Books published by Fireship Press

It is the fifth century AD, in the former Roman colony of Britannia, where civilization has all but disappeared. Some vestiges of the old infrastructure remain in the urban south, but the west and north are wild and lawless. Plague sweeps through the entire country, leaving thousands dead in its wake. Eiteol, a cloddish and apathetic nobleman, saves the dictator Vertigern from an assassination attempt. The two go on the run, and as time goes on Eiteol finds himself called upon to do things he finds more and more morally repugnant. Deep down he knows that Vertigern is a monster, and that he should walk away, but for reasons he does not understand he finds himself bound to the man whose life he has saved. Their flight takes them into the barbarous west-where money has no value, the law has no power and murder is a daily reality-and they are forced to look for shelter in a country that is falling apart around them.

The press-gang. An unmitigated evil, or the savior of a nation? You decide. Impressment was nothing new for the Royal Navy. It had been used as early as 1664 as a way of obtaining crews for warships. In many respects, impressment was inevitable. The number of trained sailors was finite, and had to be shared across both military and merchant ships. But, where the impact of an undermanned merchant fleet could be inconvenient, an undermanned navy could be disastrous. Britain was an island nation and depended on it's fleet to protect it. J. R. Hutchinson takes us on a tour of the "press-gang," the vehicle by which "eligible men of seafaring habits" were gathered into the Royal Navy. We learn, among other things, how the press-gang began, how it worked, how it was evaded, and how it was ended. While the argument can be made that the fate of the pressed man was certainly no worse, and in many ways much better, than his cousin on land; Hutchinson takes the opposite view-that it was an unmitigated evil. Whether Hutchinson is right, or guilty of analyzing 18th Century history with 20th Century standards, is for you to decide.

WRITER''S BLOCK - A sensational new novel from the award-winning author and filmmaker Julian Padowicz From his miserable childhood to his mediocre career as a college professor, fate had not been kind, or even terribly fair, to "Kip" Kippur. But Kip''s luck changes when he inherits a house in a small coastal village in Massachusetts. He chucks his previous life and moves there to write the Great American Novel-a thinly disguised autobiography. As Kip struggles to transmute a leaden life into golden fiction, he finds himself alone and rudderless in a strange community. He stumbles into a mysterious murder, an awkward romance, a married lady''s hot-tub, an unusual proposal of marriage-and an invitation to sail to Florida, during storm season, in a sailboat of questionable seaworthiness, with an autocratic captain and a homicidal crew mate. But Writer''s Block is more than just the tale of a late-life crisis gone terribly awry. It''s also an intriguing portrait of a small town and the complex people who inhabit it. It will keep you riveted all the way to its crashing conclusion.

"Measured by the numbers engaged, the Battle of Quebec was but a heavy skirmish; measured by the results, it was one of the great battles of the world." - Francis Parkman.When the British defeated the French at Quebec in 1759, they not only guaranteed Britain''s acquisition of Canada but also, unwittingly, paved the way for the American Revolution. But this is a larger story than just the single day of battle on September 13, 1759. The final action was the culmination of a summer-long campaign involving a series of engagements between the British Army, American Rangers and the Royal Navy on one side, and the French regulars, the Canadian militia and Indian allies on the other. As the weeks passed and the British became increasingly frustrated, the campaign degenerated into total war in which civilians and combatants suffered alike. The two commanders - Wolfe and Montcalm - could hardly have been more different in background and personality. Yet they shared an intense professionalism, dedication to duty and, ironically, a similar fate. In this carefully researched novel Terry Mort reconstructs the action of the campaign that climaxed in the dramatic events on the Plains of Abraham.

The Historian Who Changed the Way Naval Battles Were Fought In 1859 Alfred Thayer Mahan graduated second in his class from the U.S. Naval Academy. Unfortunately, he hated the smoky, steam-driven, ships of his time, and longed for the days of square-rigged sailing vessels. Making matters worse, when he eventually got command, he was terrible at it. HIs ships had this unnerving tendency to... well... run into things-other ships, piers, and so forth. In 1885 he was appointed to the Naval War College to teach naval history and tactics, and his true calling emerged. He might have been a terrible ship commander, but he was an absolute genius as a naval historian and theoretician. HIs books were avidly read by naval officers the world over. They shaped the way modern navies would be organized-and, more importantly, revolutionized the way ships would fight. Now, for the first time, Mahan's principal works-along with his autobiography-are brought together in a single collection. The Mahan Nautical History Series FROM SAIL TO STEAM: Recollections of a Naval Life SEA POWER AND WORLD HISTORY: 1660-1783 SEA POWER AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION: 1775-1783 SEA POWER AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION: 1793-1812 SEA POWER AND THE WAR OF 1812 - Volumes I and II

The Historian Who Changed the Way Naval Battles Were Fought In 1859 Alfred Thayer Mahan graduated second in his class from the U.S. Naval Academy. Unfortunately, he hated the smoky, steam-driven, ships of his time, and longed for the days of square-rigged sailing vessels. Making matters worse, when he eventually got command, he was terrible at it. HIs ships had this unnerving tendency to... well... run into things-other ships, piers, and so forth. In 1885 he was appointed to the Naval War College to teach naval history and tactics, and his true calling emerged. He might have been a terrible ship commander, but he was an absolute genius as a naval historian and theoretician. HIs books were avidly read by naval officers the world over. They shaped the way modern navies would be organized-and, more importantly, revolutionized the way ships would fight. Now, for the first time, Mahan's principal works-along with his autobiography-are brought together in a single collection. The Mahan Nautical History Series FROM SAIL TO STEAM: Recollections of a Naval Life SEA POWER AND WORLD HISTORY: 1660-1783 SEA POWER AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION: 1775-1783 SEA POWER AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION: 1793-1812 SEA POWER AND THE WAR OF 1812 - Volumes I and II

The Historian Who Changed the Way Naval Battles Were Fought In 1859 Alfred Thayer Mahan graduated second in his class from the U.S. Naval Academy. Unfortunately, he hated the smoky, steam-driven, ships of his time, and longed for the days of square-rigged sailing vessels. Making matters worse, when he eventually got command, he was terrible at it. HIs ships had this unnerving tendency to... well... run into things-other ships, piers, and so forth. In 1885 he was appointed to the Naval War College to teach naval history and tactics, and his true calling emerged. He might have been a terrible ship commander, but he was an absolute genius as a naval historian and theoretician. HIs books were avidly read by naval officers the world over. They shaped the way modern navies would be organized-and, more importantly, revolutionized the way ships would fight. Now, for the first time, Mahan's principal works-along with his autobiography-are brought together in a single collection. The Mahan Nautical History Series FROM SAIL TO STEAM: Recollections of a Naval Life SEA POWER AND WORLD HISTORY: 1660-1783 SEA POWER AND THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION: 1775-1783 SEA POWER AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTION: 1793-1812 SEA POWER AND THE WAR OF 1812 - Volumes I and II

"I have lived for months where my only neighbors were Indians and my one music the howl of the coyote." - Charlotte Tanner Nelson It was a land the devil wouldn''t have, made of sand and mountains filled with wild beasts and wild men. Yet in the eighteen hundreds the women came. Some came to join an adventuresome husband or son, some because of their religion. They traveled the hard trail, suffering from lack of water, horrendous weather, disease and death. And once they arrived in the desolate wilderness they lived in tents, dugouts and log cabins. Everything for their life, from soap to food, from clothes to medicine they made, or grew, or did without. Husbands left to work far away leaving them to fight Indians, take care of the home and farm, and sometimes bury their children. From 1935 until 1939 Federal Writers'' Project workers interviewed Arizona pioneer women, who were then in their seventies or older. Their interviews, here in their own words, tell of heartbreak and joy, success and disappointment, and the building of a state.

When you think of the great heroes of the 18th Century Royal Navy, you would probably think of Horatio Nelson, possibly Sir Sidney Smith; but would the name Sir Charles Douglas spring to mind? If it doesn''t-it should. Sir Charles Douglas played a pivotal role in many of the most important events of the late eighteenth century, and yet his name appears only in short passages and footnotes of works on naval history and the American Revolution. In Fortune''s Favorite: Sir Charles Douglas and the Breaking of the Line, the Royal Navy captain finally receives the attention he deserves for his part in the Relief of Quebec, the Battle of Valcour Island, his naval gunnery innovations, and the Battle of the Saints, including his contribution to the "breaking of the line" maneuver, which has been a subject of controversy for nearly two centuries. Written by an American descendent of Sir Charles, Fortune''s Favorite is the definitive work on this most extraordinary man.

One of the most revolutionary tactics in naval warfare was developed in the 18th Century, and was called "Breaking the Line." The Royal Navy used it to win fleet engagements ranging from the Battle of the Saints, to Trafalgar. But, who developed it? Years of controversy led to a war of words between supporters of John Clerk of Eldin, Admiral Lord Rodney, and Rodney's captain-of-the fleet, Sir Charles Douglas. In 1832, the latter's son, Sir Howard Douglas, set forth the arguments on behalf of his father in his book Naval Evolutions: A Memoir. He assumed it would be the final word on the matter. It was not. Full of solid evidence, including eyewitness testimony, the book should have laid the issue to rest. Instead, it was largely ignored or dismissed as biased due to the relationship of the author to his subject. But, dismissed or not, the book remains, and the arguments are overwhelming. Fireship Press is proud to revisit this controversy with the release of a new edition of the book, with an introduction by Christopher Valin, perhaps the world's leading expert on the life of Sir Charles Douglas. It's a book that any serious student of naval history will want to read.

It's a book about golf and the way it's played in the year 2000-only it was written in 1892. On March 24, 1892, Alexander Gibson, an inveterate golfer, fell asleep. He woke up the following day, March 25th-in the year 2000. This begins a series of adventures in which Gibson must not only learn how the game of golf has changed, but how society has changed as well. On the golf course he discovers golf carts that drive themselves, golf clubs that automatically keep track of the user's score, and mandatory jackets that yell "FORE" every time he swings. But this is nothing compared to the society he discovers with digital watches, bullet trains, television sets, and women's lib. "It's almost impossible to believe that this eerily prophetic book was written in the late 1800s-yet it was. It's a classic!"

How do you maintain discipline on a ship when someone murders your first lieutenant-and a part of you agrees with their action? December 1796. It was a time of unrest and discontent for Britain, made even worse by the war with Revolutionary France and the possibility of imminent invasion. Fresh from the dockyard, HMS Pandora, a 28-gun frigate, is about to set sail to join the Mediterranean Fleet. For Captain Banks the harsh winter weather and threat of a French invasion are not his only problems. He has an untried ship, a tyrant for a First Lieutenant, a crew that contains at least one murderer, and he is about to sail into one of the biggest naval battles in British history-the Battle of Cape St. Vincent. "Alaric Bond has stepped into the first rank of writers of historic naval fiction." The Second Book in the Fighting Sail Series