"Chase was gracious, generous, and apparently oblivious of the vast gulf that existed between a mere ensign, the lowest of the army's commissioned ranks, and a post captain who was officially the equivalent of an army colonel, though on board his own ship such a man outranked the very powers of heaven." Chapter 1, p. 13.

"The men don't think you're a proper officer, and the other officers ... well, it's like a working dog ending up on the hearth rug. The lap dogs don't like it." Richard Sharpe, Chapter 2, p. 41.

"Men fall from the upper works, folk die of fever and I've even had a passenger kill herself for unrequited love, but I've never had one die of fish poison." Captain Cromwell, Chapter 3, p. 59.

"They say, my lady, that those who would go to sea for pleasure would visit hell as a pastime." Captain Cromwell, Chapter 3, p. 60.

"Lady Grace had...