No one has been so well equipped as C. S. Forester to dramatize the sea battles of the War of 1812, to characterize the heroes more skillfully, or to comprehend more shrewdly the world unrest that made it possible for an infant republic to embarrass a great nation rich in one hundred years of sea triumphs.

Forester covers the War of 1812 from the perspective of naval battles in this 1956 volume. He outlines how the inexperienced U.S. navy managed to more than hold its own against that of the British, which was a scourge of the seas for many years.