A very up-to-date story of the navy. Roger Samways and Bill Margrie are on the Conway together and great chums. The author himself, an old Conway boy, gives a vivid description of life on the training ship, and of an adventure with a barge adrift in a gale which gives Roger change to show that he is made of stout stuff. The chum's next ship is the cruiser Thotmes, in which they are due to serve for a year a midshipmen. A derelict Spanish destroyer is sighted, and a boat sent to board her, Roger and Bill accompanying the Lieutenant in command. While she is streaming towards port, other Spanish ships appear, and a lively scrap follows; the Lieutenant is wounded, and Roger carries on, bringing his ship through in triumph. A narrow escapre from torpedoing in the Thotmes is their next excitement, and then Roger finds himself approached by the spy of a foriegn power. Acting on instructions from his superiours, he leads the man on, and thanks to his work, the island stronghold of a 'pirate power' is discouvered and destroyed. Action in the East comes next, with a sucession of excitements, and finally we bid farewell to the two heros as Sub-Lieutenants in the Royal Navy.
[As this is the cover description, the 'up-to-date' of course refers to the time of publication, 1939]