Dead Man’s Island

By David McDine

Dead Man’s Island in the rain was as God-forsaken a place as you could find anywhere on earth.

Following the successful capture of the Normandy privateer Égalité, Lieutenant Oliver Anson is appointed by Commodore Home Popham to command the Seagate Sea Fencibles. Moreover, the Commodore has implied that there may be a clandestine nature to Anson’s new duties…

However, when the Commodore summons Anson to Dead Man’s Island, it is to find the Commodore absent. Forgoing any explanation, Anson is required to witness the funeral of a Frenchman from a hulk.

Hoping that Captain Matthew Wills will be able to provide some explanation as to his being there, Anson is only further mystified when Wills arranges for the Lieutenant to visit the hulk of the officer whose funeral he has just attended.

With promises that the full picture shall soon reveal itself, the lieutenant embarks once more.

David McDine, OBE, is a former Admiralty information officer, Royal Navy Reserve officer and Deputy Lieutenant of Kent, and the author of Unconquered: The Story of Kent and its Lieutenancy. He also wrote The Normandy Privateer, another naval adventure featuring Lieutenant Oliver Anson, and the series prequel Strike the Red Flag.