David C. Perry
Naval Academy-trained historian of the American Revolution at sea — and storyteller for the rest of the family besides.
Not Self But Country
“Non Sibi Sed Patriae” — the unofficial motto of the U.S. Navy, inscribed above the doors of the Naval Academy Chapel — embodies the honor, courage, and commitment at the heart of this six-book saga of the Continental Navy and Marine Corps.
First to Fight: The Marines Go to Sea
The Continental Marine Corps is born. Watch the Marines take to the water alongside the navy they were created to serve.
Not Self but Country: A New Nation Forges a New Navy
Sail with John Paul Jones and his fellow mariners from the strategy tables of Tun Tavern to the smoke and splinters of battle at sea.
The Crucible of Tradition: A Sea of Heroes and Traitors
John Paul Jones and Captain John Barry are tested by treason and treachery as a fledgling sea power is forged in fire.
Quaker Privateer: Christopher Raymond Perry Goes to War
A series-within-a-series begins. A young Quaker pacifist — father of two of America’s greatest naval heroes — is drawn into the fight, and into legend.
Kingstown Rebel
Capture and imprisonment abroad. Christopher Raymond Perry finds the love of his life in the unlikeliest of places.
American Patriot: Birth of a Dynasty
The Revolution ends, and a naval dynasty begins with the birth of Oliver Hazard Perry. Currently being written.
Coming soon — join the newsletter for release updates.
Short Stories of the Continental Navy
The brigantine Lexington series and its companion stories — perfect entry points for readers who want a taste of the era before committing to the full saga. Several of these scenes also appear as chapters within the Not Self But Country novels.
USS Lexington and HMS Edward
The brigantine Lexington’s first taste of action against the Royal Navy.
USS Lexington and the Battle of Turtle Gut Inlet
A historic skirmish off the New Jersey coast, told in vivid, ship’s-log detail.
USS Lexington and HMS Lady Susan: The Prodigal Son Returns
A tense pursuit on the open Atlantic, and a homecoming few expected.
Edward and the Canvas Python
The Turtle Gut Inlet story retold through the eyes of a fictional young midshipman — inspired by the author’s own nephew.
The Cousin Books
For nine years, these short illustrated books have been a Christmas tradition — each one casting the author’s own grandchildren and grand-niece as witnesses to a story from the Bible. Most are illustrated by children themselves.
The Cousins Ask What Is It
The Al-Unidos Liberation Chronicles
A near-future America fractures: California, Washington, and Oregon secede to form their own nation. What follows is a suspense-driven political thriller about loyalty, militia conflict, and the cost of a modern civil war.
No One Left Behind
The secession begins, and the first families are forced to choose a side.
Suffer the Little Children
The conflict deepens, and the cost falls hardest on those who never chose it.
Beyond the Stories
Biblical Employee Compensation Principles
Drawing on decades as a Certified Global Compensation Professional, David lays out how Scripture informs fair, principled pay practices.
A Nautical Glossary
The same back-of-the-book glossary found in every Not Self But Country novel — for readers curious about life under sail. Click any term to expand it.
Athwart
Across or crosswise; from side to side or transverse. To lay athwart means to be across something.
Back Water
To row a boat backwards, either to stop its forward motion or move it backwards.
Backed
Of wind: a counterclockwise shift in direction. Of sails: turned so wind blows on the forward-facing side. Of water: rowing a boat backwards.
Bells
Watches at sea are four hours long, struck every half hour in pairs — one o’clock sounds “ding-ding,” two-thirty sounds “ding-ding, pause, ding-ding, pause, ding.”
Bosun (Boatswain)
A warrant officer responsible for rigging, sails, anchor, and similar equipment, assisted by bosun’s mates.
Bowhook
A crewmember of a ship’s boat who handles lines forward when coming alongside a pier or ship, tends fenders, and serves as lookout.
Bow
The front, or pointy end, of the ship or boat.
Brace
A line used on a square-rigged ship to pull the yardarms forward or aft, trimming the sails to different angles to the wind.
Broadside
The guns on one side of a ship, fired simultaneously — or in a rolling broadside, in quick succession from bow to stern.
By (Sailing by the Wind)
Sailing with the wind forward of the beam — at an angle into the wind.
Cable (Length)
A unit of measure equal to 1/10th of a nautical mile, or 200 yards — based on the length of the hemp cable that ran to the anchor.
Clew
The lower corner of a square sail or aft corner of a triangular sail. “Clew up” means drawing the clews to the yardarm to get sails out of harm’s way.
Close
Sailing close to the wind means sailing into the wind at an angle — the more directly into the wind, the closer-hauled the ship.
Ensign
The national flag flown on a ship; also the lowest officer rank in the modern U.S. Navy.
Fake (or Flake)
Laying a line on deck in loose, organized figure-eights so it can run freely without fouling.
Fathom
A unit equal to six feet, traditionally used to measure water depth. Mark Twain took his pen name from “by the mark twain” — exactly two fathoms.
Flemish
A line laid down on deck in a tight, flat, decorative coil — not practical, since it won’t run freely or dry well.
Gammoning
The heavy lines wrapped around the bowsprit to secure it to the cutwater.
Glass
Context-dependent: the barometer, the hourglass, or a telescope.
Helm
The ship’s steering wheel, or the area and apparatus around it.
Hockle
A twist or kink in a line, formed when it’s twisted against the natural lay of its fibers.
Knot
A measure of speed: one nautical mile per hour, named for the knots tied in a line once used to measure a ship’s speed.
Larboard
The left side of the ship facing the bow — replaced by “port” in the 19th century to avoid confusion with “starboard.”
League
Originally the distance a person could walk in an hour, taken as three miles — at sea, three nautical miles.
Line
The naval term for what most people call a rope.
Mast
The vertical spar supporting booms and yards. From deck to sky: lower mast, top mast, topgallant mast, and main mast.
Mile (Nautical)
Exactly 2,000 yards — equal to one minute of latitude, making navigation by chart far simpler.
Port
The left side of the ship facing the bow — the modern term, replacing “larboard.”
Point
A compass direction. Historically the compass was divided into 32 points of 11.25 degrees each, rather than 360 degrees.
Poop Deck
A raised, partial weather deck, usually the farthest aft deck on larger sailing ships, typically over the captain’s cabins.
Quarter
The rear quarter-sections of the ship, divided into the starboard quarter and port (larboard) quarter.
Sally Port
A protected point of entry into a secure location.
Scuttlebutt
A water cask “scuttled” with a hole for drinking water — sailors gathered there, giving rise to the term’s second meaning: gossip.
Sheet
Not a sail, but the line controlling a sail’s angle to the wind.
Spar
A mast, or one of the vertical sections making up the full mast assembly.
Starboard
The right side of the ship, facing the bow.
Stern
The back, or rear, of the ship or boat.
Sternway
Moving the ship backwards — under sail, by turning into the wind; under oar, by backing water.
Tackle
Lines and blocks used to adjust the aim of a gun carriage or haul it tight to the bulwark.
Truck
A flat metal cap atop a mast or spar; also the wheel of a gun carriage.
Weather Deck
A deck exposed to the weather — not covered by an enclosed structure.
Yard
The spar hanging perpendicular to a mast, from which sails hang or are furled.
A Naval Officer’s Eye on History
David C. Perry served in the United States Navy and Naval Reserve from 1976 to 1999, an apprenticeship in seamanship, discipline, and the brotherhood of service that now informs every page he writes about the navy’s earliest days. From 1986 to 2025, his civilian career was in Human Resources — eighteen of those years spent in not-for-profit organizations, including a hospital and a Christian child relief agency — and he holds certification as a Global Compensation Professional.
That dual foundation — a naval heritage passed down from his father and uncles, and a lifelong love of the age-of-sail novels of C.S. Forester, Patrick O’Brian, Dudley Pope, and Alexander Kent — led to the Not Self But Country series: six novels tracing the founding of the Continental Navy and Marine Corps through the men who built them, grounded in painstaking research into ship’s logs, period correspondence, and family record.
David writes as a Christian, though his novels are not strictly Christian fiction — his characters simply live their faith as a normal part of life, free of profanity or graphic content. He and his wife, Bonnie, raised their son and daughter in Alaska for seventeen years before settling in Liberty Lake, Washington, in 2012, where he continues to write, research, and tend a garden he takes just as seriously as his sources.