Slavers and Cruisers — Brian Smith

Claude Sefton is delighted when he is notified by the admiralty that he has been accepted as a volunteer on HMS Wasp. At last he can add those magical letters after his name: R.N.Then the Wasp heads out to sea. Her mission: to sail into West African waters to suppress the slave trade. Vessels from Spain, Brazil and the USA are carrying hapless Africans off to the new world, where - if they survive the voyage - they are to toil away for their masters. When the Wasp arrives off the African coast the first sail is spotted. Sefton and his shipmates prepare for what they see as their first adventure. But slave dealers are not the only peril awaiting them. At sea and on land they must soon go to the limits of their endurance and beyond.