgar presents the definitive blow-by-blow account of the world's most famous naval battle, when the British Royal Navy, under Lord Horatio Nelson, dealt a decisive blow to the forces of Napoleon. The Battle of Trafalgar comes boldly to life in this definitive...

Dubbed the "pirate queen" by the Vatican and Philip II of Spain, Elizabeth I was feared and admired by her enemies. Extravagant, whimsical, and hot-tempered, she was the epitome of power. Her visionary accomplishments were made possible by her daring merchants, gifted rapscallion adventurers, astronomer philosophers, and her stalwart Privy Council. All these men contributed their genius, power, greed, and expertise to the advancement of England. Historian...