The Frontier

This novel by Farnham Bishop follows the U.S. Navy frigate Constellation as it encounters the Black Bloodhound, a notorious pirate schooner, in the Gulf of Florida circa 1825. When the Bloodhound attacks and abandons the American merchant vessel Brotherly Love—a six-hundred-ton ship laden with cargo—Captain Doughty dispatches Lieutenant Upton with a prize crew to salvage the damaged vessel and give chase. Upton discovers the ship set ablaze with more than a dozen murdered crew members aboard. His crew fights the fire using an improvised water-channeling system through the gun ports, discovering below deck barrels of gunpowder concealed beneath woolen cargo. The narrative employs authentic maritime terminology and period detail, depicting naval action, seamanship challenges, and the violent realities of early nineteenth-century piracy in Caribbean waters.