The dunes above, near Cape May, are very similar to what Turtle Gut Inlet looked like two hundred and fifty years ago.

Lexington, accompanied by Wasp, set out to aid the Nancy. They anchored close to Cape May to wait out the night. In the early light of dawn, realizing the necessity for quick action, Captain Barry ordered the boats from the Lexington and Wasp, taking personal command of the rescue. The Nancy was hard aground in Turtle Gut Inlet and under heavy fire from the British warships. Barry and his men boarded the Nancy. They manned Nancy’s guns to ward off the attack of the warships. At the same time unloading the valuable cargo of munitions and storing it safely ashore.
Nancy was taking a terrific bombardment from British cannons. Somehow she returned enough fire to discourage a boarding party of enemy sailors from the large frigate, Kingfisher. After only about two-thirds of the gunpowder had been unloaded, Captain Barry ordered the men to abandon the ship. He also planned other surprises you can read about in USS Lexington and the Battle of Turtle Gut Inlet.
The last man to leave the ship was reportedly a seaman who stayed behind to retrieve the ship’s flag. The boats made the few hundred yards to shore safely, stopping only to pull the seaman and his precious flag into the boat. This same story is also told from the viewpoint of a young teenage boy in Edward and the Canvas Python.

Check out all of my novels and short stories on my Author Page at Amazon.

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Most of the novels I have written are set in the days of the American Revolution and tell true stories about the naval heroes of the period. To help my readers understand, I always include a dictionary of nautical terms in the book. It is called Salty Talk.

Here is the dictionary section containing “C” words (get it “sea” words = “C” words? Never mind).

I bet you thought you knew what a “Cable” was. Not so fast. Sailors can convolute the meaning of any word. Just watch. . .

CABLE is a unit of measure, but it is based on the actual length of a cable, which was the very thick hemp line (the landlubber word for “line” is rope) that ran between the sailing ship and the anchor. This line was 1/10th of a nautical mile long. Hence the unit of length termed “cable” is 1/10th of a nautical mile, or 200 yards

Let me give you a “Clew” about what the next word is. You guessed it!

As a noun, CLEWS are the lower corners of a square sail or the aft corner of a triangular sail. As a verb, such as ‘CLEW UP’, it means to draw the clews up to the yard arm. This makes the sails ineffective for sailing but gets them out of the way quickly if the ship is going into battle. That is very important with all the burning powder and flying, flaming, felt wads in the air.

Lets see how “Close” you can come to defining the last word.

Sailing CLOSE to the wind means to sail into the wind. The more directly a ship sails into the wind, the closer it is to the wind.

Those are the “C” words in my nautical dictionary. Drop me a line if you have a question about a particular sailor word (keep it clean.).

The post Salty Talk – By the letter “C” appeared first on David Perry's Books.

The text in this post is from the beginning sections of my new book, No One Left Behind. If you look carefully at the vignettes, some of my readers might recognize these familiar characters. The story is centered around the Carson family. Chuck Carson, universally called “The Chief,” is the patriarch of the family.

From the book

One thing I especially enjoyed about writing this story is selecting the names of characters. While stressing this is a fictional work about fictional people, I often borrowed the names and perhaps one or two character traits from friends and relations. Perhaps if any of them ever pick up the book and read it, they will recognize a small chunk of themselves. They may have to peel back the camouflage just a little because the name might be a sound-alike or an opposite. For instance, Don might be Dan, or Joe White might be Jack Black. It was fun for me. I hope it will be fun for them.

Here they are

Peter Anchor

Often referred to as “Old Peter” by the group, to distinguish him from Peter Schwitzer, Peter Anchor is an insurance broker and shooting instructor in Boise, Idaho. He is also an outdoors enthusiast and good friend of Chuck Carson and several other characters.

Chuck Carson

Chuck joined the Navy right out of school and trained as a SEAL. He disappointingly failed in last week due to a sadistic trainer who washed him out of the program over a personal disagreement. Philosophical about the event, Chuck went into Seabees, excelling because of skills his father instilled. He has a wife, daughter, and two sons. Retired from Seabees ten years ago as a Chief Warrant officer, his friends call him The Chief, and he still had close ties with the reserve Seabees in Boise, Idaho.

Jonas Patrick Carson

Jonas Patrick, Chuck Carson’s youngest child, goes by JP. He has fulfilled his adolescent aspiration of working in law enforcement by becoming a rookie Sacramento County deputy sheriff. It took him a while to land a job after college, but he loves the work. His best friend is his boxer, Prince Champion, who he calls Champ.

Katherine Danielle Carson

KD, as everyone calls her, Is Chuck Carson’s daughter. Although she is married to Magnus Sigurd, she chose to keep her maiden name. She is a second class construction electrician in the Seabee reserves. She has children who stay with Chuck and his wife, whom they call Grandmom when she and husband deploy at the same time.

Rita Jean Carson

Chuck’s wife, she generally goes by Jean or Rita Jean. She and Chuck have been married over forty years. She loves being Grandmom to all the Carson grandkids, and she thinks it is about time for JP to settle down and start bringing her some more.

Stan Carson

Stan went by Stanley until he started his own company. It is hard to explain exactly what he does. It has to do with financial technology and business management. He usually just tells people he is a consultant. He, his wife Tamara, and their daughters live in La Jolla, California. Stan is Chuck and Rita Jean’s eldest child.

Tamara Carson

Stan’s wife of fifteen years, Tamara has a Doctorate in Psychology and loves more than anything to help people. She lives with Stan in La Jolla, California, overlooking the ocean. She teaches one class a week at Scripps maintains about half a dozen counseling clients. Mostly she rears her daughters.

Prince Champion

Champ is a boxer that JP nominally owns, who often goes with him to work because JP has trained him for police work.

Salvador Chavez

Salvador, who grew up in Imperial Beach, California, was named for his parents’ hero, Cesar Chavez. Since he was a young teen, his dream has been to reunite the southwestern U.S. with Mexico. Most of his early life involved petty crime and political activism. As he matured, so did his movement. His following grew, and in his middle twenties, he formed what he called Viva Hispanico, and even had it approved as a legal tax-exempt educational organization.

Ted Cloaker

Ted was Dean Steady’s roommate at Navy. He went Marines and never looked back. Retiring after twenty years in the Corps, he decided he needed some excitement in his life and spent a couple years doing undercover DEA work in San Diego and Los Angeles. Eventually, his wife convinced him it was time to settle down and he became the Chief of Police in Fallbrook, California.

Cal Durham

Cal is a combat veteran of the Viet Nam war. He is one of the oldest characters in the story but stays in good shape. He and Chuck Carson spend a lot of time pursuing recreation in the wild areas of the northwestern U.S.

Next time

I will finish the list next time. Or you can read all about them in your own copy of No One Left Behind.

The post Recognize these familiar characters appeared first on David Perry's Books.

Before going to Amazon,

. . . take a minute to read this book excerpt form No One Left Behind. I have taken it straight from the first few pages of the story.

“You are in my zone, Amigo. And I think you have not paid the toll, no?”

Fear forced bile up from his churning stomach, and it burned Luis’s throat. Still, he could form no reply. He started to back away but felt hands on his shoulders. It surprised him that they were gentle, not rough. He could not find the courage to resist as one of the shadows gripped his left wrist and twisted his arm up behind his back. He barely felt the movement as his wallet was slipped from his pocket. The man facing him took the wallet from his compatriot and opened it. Thumbing through it, he pulled out his driver’s license and state ID—then some cash.

“Thirty-seven dollars, Amigo?” the gang leader sounded incredulous. “All you have in here is thirty-seven dollars? Hermano, I think you need this more than we do.” The two shadows behind Luis snickered. The gang leader handed the wallet back to Luis but kept the two plastic cards. Luis accepted it with his free hand, still too dazed to return it to his pocket.

“Tal vez . . . Tal vez . . . . Maybe I have another idea. You work for the government,” the gang leader said to Luis while he shuffled the two plastic cards over and over. “You may be more valuable than your present treasure would suggest.” Luis was still silent. His composure was returning, but he didn’t answer because he was not sure this was a question.

“Perhaps we could do business,” the gang leader smiled. “You can get into the Capitol at any time you want, Amigo. No?”

Luis still could not form an answer. He shook his head slightly.

“But I see you might need some convincing. Si?” The leader pocketed the two ID cards and slipped a knife from his belt. Luis winced when he felt his arm pushed up toward the bottom of his neck.

The knifepoint extended toward Luis’s nostril. “Maybe just a small nick to emphasize the partnership we are about to enter, Hermano. Blood brothers, so to say.”

A flash! A low growl. Fur and fangs exploded from the darkness.

Do you want to keep reading?

See full description and more preview reading by clicking HERE.

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Local Liberty Lake author David Perry has just released his fourth novel, No One Left Behind. This is David’s first book in the Post Apocalypse genre. His first three books, Not Self but Country, Crucible of Tradition, and First to Fight, are Historical Fiction novels set in the Continental Navy during the American Revolution. All of Perry’s books are painstakingly researched, even the newest which is futuristic.

No One Left Behind is set in the near future and most of the action takes place in Washington and California. As the story opens, the three West Coast states are not happy with the new conservative federal government and presidential administration. The citizens of those states have voted to give their governors authority to secede from the union at their discretion. The story follows the main character from Boise who must lead a group of untrained followers on a critical rescue mission in unfriendly territory.

David and his wife, Bonnie, have lived in Liberty Lake since 2012, when they returned to the Lower 48 after living in Anchorage, Alaska for seventeen years. While in Alaska they raised a son and daughter. They are now proud to have three grandchildren and five step grandchildren. David and Bonnie are active at Valley Real Life Church on Barker Road in Greenacres.

David grew up only three hours to the east of Liberty Lake in Libby, Montana. After graduating from Libby Senior High School, Perry attended the U.S. Naval Academy. Commissioned an Ensign in the Navy, he served five years of sea duty in the Pacific and several years later retired from the Naval Reserve in 1999. He has been writing for just over four years.

All of David Perry’s books are available on Amazon. You can find all four novels and five short stories at www.amazon.com/David-Perry/e/B00G04V4T6. His website, which contains interesting historical vignettes, is www.daveperrybooks.com.

The post No One Left Behind Is Here appeared first on David Perry's Books.

Continental Navy’s First Battle

April 5, 1776 – The Delaware Capes

There was no moon, but the stars were twinkling brightly over the brigantine Lexington as she slipped along through the warm summer water of the Delaware Bay. Soot from the galley funnel had been rubbed onto the double-reefed main and fore topsails. One of the warships recently commissioned by the fledgling continental congress, she had to first slip past the British blockade of the coastline before she could strike any blow for American freedom. The master’s mate standing by the binnacle was born and raised a fisherman on Cape May and knew these waters blindfolded. This was good because he was essentially conning her through the capes blind. Staying as close to Cape May as possible, with only half of the sails showing, and covered with soot, Captain John Barry prayed that she would be invisible to the two British frigates known to be blockading the mouth of the bay.

“Captain,” the starboard lookout was posted on deck at night, just forward of the shrouds that supported the tall main mast. “I can hear somethin’ t’ starboard. Don’t sound like open ocean . . . more like wind blowin’ through the riggin’ . . . . ‘pears to be comin’ from well forward of the beam,” he spoke in what he believed passed for a loud whisper. Everyone on the quarterdeck strained their eyes and ears, in fact, all the senses they believed one could strain.

The guns were loaded but not run out through the gun ports . . .

Who Won the Battle?

You can find out here (for ninety-nine cents).

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Have you ever asked yourself who was the American Revolutionary hero Matthew Parke? Okay, probably not unless you are a student of eighteenth century American history. The answer to this question is answered in Marines in the Revolution, a book that was written by Charles R. Smith in 1975 for the History and Museums Division of the United States Marine Corps. The book aided greatly in my research for First to Fight.

Matthew Parke was born in 1746 near Ipswich. England. It is recorded in First to Fight that his grandfather served as aide to the Duke of Marlborough while a British Army colonel. Later he held the post of Governor of the Windward Islands. During or after that posting, he went to Virginia and took Matthew with him. That is where the reader meets Matthew in my book.

There is a gap in the historical record, but probably moved to Philadelphia. He popped up there on November 28, 1775, when he was commissioned a first lieutenant of Marines. He was ordered to the Continental Frigate Alfred where he served in Captain Samuel Nicholas‘ company. The famous naval officer, John Paul Jones, was Navy first lieutenant on Alfred.

Parke Becomes Revolutionary Hero Matthew Parke

His first cruise was under command of Commodore Esek Hopkins, whose squadron captured New Providence, on Nassau in the Bahamas. On 6 April 1776, Alfred, the Brig Cabot, and others ships in the squadron engaged the British Frigate Glasgow in Block Island Sound. Parke was uninjured, but a Marine lieutenant was killed in the sea battle.

Captain Parke’s career in the Continental Marines and then the United States Marines saw many commands. After Alfred, he served on:

• Columbus
• Ranger
• Deane
• Alliance (under the notorious Captain Landais, who Parke later arrested)

On August 15, 1781, Captain Parke wed Judith Cooper. By this time he was still serving Alliance, but under Navy Captain John Barry.

In September 1782, Parke and some other officers left the frigate over a dispute about prize money (pay for ship’s captured). Captain Barry claimed he did not have the funds to cover the debt and left the officers in L’Orient, France when he sailed for America. Parke was found guilty of disobeying orders at his court martial in Philadelphia in 1783. But the court also praised his long, illustrious career to Congress.

Seventeen years after he married his second wife, Jane English, Captain Matthew Parke died in Boston in 1813.

Read much more about his life and exploits in First to Fight.

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We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

The above paragraph is the Preamble to the U.S. Constitution. It was signed by 38 of 41 delegates at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia on September 17, 1787. Earlier that summer, on May 25, 1787, delegates from every state except Rhode Island convened at the building now known as Independence Hall. It had earlier seen the drafting of the Declaration of Independence and the signing of the Articles of Confederation. Revolutionary War hero and first president, George Washington, who was a delegate from Virginia, was the convention president.

Signing the Constitution

Article VII required that the Constitution would not be binding until it was ratified by nine of the 13 states. It was ratified by five states–Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Georgia, and Connecticut very quickly at the end of the year. Many other states opposed the document because it did not reserve undelegated powers to the states and lacked basic political rights, such as freedom of speech, religion, and the press. A compromise was reached in February 1788, under which holdout states would agree to ratify the document with the assurance that amendments would be immediately proposed.

It was narrowly ratified in Massachusetts, then Maryland and South Carolina. On June 21, 1788, the ninth state, New Hampshire, ratified the document. It was agreed that government, under the new Constitution, would begin on March 4, 1789. Virginia and New York ratified the Constitution that summer.

Happy 230^th birthday to the most enduring guarantor to “Insure Domestic Tranquility” every conceived in the minds of men.

See all of my books!

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It could be said that he was the first officer in the American Navy. Read on. Who was Samuel Nicholas? No U.S. Marine would ask that question. Charles R. Smith wrote the book Marines in the Revolution in 1975 for the United States Marine Corps History and Museums Division. This history book aided greatly in my research when writing my novel, First to Fight.

Samuel Nicholas is credited as the first Commandant of the Marine Corps. He was born to a blacksmith in Philadelphia in 1744. His father died when he was only seven years old. During the 1760s, when he was teen and in his early 20s, he was admitted to two local gentlemen’s clubs, the Schuylkill and the Gloucester Fox Hunting Club. He may also have sailed on merchant ships of Robert Morris, who was one of the wealthiest men in America and a member of both clubs.

The First Marine

On November 28, 1775 Samuel was commissioned as the first officer in the Continental Marines. As he was the first officer commissioned, and Marines were part of the naval service, he could also be said to have been the first officer in the Navy. At the war’s outbreak, he was tavern keeper at the Sign of the Conestogoe Waggon, his mother-in-law’s establishment in Philadelphia. This became a major recruiting depot for the Marines.

Captain Nicholas made his first cruise under the command of Commodore Esek Hopkins, whose squadron captured New Providence, on Nassau in the Bahamas. Nicholas commanded the Marine expedition that captured the city. He was also in charge of the Marines on the flagship when on 6 April 1776, Alfred, the Brig Cabot, and others ships in the squadron engaged the British Frigate Glasgow in Block Island Sound. Marine Lieutenant Fitzpatrick received high praise from Nicholas when was killed in the sea battle.

The Dark Side of Promotion

Congress promoted Captain Nicholas to Major of Marines on June 6, 1776. Service on Alfred was his only sea duty in the Marines. He did lead several companies of Marines attached to the Army under General Washington in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. This was ground he knew well having grown up and hunted fox extensively here. This service ended in February 1777.

The promotion to major turned out not to be a blessing. Marine service with the Army came to an end as many troops were merged into Army ranks. The highest-ranking Marine officers on American Navy ships were Captains. So it turned out that the blessing of promotion ended Major Nicholas’s career. After the war he returned to tavern keeping. Samuel Nicholas died on August 27, 1790 in Philadelphia. He is buried in the Society of Friends Cemetery.

Read On!

Now there is no reason for you to ask, “Who was Samuel Nicholas?” Read more about the major in First to Fight, as he leads his mounted troop across the frozen ground in wintertime New Jersey.

The post Who was Samuel Nicholas? appeared first on David Perry's Books.

Real characters real stories – this make good fiction. All of my historical novels use the pattern of bringing real characters back to life. Look at this from my third novel, First to Fight.

This novel contains 144 characters, three of which are fictional and were created from the mind of the author. These purely fictional characters include Lawson Bellows of the Virginia Loyalist Navy, Finnestere, who is portrayed as Lord Dunmore’s butler, and Betty Hugg who is the fictional daughter of the real historical figure, William Hugg.

Babcock, Henry

Colonel Henry Babcock of the Rhode Island Militia served in both the French and Indian War and the American Revolution. He was an eyewitness of the battle for Ticonderoga in the latter war. A lawyer from Yale, he was born in 1736. In April 1776, the Rhode Island legislature removed him from command of his troops because it determined he was mentally unstable. He died in October 1800 in New London, Connecticut.

Bulloch, Archibald

The great-great-grandfather of President Theodore Roosevelt, Archibald Bulloch was born January 1, 1730, and died on February 22, 1777. He served as a delegate from Georgia to the second Continental Congress. He died in Savannah while preparing the defenses against British invasion.

Coggins, John

A warrant officer in the Royal Navy, Coggins was Bosun on HMS Bolton. After the brig-sloop was captured, he was sent with his captain and two other shipmates to jail in Windham, Connecticut. They all escaped in a boat, but the other three drowned. Bosun Coggins was recaptured.

Craig, Isaac

Isaac Craig was born about August 1741 in Hillsborough or County Down, Ireland. After moving to Philadelphia, he became a master carpenter and cabinetmaker. One of the original Marine Corps first lieutenants, he was assigned to the brig Andrew Doria in November 1775. He was promoted to captain in October 1776 and became a captain in the Army in March 1777, even serving in the War of 1812. He died in Ohio at age 85 May 14, 1826.

Cummings, Robert

Robert Cummings, or Cumming, was a Marine Lieutenant on the Continental frigate Columbus. He was one of the three Marine officers who had some sort of falling out with Captain Whipple and were listed as deserters. However, all three were officially transferred or reassigned from Columbus.

American history is full of heroes and scoundrels. Discover scores more!

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