The New Lieutenant

Tom Chatto Naval Adventures series, book #3

The nautical world of 1914 is a dangerous and uncertain place…

With Germany conducting unrestricted naval warfare, no ship is safe. Whether a liner, a cargo ship or passenger ship, the threat from this new and industrialised fighting machine is ever-present.

Shortly after the declaration of war, the liner Orsino comes under fire from the German cruiser Dresden off the Chilean coast.

As Second Officer and navigator, Tom Chatto has to guide the liner through exceptionally tricky uncharted waters of glaciers and rocky shoals behind Cape Horn as they escape to the South Atlantic.

Upon his return to Liverpool, Tom volunteers for war service in the Royal Naval Reserve.

After a period of training at the Whale Island gunnery school in Portsmouth he is appointed Lieutenant RNR and navigating officer of the Q ship Thornton, whose role is to lure German U-boats to the surface and then attack by gunfire.

The Thornton’s sphere of operations is the Mediterranean, and she is soon in the thick of the action, capturing one U-boat, destroying another, and rescuing survivors of a torpedoed British freighter.

Tom eventually finds himself in charge when both the Captain and the First Lieutenant are both killed by enemy gunfire.

Can Tom live up to the monumental task ahead…?