As 1794 draws to a close Richard Bolitho, commanding the old 74 gun ship of the line 'Hyperion', leaves Plymouth to join a squadron to blockade the rising power of revolutionary France Unfortunately, Bolitho finds himself under a commodore who is no match for the French admiral, Lequiller, whose powerful squadron uses guile and ruthless determination to elude him and vanish into the Atlantic 'Hyperion' as part of a small British force gives chase