The year 1792 is nearing a close when Neville Burton is called into service aboard the British frigate HMS Castor. England was striving to stay out of the politics of Europe, but the French Revolution drew her in. The declaration of war launches Midshipman Burton's first trip to sea aboard Castor, and while she patrols offshore during the blockade of Toulon, France, Napoleon Bonaparte is making his name ashore. This first coming-of-age episode of the "Neville Burton 'Worlds Apart' Series" chronicles his advance from a thirteen-year-old, unlearned seaman towards the coveted rank of lieutenant. He quickly learns to appreciate the awesome power and vagaries of the sea...and the British Royal Navy in the Age of Sail.
While storms, battles, convoys and even drudgery are the rungs on his steep ladder to gaining his sea-legs, his character is being forged by the pounding of waves, booming of cannons, and the danger of international intrigue. The man who emerges from this tale displays the makings of the legend he is to become. The capture of HMS Castor by the French ironically sets him on a path to greater glory. His following heroic exploits in the capture of enemy ships should raise his hopes for promotion, but his acquaintance with spies makes survival and eventual success less certain. Even his family friend and mentor may not be who he appears to be.
By the age of eighteen, he has sailed from England to the Mediterranean and to the New World and back. He has gained a small fortune in prize money, found a home-town sweetheart, survived the peril of both the Battles of Groix and the Glorious First of June and endured the mutiny at Spithead and the Nore. Why, then, does he find himself aboard the frigate Swan, sailing to the Caribbean, when his greatest hopes for further promotion lie in the war against France that is raging in Europe?