Fireship Press: 164 books

The Privateersman, written in 1846, was the last of Frederick Marryat's nautically oriented novels, although one of his best non-nautical works, Children of the New Forest, still lay ahead of him. Privateers were essentially legalized pirates. They functioned like the illegal variety; but they carried...

A New World - A New Beginning. In 1750 Heinrich Mueller, an immigrant German, jumps ship in New London, Connecticut after an altercation with the English captain. He is taken in by two locals, one of whom has a fetching daughter. The other is an educated freed slave who teaches him to read...

Set in the turbulent times of the War of Independence, The Long Way Home follows the lives of Thomas Peters and Murphy Steele who are friends, former slaves, fellows-in-arms and leaders of the Black Brigade. Their real-life story is an epic adventure tale as they battle bounty hunters, racism, poverty...

Fans of Alternative History celebrate! Jason Vail's compelling new novel, Lonestar Rising, The Voyage of the Wasp is must-read literature, reminiscent of Eric Flint’s 1632<./p> The American rebellion has failed. George Washington is dead. The few surviving revolutionaries, led by Andrew...

In Percival Keene Marryat goes back to a character-style that he first introduced in Frank Mildmay. In both books, the "hero" is a bit of a low-life—proud, rebellious and, many times, downright mean. He was criticized for that style when Frank Mildmay first came out, so he stayed away...

Hawkwoods Sword vividly portrays the life of a mercenary on the battle fields in 14th century Italy and France. A tough and resilient hero Captain John Hawkwood commands like-minded fighting men gathered from England and all over Europe Alongside the German and European mercenaries lead by Albrecht...

From the Father of Modern Nautical Fiction. The legend of the Flying Dutchman goes back at least to medieval times, and probably earlier than that. In its basic form, it is about a ghost ship that can never go into port, and is doomed to sail the oceans forever. Indeed, in Marryat's day, one would...

From the Father of Modern Nautical Fiction. Poor Jack takes us back to the Thames River. But, in addition to being another terrific portrait of life on that bustling waterway, it introduces us to the Greenwich Hospital, the famous hospital for injured seamen. Thomas Saunders is the son of a sailor...

If you seek to understand nautical fiction, you must begin with Frederick Marryat. "Forster was certainly correct in declaring [Masterman Ready] the most read, and the most willingly reread, of its class. For its mere cleverness alone the book can be enjoyed by the oldest of readers… [It] is...

Follow the journey of Norah McCabe, a courageous young woman fleeing her Irish home devastated by famine and arriving in the rough and tumble world of New York City of the 1850s. For the new immigrant every aspect of life is a challenge, negotiating a rapacious underworld, racism, poverty, and the...

A Road Opens Westward and a Frightening Past is Left Behind. A handsome patent medicine peddler steals the heart of Lizzie Mueller, Heinrich Mueller’s daughter, who is intent on breaking 19th century constraints that anchor women to home and hearth. But when a diamond and pearl ring links...

From Fighting Front to Home Front. A troubled Adam Springer, Heinrich Mueller’s grandson, returns from the Civil War to the family farm in Ohio. Bedeviled by the memory of battlefields red with the mingled blood of north and south, nightmares and melancholy plague him. One image Adam...

Marcia Brownlow, a young, unemployed American governess in late nineteenth century Italy, masquerades as a man to advance her career. She adopts the persona of her dead brother Mark and becomes the protogee of Arthur Wolcott, a famous American expatriate author who discovers Marcia‘s artistic talent....

You know about the fleets of Britain, France, Spain, and America; but did you know that some of the most formidable naval forces in history were not European at all? As the 16th Century opened, the moors had been driven out of Spain and cast onto the barren shores of north Africa. Driven by...