In the POB manuscript collection at the Lilly Library, there are three typewritten sheets entitled "Thoughts for further naval tales", dated 14 April, 1981. Written after the completion of Ionian Mission, these pages are a plan for POB's next three books, probably created for his publisher.

The first in this series (which would become Treason's Harbour), would focus more on the intelligence aspect than on naval battles. The opening is set in Malta, with a relaxed Jack and Stephen being spied upon by French agents. Rather than a conventional narrative summary of the characters, the introductions are to be made by the comments of the agents.

A previous villain, Andrew Wray, is to be reintroduced as traitor working for the French. There is to be some conversation between Wray and Stephen regarding the nature of treachery and intelligence services. The naval situation requires dealing with troublesome Beys of the Barbary coast and the Red Sea, including crossing the Suez on foot. There is to be a chase of a treasure ship, but Wray's treason includes setting up an ambush by a superior French squadron. The Surprise narrowly escapes from the French ships, but is forced to sink the treasure ship when just on the point of capture.

"This sounds pretty bald, but I mean to have fun with a diving-bell, bought by Maturin for viewing the wonders of the deep, and eventually (though not in this book) to be used for salving the French gold to buy Surprise when she is sold out of the service."

The next book (FSOW) begins with Surprise headed back to Britain by way of the West Indies. They encounter an admiral in a slow ship pursuing the USS Norfolk, a 28 gun frigate bound for the Pacific to wreak havoc among the British whalers. Jack is ordered to take up the pursuit, which leads around the stormy Horn, to the island of Jaun Fernandez to refit, and then to Chile and Peru.

Well out into the Pacific on a warm, foggy night, Stephen falls overboard and Jack dives in to rescue him. The Surprise comes about immediately, but cannot find them in the murk. The next morning, Jack and Stephen are rescued by a canoe of feminist Polynesian ladies seeking an island to live without men. Jack and Stephen are in danger of being Sunday dinner, but the Surprise appears and they are exchanged for four ten-penny nails.

The American frigate is eventually found wrecked on a coral reef, but their officers claim that the war is over. While Jack is pondering this claim, a sudden storm blows the Surprise out to sea. The two camps agree to unite in building a vessel. The Americans appear to have the upper hand when an American whaling ship arrives, but it is soon followed by the Surprise.

The third book (ROTM) will include events that POB has been foreshadowing several times. The Surprise returns to Plymouth to be paid off. Jack, taking passage aboard the cartel ship falls in with a stranger who confides that Napoleon is dead or captured and peace is imminent. Jack is persuaded to invest in stocks to take advantage of the news, and advises his father to do the same. Just as with Cochrane, he is arrested for rigging the market, tried, found guilty, and dismissed the service. Although Cochrane was imprisoned, Jack is to be fined, and perhaps sentenced to the pillory.

Stephen purchases the decommisioned Surprise, perhaps using gold recovered from the sunken treasure ship of the earlier book, with the view of either becoming a privateer, or carrying on a war of liberation in Chile (which POB acknowledges is throwing history slightly out of beat). Talleyrand's agent from Surgeon's Mate returns the Blue Peter and assists Stephen in foiling Wray. Finally, "Aubrey is reinstated either in time for the Hundred Days or at an historically foggy period that leaves the possibility of further warefare, perhaps with France, certainly with America, or even in Chile again."

Provided through the courtesy of the Lilly Library, Bloomington, IN

Don Seltzer