It had turned out to be so simple that looking back it too seemed like part of the dream. Closing the unsuspecting privateer, apparently to pass despatches, they had run alongside and grappled hers both vessels being buried under a mass of fallen spars and canvas in the collision. A volley of musket fire, a wildly yelling rush of boarders, and the other ship was taken, even though her company outnumbered Bolitho's party by four to one. Trojan's seamen were well used to this sort of game. The privateer's crew were not. In fact, it was her captain's first voyage in that capacity?

So instead of one prize Bolitho entered harbour with a pair. With the war going badly on land, and affairs at sea so confused as to be equally disheartening, his arrival under the guns of the harbour's battery was like a tonic. Handshakes from a rear-admiral, smiling greetings from senior captains, Bolitho had been staggered by the welcome?

With the prizes handed over to the dockyard he had been found accommodation in an old hulk called Octavia. Originally a two-decker, she had been all but sunk in a hurricane the previous year, and now served as accommodation ship. Junior officers whiled away the time gambling, sleeping or drinking to excess as they awaited their next appointments. Promotion and transfers, courts martial or passage home as a crippled victim of some encounter with the enemy, the old Octavia had seen them all?

As the days passed, Bolitho began to imagine he had been forgotten. Soon the Trojan would arrive and he would find himself back again in her tight community. Living from day to day. Hoping, yet not daring to hope for too much?

The orders, when they were delivered by an immaculate flag lieutenant, were as brief as they were astounding. By consent of the Commander-in-Chiefs Richard Bolitho would take upon himself the appointment of commander with the rank and benefits attached. The appointment would take effect forthwith? He would furnish himself with all necessary vestments and report to the newly acquired headquarters building in two days' time?