Blue Dread

Indian Ocean, 1720.

When mutineers cast her husband and the other officers of the British frigate Cygnet adrift, Meg Eaton must find some way to save herself.

Needing to flee London in a hurry, Meg, a high-priced courtesan, married Elias Bramwell, ship's bosun. Now she faces a crew shorn of all restraint. Her one weapon: a sea tale Elias once told her about the pirate Ben Ringgold and the fabled treasure that went down with him in a storm. But in Elias' tale, Ringgold, knowing the ship's hull worm-eaten, first stood in at a remote island to bury the treasure before braving the sea.

Embroidering upon the tale, Meg tells the crew that Elias himself sailed with Ringgold, and alone survived. Furthermore, he revealed to her the treasure's location. She gives the men the coordinates of the island, but will surrender nothing more despite dire threats the crew dare not carry through — yet.

As the men turn pirate, descending ever further into savagery, new threats arise every day. Meg plays the men off against each other to gain time. She can only hope that Elias will somehow meet her at the island. But how can he cross a thousand miles of ocean in a leaky boat with few provisions and no way to navigate?

Reckoning approaches.

If you thrill to tales of ringing steel, the smoke of broadsides cutting through the salt breeze, survival at sea, and do-or-die romance, then come aboard HMS Cygnet as she blazes a bloody course through the Golden Age of Piracy.