Halfhyde Adventure

It's the 1890s and Royal Navy Lieutenant St Vincent Halfhyde finds himself out of favor with the Navy and on half-pay ashore when he is summoned to the Admiralty. His mission: to sail to the Bight of Benin in West Africa and spy on the not-so-secret Russian presence there. As a Russian speaker who is familiar with Benin, Halfhyde is confident he's the man for the job-until he runs into Admiral Prince Gorsinski, cousin of the Czar and Halfhyde's former jailer.

Royal Navy Lieutenant St Vincent Halfhyde is once again despatched to Africa. This time his mission is to help capture a British traitor who carries secret blueprints of British warships. Assisted by a Scotland Yard detective and a handful of sailors, Halfhyde must outwit the clever Germans, who are determined to take the traitor and his secrets back to the Fatherland.

With a ship to call his own at last, Royal Navy Lieutenant St Vincent Halfhyde sails for the Dardanelles in command of the little torpedo-boat Vendetta, part of a flotilla sent to rescue a Britsih sailing-ship unlawfully detained by the Russians. Unfortunately, Halfhyde's first command comes complete with a pompous flotilla captain in love with his own voice, and the looming threat of the irascible Admiral Prince Gorsinski. Cutting out the sailing-ship from amidst the Russian fleet and sneaking her back through the Narrows under the deadly batteries of the Turks and the Russians is the easy part. Facing Gorsinski's vengeance and the legendary wrath of the Romanovs is another matter!

In Andalusia, Lieutenant St Vincent Halfhyde is sent by the unpredictable Captain Watkiss on a secret mission ashore: to aid the Queen's Messenger who is being pursued by nefarious Spanish agents. But when Halfhyde discovers a plot to kill Queen Victoria herself, the stakes are raised. Now he and the rest of his flotilla must face down the Spanish Navy and get the Messenger back to Britain with vital information.

The old ironclad Meridian steams south on her last journey under the British flag, on route to her new home in the Chilean Navy. Using the transfer of the ship as cover, Halfhyde and Watkiss are on a covert operation to protect British interests in South America from the encroaching Germans. Soon Halfhyde has an added mission: he must help a detective from the Metropolitan Police track down and intercept a traitorous civil servant who has escaped from prison and is on the run for South America.