Percival Merewether

The Naval Service of the Honorable East India Company, popularly known as the Bombay Marine, operated in romantic areas in perilous times. From the Indian Ocean to the South China Sea, from Calcutta to Canton, the Company ships were famous for their speed and daring. The "Bombay Buccaneers" who sailed them were the stuff of legend. For Percival Merewether, 1806 would be a year to remember. For in January of that year he was promoted from First Lieutenant to become the junior Captain in the Company's Service and given the command of his first ship-the Rapid. Armed with ten 9-pounders, the Rapid was a match for any pirate ship that crossed its bows, and in it, Captain Merewether was to spend as action-packed and eventful, a first year as any ambitious young seafarer could have wished. Merewether had quick wits and daring to match his ambition. And with mutinies, diplomatic intrigues, and skirmishes with the French to occupy him, he soon found that he needed both qualities as never before . . .

The naval service of the Honourable East India Company, popularly known as the Bombay Marine, knew its share of adventure; none more than Captain Percival Merewether and the men of his ship Rapid. From Mauritius to Teheran, from the Bay of Bengal towards Australia-weathering fierce naval battles, skirmishes with pirate fleets, and sometimes equally hazardous engagements ashore-the seas were packed with the stuff that goes to make incident. And action it was that really sparked Merewether and his men in a rousing tale that will give much pleasure to those who like a rattling good yarn.

They called themselves the Bombay Buccaneers-and under that flamboyant name, they blazed a trail of daring and adventure from the Gulf of Oman to the waters of Macao. For courage, loyalty, and renowned few of the Buccaneers could match their Captain, Percival Merewether, a brilliant seaman who was already the hero of a score of fabled sea-faring campaigns. Newly in command of the thirty-six gun frigate Pitt, Merewether is about to set sail again-this time on a voyage that would plunge him and his crew into new and ever more hazardous trials: a mutiny, a fierce-fought sea battle with the French, and a stormy encounter with the most ferocious pirate ever to hoist a flag: Madame Chin, scourge of the China Seas . . .