Second In Command: The Three Imperatives

The story’s time frame is set in the late 1700’s, nearing the end of the region’s Spanish monopoly on trade with increased competition for dominance among France, England and the Dutch. The time was wrought with complex and multiple world conflicts among the various and dominant world powers of the time. The American colonists had declared their independence from England. In support, and for self interests, other countries including Spain (with troops and supplies from Cuba and Puerto Rico) and France provided aid and logistics to the American colonists in their fight for independence. The political and economic strife in France had positioned it for upheaval and revolution. While the Spanish monarchy had declared the “Americas” to be free and open to trade by all nations and the Caribbean Sea as well as the Atlantic sea routes had become a competitive arena among the major world powers of the time striving for dominance and economic opportunity. The story is presented in third person narrative form as it was the author’s intent to also incorporate historical facts of the time into the sequence of events, and sailors in particular may empathize as it utilizes many nautical terms and tactics in depicting many of the events at sea. In light of such, the various nautical terms and maneuvers that are introduced throughout are clarified in the appendices as an aid to readers not familiar with the tactics of sailing. It is the author’s hope that sailors and non sailors alike will find the incorporation of historical facts of the era with plausible fictional events a pleasant reading experience.