THE FIRESHIP

A navy cloth bound book with gilt lettering to the spine - very slight sunning to some edges - some dust speckling to the top of the page block and exposed top edge of wrapper. Book in VERY GOOD PLUS condition. In a complete torn lightly chipped attractive dust wrapper VERY GOOD PLUS.

£16.00 PLUS P & P

The Fireship
C. Northcote Parkinson

Richard Delancey returns from his overland exploits in Spain to find the Medusa soon paid off and himself once again without a post. Wandering in the naval dockyard he sees the Glatton, a converted East-Indiaman, being adapted for special armament. A contrived meeting with Captain Trollope, her commander, leads to his appointment as second lieutenant. Within a few weeks he is in action under Admiral Duncan off the Texel and distinguishes himself at the Battle of Camper- down. Routine is shattered by the mutiny at the Nore, which infects the Glatton, with disastrous consequences; a court-martial is convened and Delancey has to pit his wits against an adversary a long way his senior. Parting with Trollope, Delancey takes his first command, the Spitfire, off the west of Ireland. An attempted French invasion gives him the opportunity to prove his mettle and take the Spitfire into the type of action for which she was built.

Parkinson's second story of Delancey's career in the war at sea against Napoleon fulfils all the promise of Devil to Pay. Here is life in the British navy at its heyday, when bravery and action were married to the stately beauty of sail. Parkinson spins a tale full of the unexpected; this is a splendid further adventure of Richard Delancey.