This book is all about last stands and grand gestures in the face of daunting odds, and all at sea, where there is no safe hiding place, no cover but the sea itself - and who can trust the sea? But sailors are not afraid to fight on it, and in this exciting collection of true stories every kind of naval tactic, aggressive, defensive, piratical, suicidal, in force of numbers or alone, is explored in the fourteen unlinked episodes. In whole, this is a reminder that once, not so long ago, world power was measured at sea rather than on the land or in the air.