Courtenay and The Seagull

Portsmouth 1794. Giles Courtenay is appointed First-lieutenant of the handy 22-gun sloop-of-war Seagull. Arriving on board he is shocked to see his old antagonist from Claymore, Edmund Prankash, recently promoted Commander and appointed Captain of the sloop. Courtenay soon finds he is the same lazy, petulant bully and coward that he was on Claymore when they are sent first of all to Corsica and then placed on repeated convoy duties. Ultimately a hunt for a British Merchant ship captured by the French and laden with gold, together with searching out and destroying the French ship which had captured her gives the ship the opportunity to show its worth. Matters are complicated by a 'Lady' who has sunk her claws into Prankash with one eye on his money and family connections and whom Courtenay has to get rid of to prevent the ship and its Captain becoming the laughingstocks of the Fleet.