The proportion of my time now devoted to research must come close to fifty per cent. But I have to say, it’s an aspect of being a writer that I particularly enjoy.

Research for the Kydd series has provided an opportunity to go down many fascinating paths in search of some arcane fact or other – and this book has proved no exception. I found myself corresponding with Dr David Green at the USDA Forest Service about the specific gravity of swamp oaks; this enabled me to send Kydd on his night-time sabotage mission against the French frigate. A chance discovery of an old pilot book of Kydd’s time in a Falmouth museum had me enquiring of the august Royal Institute of Navigation. One of their members, Dr Mark Breach, confirmed the antique rule-of-thumb about the moon’s meridian that saved Kydd and his boat crew in the fog.

And while on the subject of chance, what were the odds of my coming across a signal book actually belonging to a lieutenant on the North American station at exactly the time when Kydd learns his craft as a signal lieutenant? Retired Paymaster Commander William Evershed generously extended a loan of the precious family relic for me to study.

Research has enriched my life in another way, too. It has made me many new friends who also are irresistibly drawn to the sea. Two, in particular, have a special connection with Quarterdeck. I first met ship modeller Robert Squarebriggs when I visited Canada’s Maritime Provinces in 2002. He shared his love of the boreal wilderness, and I hope in this book that I have done justice to his infectious enthusiasm for his native land. Tyrone Martin is an erudite scholar of the dawn of US Navy history and a former captain of Old Ironsides. His many insights into this fascinating period will again be invaluable when Kydd returns to North America, which he assuredly will.

I feel some degree of guilt in not being able to acknowledge everyone I consulted in the process of writing this book, but they all have my deep thanks. However I could not omit mentioning the four wonderfully professional women in my life – my wife (and creative partner) Kathy, my literary agent Carole Blake, my editor Carolyn Mays, and my publicist Kerry Hood. Between them, they contrive to keep the hassles of the modern world at bay allowing me to give full rein to my creative juices, ready for the next adventure . . .