A call to arms

"Features the seafaring adventures of the Cutler family of Hingham, Massachusetts, and an expanding cast of characters. Interwoven with his fictional characters are such historical figures as Edward Preble, Stephen Decatur, Richard Somers, Samuel Coleridge, Bashaw Yusuf Qaramanli, and Horatio Nelson, along with such real events as the naval bombardment of Tripoli, the burning of the USS Philadelphia, the USS Intrepid{u2019}s last voyage, and the assault on Derne. Set primarily in the Mediterranean Sea during the First Barbary War (1801{u2013}1805), A Call to Arms offers readers intriguing and often startling insights into the young republic{u2019}s struggle to promote its principles in a world ravaged by wars and piracy. This time, the actions of a few heroic naval officers, sailors, and Marines determine the country{u2019}s fate in a fast-paced plot that moves from New England on to Tripoli, Malta, Sicily, Alexandria, and Cairo. At the center of all the excitement are the magnificent super frigates of the fledgling U.S. Navy and a new generation of Cutler sons and daughters eager to follow in the footsteps of Richard Cutler and his beloved wife, Katherine. Theirs is a love story for the ages, but one whose future, readers will find, is threatened in a way that Capt. Cutler could not possibly have foreseen as he takes command of the USS Portsmouth and sets sail to join the Mediterranean Squadron and his son James, a midshipman on the USS Constitution"--Jacket.