IN DISTANT WATERS. - A Nathaniel Drinkwater Novel by Woodman, Richard

New York, 1988, St. Martins, first US edition, hard bound in dust jacket, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2, FINE/FINE CONDITION, 246 pages ............................ 8th entry in author's series about a British Royal Naval officer during the Napoleonic Wars. .........................................A Natttaniel Drinkwater Novel--------------------------From the tide-torn waters of the Thames where Captain Nathaniel Drinkwater is compelled to hang a deserter, to the seas off Cape Horn, storm-scoured gateway to the Pacific, His Majesty's cruiser Patrician seethes with the spirit of mutiny.Despite this, the capture of a Spanish frigate augurs well, and Captain Drink-water meets the exquisitely beautiful Dona Ana Maria, daughter of the Commandante of San Francisco. But he has disturbed a hornet's nest of colonial intrigue and the Spanish are eager to humiliate both him and the Royal Navy. Moreover, somewhere offshore a Russian battleship is at large, pursuing the dark policies of Tsar Alexander. Faced with these formidable enemies, Drinkwater's task is suddenly made impossible by treachery. Patrician is rendered helpless and the captain finds himself in solitary confinement ashore, his career in ruins and his ship a prize of the enemy......................................................But chance sets in motion a new train of events, and brings the aid of Dona Ana Maria and a mysterious mountain-man. In the distant waters of this remote and beautiful region, against a backdrop of personal and national rivalry, Drinkwater struggles to carry out his mission. His final action against the Russian man-of-war leaves him with the most extraordinary twist of fortune in his eventful life.