The Fireship

Blurb

The Fireship is one of a series of nautical novels by C. Northcote Parkinson. It is set in the late 18th century, when Britain was at war with Revolutionary France. Parkinson's hero is a junior naval officer. Unlike many fictional officers Parkinson's hero, Richard Delancey, does not have any powerful patrons to ease his way to promotion.
In The Devil to Pay, the first novel Parkinson wrote about Delancey, his hero goes through a long series of adventures before he can find himself an appointment. In The Fireship Delancey has a position. He is the second lieutenant of HMS Glatton, a converted vessel from the British East India Company, fitted with an experimental armament consisting of all short-range, large-caliber carronades.
HMS Glatton is part of Admiral Adam Duncan's fleet blockading the Batavian Republic.