Deep Water Rising — Tony Masero

Cob Trask started life as harpooner on a whaler out of Nantucket but when his sweetheart is torn from him, a broken hearted Cob enlists in the army as volunteers are called to the flag on the eve of the Civil War. Embroiled in the war at sea he must first do battle aboard the Yankee ironclad Monitor before finding himself incarcerated in a festering Confederate prison camp. Desperate to escape he risks his life in a bloody prison uprising and struggles to reach safety overland by riding swing on a cattle drive to Abilene. Cob falls foul of a murder charge and is soon on the run again hiding out on a great Mississippi riverboat.
It is on the docks of New Orleans that Cob discovers more problems await him in the shape of Malachi Harp, one of a pair of homicidal river pirates who dares to take hold of the thing that Cob holds most dear. Armed with his harpoon and a small band of followers, Cob begins a rescue mission that will lead him deep into the Savannah swamps to confront the murderous gang of cutthroats.

Previously entitled: HARPOON