HMS Constitution

As Napoleon threw his armies against Russia the British soldiers under Wellington were steadily recapturing the Iberian Peninsula. The campaign was only possible because of the King’s Navy’s command of the sea. Captain Matthew Thompson commanded the Royan, a seventy-four gun ship of the line, when he fell foul of an admiral who was more concerned about advancing the cause of his political allies than his country. Matthew survived the ensuing court martial and the Lords of the Admiralty gave him the task of using a new weapon to eliminate the threat to British naval supremacy from the United States. Matthew sailed for the new world to do his duty, and found more than a challenge to his professional abilities.