Phillip Hazard Books

November 1853: Sailing beneath the ominous cloud of war between Turkey and Russia, the 300-horsepower, 31-gun steam frigate Trojan is on her way to the Crimea with a large Royal Navy Fleet to deal with the Russian Black Sea fleet and support the conquest of Sevastopol. The Trojan is carrying on board a mysterious passenger: a young woman whose identity must be concealed by orders of the Admiralty. Although First Lieutenant Phillip Hazard is captivated by the charming young woman, he has a far more pressing concern: the Trojan's captain is a sadistic despot—and quite possibly insane. With The Valiant Sailors, Stuart introduces her 8-volume series, which presents an exciting and authentic picture of naval operations during the Crimean War.

October 1854: Admidst brutal cannonade and flashing sabers, the Plain of Balaclava thundered to two of the most incredible military maneuvers of all time—the charge of the Heavy and Light Brigades. As the Russian cavalry prepares to launch a full-scale attack to seize Balaclava, the British find themselves in desperate straits. Dangerously outnumbered, they are hoping for reinforcements, but in the meantime they must hold their ground, calling for heroism that will test the courage of even the bravest man. Dodging bursting shells and Russian Cossacks, Hazard proves that the bluejackets fight as well on land as they do at sea.

The Crimean War is at its peak as the winter of 1854 sets in, and Commander Phillip Hazard of the 31-gun, steam-screw frigate Trojan is sent to bring troop reinforcements from Constantinople to Eupatoria. On the way, he must handle an overbearing young nobleman with a taste for blood and the pitiless power of a raging storm.

Would his passengers live to see their native land again? It's 1854 and the Crimean War is at its bloody peak, with British and Russian troops relentlessly battering each other on land and sea. Into this melee sails Commander Phillip Horatio Hazard and the 31-gun steam frigate Trojan, fighting their way from Constantinople to Eupatoria with reinforcements. Hazard recalls the Trojan's previous passengers, and the nightmare voyage that he wished he could forget. And forget it he does, in the horror of the present experience, for he must sail not only through a hell of cannon, but through a mountainous sea and a brutal hurricane as well. As he studies the Trojan's decks, thronged with young, adventuresome red-coated soldiers, Commander Hazard feels a pang of compassion--how many of these young men in his charge would live to see the English sun rise again? This is the third exciting novel in the saga of Phillip Horatio Hazard acclaimed by critics in England and America as "a worthy successor to the Captain Horatio Hornblower series."

It is January 1855, and the Crimean War rages on. With the dreaded Crimean winter upon them, the allied troops may have to endure the bitter cold under canvas, waiting for a springtime siege of Sebastopol. Desperate to put an end to this standoff, the British devise a dangerous plan, in which Phillip Hazard, the new commander of the steam-powered Huntress, must act as a spy. Under sealed orders, Hazard sails to Odessa, along with his brother Graham and his rough-and-ready crew from the Trojan. After smuggling himself ashore, Hazard is forced to rely on his duplicitous first lieutenant as his only means of escape from the enemy.

Spring 1855: At the height of the Crimean War, the siege of the Russian city of Sebastopol continues. In a desperate attempt to cut the Russians' supply line at the Sea of Azoff, the Allies commit 15,000 troops, 5 batteries of artillery, and virtually every ship of their Black Sea fleets. Commander Phillip Hazard and HMS Huntress undertake the crucial mission of marking a new channel for the Allies' attack under the formidable shore batteries guarding the Strait of Yenikale. Forced to make some hard decisions, Hazard faces court martial afterwards.

To break the stalemate in the Crimea, where the Russian city of Sebastopol still stands strong against the allies' siege, the British must search for unlikely help among the self-reliant mountain people of Circassia. Commander Phillip Hazard of HMS Huntress is dispatched with a select handful of his crew to seek out the guerrilla leader Serfir Pasha and win him over as an ally.

The Crimean War has ended at last, and Phillip Hazard finds himself in China, serving under the fiery Commodore Keppel. The British pull off a rousing victory against a Chinese junk fleet at Fatsham Creek, but later Hazard is dismayed to hear of the Great Mutiny in India. Worried that his two sisters are caught up in the brutal conflict, he joins British relief forces fighting to reach the besieged northern Indian towns of Cawnpore and Lucknow. Arriving in Cawnpore at last, Hazard faces a diabolical vengeance, and in Lucknow he must take on the blazing guns of the angry sepoys.

With the Sepoy Mutiny still threatening British lives in India, Commander Phillip Hazard volunteers to accompany a special army force to rescue the besieged British garrison at Ghorabad. Hazard and the men of the Shannon's Naval Brigade are put under the command of Colonel Cockayne, a cavalry officer whose own wife and daughter are among those caught in the siege. In this final book of the Hazard series, Hazard finds himself in the thick of the battle, desperately trying to rescue survivors and facing the dangers and betrayals that come with command and war.