This book starts with our hero as an old man, an Admiral now thrust back into naval service due to the ongoing Russian war. He comes into contact with a new young Midshipman whose Grandfather just happened to be the Admiral's mentor when he started in the service. On the long voyage out, our hero tries to befriend this grandson of his friend by explaining how he survived being a midshipman.The reader is transported back to the French war and all the dangers that surround that period and not all from the French either. There are some nasty run ins with the Press gang and British Seamen, not forgetting their so-called wives.His adventures, scrapes and later action as they unfold, take us initially to the Mediterranean and the French coast. His third ship was a captured Russian bomb vessel now equipped as a rocket ship. Quite an experimental design for that time and quite as dangerous to friend and foe alike.