In the summer of 1814 a squadron of Royal Navy ships attacked the tiny Connecticut seaport of Stonington, and declared its intention of destroying the town. Over the next four days the British barraged the nearly defenseless civilian population with some fifty tons of explosives, before mysteriously upping anchor and sailing away, leaving Stonington largely intact. Though a mere footnote in America's early naval history, the Battle of Stonington has remained a source of curiosity for two hundred years. Why did the British single out Stonington and then fail so miserably at their goal? To solve the mystery of this curious battle, and explain Britain's failure to level the town, the author takes the reader back some forty years to the Revolution to unfold a surprisingly complex set of circumstances involving people on both sides of the Atlantic and across America. Drawing on contemporary news accounts, secret Royal Navy correspondence, and other primary sources, he investigates events leading up to the puzzling attack and then recounts the exciting details of the battle itself. It is a memorable, masterly told story of brave and honorable people, divided loyalties, and new ideas fighting traditional, old-world values. As the book develops, James Tertius de Kay introduces a fascinating cast of characters that ranks with the best of fiction: Thomas Hardy, the hero of Trafalgar who led the British attack; Jeremiah Holmes, an American merchant captain who led the defense of Stonington; Stephen Decatur and Robert Fulton, two well-known American patriots; and a number of enterprising smugglers and spies. At the same time de Kay pays tribute to the significant roles played by new naval weapons--American submarine vessels and torpedoes, British rockets and bombs--that revolutionized the art of war. The Battle of Stonington brings all these elements into brilliant focus to provide a lively narrative history not just of the events at Stonington but of the entire period. It is a compelling, often humorous story.

One person in ten is a left-hander. And every last one of them thinks he's sort of special. Which is probably true.

Cartoonist James T. de Kay takes a hilarious look at the inside-out world of left-handedness, and in the process proves what left-handers have always secretly suspected... they are not only different from everybody else, they are better.

Drawing on everything from NASA statistics to the latest neurological surgical research, this book makes its points with sly good humour and what can only be described as left-handed wit.

Stephen Decatur was one of the most awe-inspiring officers of the entire Age of Fighting Sail. A real-life American naval hero in the early nineteenth century, he led an astonishing life, and his remarkable acts of courage in combat made him one of the most celebrated figures of his era.

Decatur's dazzling exploits in the Barbary Wars propelled him to national prominence at the age of twenty-five. His dramatic capture of HMS "Macedonian" in the War of 1812, and his subsequent naval and diplomatic triumphs in the Mediterranean, secured his permanent place in the hearts of his countrymen. Handsome, dashing, and fearless, his crews worshipped him, presidents lionized him, and an adoring public heaped fresh honors on him with each new achievement.

James Tertius de Kay is one of our foremost naval historians. In "A Rage for Glory, " the first new biography of Decatur in almost seventy years, he recounts Decatur's life in vivid colors. Drawing on material unavailable to previous biographers, he traces the origins of Decatur's fierce patriotism ("My country...right or wrong!"), chronicles Decatur's passionate love affair with Susan Wheeler, and provides new details of Decatur's tragic death in a senseless duel of honor, secretly instigated by the backroom machinations of jealous fellow officers determined to ruin him. His death left official Washington in such shock that his funeral became a state occasion, attended by friends who included former President James Madison, current President James Monroe, Chief Justice John Marshall, and ten thousand more.

Decatur's short but crowded life was an astonishing epic of hubris, romance, and high achievement. Only a handful of Americans since his time have ever come close to matching his extraordinary glamour and brilliance.

His Majesty's Frigate Macedonian was launched at Woolwich in 1810, at the height of the wars against Napoleon; its remains, refashioned as a seaside hotel, burned in the Bronx in 1922. It is barely remembered now, but in its time the Macedonian was recognized as the most important prize ever taken by the American navy--a distinction it holds to this day. The history of this one ship, recommissioned USS Macedonian after its capture from the British in the War of 1812, is an engrossing tale filled with battles, chases, near mutiny, and an engaging cast of commanders. The Macedonian played a prominent role in such major events as the liberation of Latin America, the war against the slave trade, the great Irish famine, and the American Civil War. Not just an entertaining narrative, however, the biography of this extraordinary ship is also a detailed portrait of gunboat diplomacy in the nineteenth century.