The Privateersman

Off Hispaniola, the Revenge gives chase to a heavily laden French ship carrying a man returning home with his family and fortune. Captain Weatherall commands the privateer, while the French passenger prepares to defend everything he has brought aboard. The narrator recounts events from within the attacking crew and questions whether royal disputes can justify taking another person's property at such a cost. His account begins as a journal of younger days, copied at a woman's request with the feelings of that time preserved.

Frederick Marryat's historical sea novel also follows the practical business behind a life afloat. Elsewhere, Mr Musgrave negotiates to have the Arrow hired into government service, paying for appointments for Captain Levee and Philip. Shipboard action sits beside bargaining, official paperwork and questions of conscience. Readers interested in privateering can find both the pursuit of profit and a sailor's uneasy judgment of what that pursuit demands.