Jack Hoyton is only twelve years old in 1805 when he enlists in the Royal Navy and is assigned to the HMS Defender. He learns about discipline and danger, and when the ship is betrayed by a spy, it is up to Jack to let the crew know that the Defender is headed into a trap! This graphic novel has sidebars on most pages, explaining historical aspects of the story.

Diagrams of the ship HMS Defender on end papers. "The art was created by scanning ink drawings done on bristol board into Adobe Photoshop and coloring them using a Wacom tablet"--P. [48].