His Majesty's hired vessel, Surprise, in the Pacific near South America
***
Just finished this, the sixteenth novel in the series! Only five more to go. I will be both happy and sad when these wonderful books are done. I have enjoyed my time with dear Stephen (you astonish me) and seventeen stone (you really should eat less, for all love) Jack.
Much of Stephen's time is spent high in the Andes, avoiding a rather botched attempt at supporting a Peruvian coup. We first suffer a very strange event, as depicted on the cover of the book: the eruption of an undersea volcano! Burning rocks pelted down and choppy seas to all sides. Sounds horrible.
Many prizes taken west of South America. Almost got to cash in a trio of American cargo ships 'round the Horn, in a sea of ice, but those barkys had company. Outgunned, Surprise has to run for it, barely making it out alive. Then they are struck by lightning, and lose their rudder and the last of their masts. Oh the indignity.
Adrift, 5000 miles from land, and then "Sail ho!". The American frigate to finish the job? No! None other than our friend Heneage Dundas in the HMS Bernice. We're saved!
The heroes are (still) homeward bound. This is the fourth of a five book run chronicling a circumnavigation of the globe.
