Richard Woodman

A tale of life on board the cargo liner Antigone during the last great days of the Merchant Navy as seen through the eyes of Laddie on a long voyage from England to Hong Kong, Singapore and the South China Sea.

Why did the First Sea Lord order Convoy PQ17 to scatter leaving a merchant convoy unprotected in the Barents Sea? Was it the threat of a German attack or something more obscure? All may have remained a secret but for a dead man talking!

Among the coral outcrops of the island of Rota in the Marianas Island, off the Philippines, lies the wreck of a Spanish galleon, the Santa Margarita. Here we are told a tale of the disastrous last voyage, beset by an extraordinary sequence of typhoons and storms, of the Santa Margarita on her way to Acapulco in the spring of 1601.

1649. England has been torn asunder by a civil war that has pitted Parliamentarians against Royalists. Captain Kit Faulkner, bound to the Royalist cause, has been living in exile for the past four years. Faulkner must now support himself with the tiny rump of the Royal Navy that remains loyal.

Guy Edwardes is a changed man when he returns from a solo sailing trip to the Arctic. Following a tragedy, his partner Karen and friend Nick try to piece together what happened in the icy waters of the Svalbard archipelago.