Against the surge and thunder of America's first struggle for supremacy on the seas is set this masterly novel of men's daring in the face of disaster. Through Lieutenant Andrew Warren, who served on the first Lexington and was one of America's first naval officers, the early growth and glory of our nation's armed might is portrayed. The course of action sweeps from Boston to Tory New York and turbulent Jamaica, climaxing in the great siege of Savannah. The characters, ranging from aristocrats to simple farmers, from idealists to vicious Maroons of the Cockpit country, ar as diverse as the people who suffered, betrayed and triumphed in the critical years of the War of Independence. Woven into the main action-young Warren's dangerous voyage to Jamaica for medical supplies for the desperate patriot armies-is the love story between him and Minga Allen. Moving at cross purposes yet irresistibly attracted, the two play out their dangerous intrigue in the violent interval of 1778 and 1779.