Halfhyde Adventure Series by Philip McCutchan (1-8)
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Overview: aka Robert Conington Galway, Duncan MacNeil
Philip McCutchan (1920-1996) grew up in the naval atmosphere of Portsmouth Dockyard and developed a lifetime’s interest in the sea. Military history was an early interest resulting in several fiction books, from amongst his large output, about the British Army and its campaigns, especially in the last 150 years.
Genre: General Fiction/Classics
1. Halfhyde at the Bight of Benin
It’s the 1890s and Royal Navy Lieutenant St Vincent Halfhyde finds himself out of favor with the Navy and on half-pay ashore when he is summoned to the Admiralty. His mission: to sail to the Bight of Benin in West Africa and spy on the not-so-secret Russian presence there. As a Russian speaker who is familiar with Benin, Halfhyde is confident he’s the man for the job–until he runs into Admiral Prince Gorsinski, cousin of the Czar and Halfhyde’s former jailer.
2. Halfhyde’s Island
Royal Navy Lieutenant St Vincent Halfhyde is assigned a second in command of the heavy cruiser Viceroy and ordered to a volcanic island that has recently surfaced in the north Pacific. The Admiralty hopes to claim the island for the Crown and establish an outpost there, but the hostile Russians have other ideas and the wily Japanese are prepared to carry out their own agenda.
3. Halfhyde and the Guns of Arrest
Royal Navy Lieutenant St Vincent Halfhyde is once again despatched to Africa. This time his mission is to help capture a British traitor who carries secret blueprints of British warships. Assisted by a Scotland Yard detective and a handful of sailors, Halfhyde must outwit the clever Germans, who are determined to take the traitor and his secrets back to the Fatherland.
4. Halfhyde to the Narrows
With a ship to call his own at last, Royal Navy Lieutenant St Vincent Halfhyde sails for the Dardanelles in command of the little torpedo-boat Vendetta, part of a flotilla sent to rescue a Britsih sailing-ship unlawfully detained by the Russians. Unfortunately, Halfhyde’s first command comes complete with a pompous flotilla captain in love with his own voice, and the looming threat of the irascible Admiral Prince Gorsinski. Cutting out the sailing-ship from amidst the Russian fleet and sneaking her back through the Narrows under the deadly batteries of the Turks and the Russians is the easy part. Facing Gorsinski’s vengeance and the legendary wrath of the Romanovs is another matter!
5. Halfhyde for the Queen
In Andalusia, Lieutenant St Vincent Halfhyde is sent by the unpredictable Captain Watkiss on a secret mission ashore: to aid the Queen’s Messenger who is being pursued by nefarious Spanish agents. But when Halfhyde discovers a plot to kill Queen Victoria herself, the stakes are raised. Now he and the rest of his flotilla must face down the Spanish Navy and get the Messenger back to Britain with vital information.
6. Halfhyde Ordered South
The old iron-clad Meridian steams south on her last journey under the British flag, on route to her new home in the Chilean Navy. Using the transfer of the ship as cover, Halfhyde and Watkiss are on a covert operation to protect British interests in South America from the encroaching Germans. Soon Halfhyde has an added mission: he must help a detective from the Metropolitan Police track down and intercept a traitorous civil servant who has escaped from prison and is on the run for South America.
7. Halfhyde and the Flag Captain
Lieutenant Halfhyde, Captain Watkiss, and Admiral Daintree are under orders to round Cape Horn on a voyage from Chile to Britain to deliver traitor Sir Russell Savory to his fate. With them and the crew, on the flagship "Halcyon," are a motley group of passengers. Their old enemy, Vice-Admiral von Merkatz is on their trail in hopes of freeing Savory.Watkiss constantly countermands the aged Admiral’s orders and, despite the efforts of Halfhyde to thwart Watkiss’s reckless behavior, pursues his dangerous policy of confrontation with the Kaiser’s navy.Watkiss’s overt aggression is deflected by orders to return to South America. A revolutionary coup jeopardizes the safety of the British Ambassador to Uruguay. Rightly supposing that the British attention will be focussed on the ambassador rather than their captive traitor, von Merkatz steams confidently up the River Plate and, with extravagant promises, quickly makes allies of the new Uruguayan regime. Watkiss’s interference on the "Halcyon’s" bridge has caused three of the five ships in Admiral Daintree’s squadron to collide while anchoring. Thus the British are ill-prepared to contest a challenge from von Merkatz.Like all the Halfhyde Adventures, this volume is leavened with humor.
8. Halfhyde On The Yangtze
Far up the Yangtze River, the European presence in Chungking is threatened with rebellion and massacre by the Chinese. With the Russians and Germans poised to take advantage of lapsing British treaties, tactful intervention in rescuing the terrified civilians while keeping trade with the mandarins is essential.This is hardly a suitable task for the bombastic Captain Watkiss, whose wildly aggressive tactics require skillful subversion by his long-suffering Lieutenant Halfhyde.No sooner has the naval party landed at Chungking than the unfortunate Watkiss is captured. Halfhyde is faced with a dilemma. Should he continue the task of removing the stranded Europeans to safety or should he pursue Watkiss’s captors and leave the Europeans to their fate?Like all the Halfhyde Adventures, this volume is leavened with humor. But it also includes exciting exploits such and skirmishes with ferocious Chinese mercenaries, a daring assault on the rebel-surrounded British Consulate, and a headlong race through the breath-taking Yangtze gorges.
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