With the fall of Louisbourg in 1758, the French in North America were firmly on the back foot. Pitt’s grand strategy for 1759 was to launch a three-pronged attack on Canada. One army would move north from Lake Champlain, and another smaller force would strike across the wilderness to Lake Ontario and French-held Fort Niagara. A third, under Admiral Saunders and General Wolfe, would sail up the Saint Lawrence, where no battle fleet had ever been, and capture Quebec.
Captain Edward Carlisle sails ahead of the battle fleet to find a way through the legendary dangers of the Saint Lawrence River. An unknown sailing master assists him. James Cook has a talent for surveying and cartography and will achieve immortality in later years.
There are rocks and shoals aplenty before Carlisle and his frigate Medina are caught up in the near-fatal indecision of the summer when General Wolfe tastes the bitterness of early setbacks.