Cutler Family Chronicles

Latest release: January 2, 2023
Series
7
Books
A Matter of Honor
Book 1·Sep 2021
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$5.99
The first volume in a series of maritime novels set in the early years of the United States, A Matter of Honor is a dramatic account of a young man's coming of age during the American Revolution. Introducing Richard Cutler, a Massachusetts teenager with strong family ties to England, the novel tells his story as he ships out with John Paul Jones to avenge the death of his beloved brother Will, impressed by the Royal Navy and flogged to death for striking an officer. On the high seas, in England and in France, on the sugar islands of the Caribbean, and on the battlefield of Yorktown, Cutler proves his mettle and wins the love⁠—and allegiance to the infant republic⁠—of a beautiful English aristocrat from the arms of Horatio Nelson himself.
For Love of Country
Book 2·Aug 2022
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$5.99
Credited with vividly recreating an early chapter in American history with his first novel, A Matter of Honor, William C. Hammond continues the seafaring adventures of the prominent Cutler family of Massachusetts. Set in the years following the American Revolution, this second novel offers an exciting look at the young republic at a time when America remained a weak nation with no navy to protect its prosperous merchant fleet from Barbary pirates or nations intent on crippling its shipping.

The novel opens with the capture of the Cutler merchant brig Eagle by Barbary pirates. Young Caleb Cutler and his shipmates are taken as prisoners to Algiers, and his brother Richard, the novel's main protagonist, is sent to North Africa to pay ransoms demanded by the Dey of Algiers. But Richard learns of the Dey's intent to reject the ransom, as well as threats from the British and French, and fights a fierce battle in the Mediterranean with two Arab xebecs. Victorious at sea, Richard travels to Paris to report to John Paul Jones, his former naval commander who now serves as American emissary to the Barbary States, and finds himself involved in a desperate race to save the beautiful Anne-Marie Helvétian and her two daughters from the guillotine.

The author's careful historical research and thorough knowledge of sailing and the ways of the sea bring an authenticity to the novel without detracting from the entertaining storyline. Hammond's focus on the American perspective of the Age of Fighting Sail in the years following the American Revolution adds a fresh dimension to historical novels of the period.

The Power and the Glory
Book 3·Sep 2021
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$5.99
The Power and the Glory is the third novel in the historical, nautical fiction series from William C. Hammond. It follows in the wake of A Matter of Honor and For Love of Country, and features the adventures of the seafaring Cutler family of Hingham, Massachusetts, and an ever expanding cast of characters. Set during the Quasi-War against the French Republic during the late 1790s, The Power and the Glory offers the reader a stirring and authentic look at the birth of the modern United States Navy during the Age of Fighting Sail. Whether confronting French pirates off the coast of Nantucket or heavily armed French frigates in the Caribbean, Capt. Thomas Truxtun, Capt. Silas Talbot, Lt. Richard Cutler, and other early naval heroes—most real, some fictional—personify the best of American honor and courage. Beyond electrifying sea battles and the challenge to French colonial rule in Haiti and in the French West Indies, The Power and the Glory provides intriguing glimpses into everyday life of the era, be they in the bedroom of the Cutler clapboard home in Hingham, on the island of Barbados where the Cutlers own a sugar cane plantation and run a far-reaching commercial enterprise, or aboard Adm. Sir Hyde Parker's flagship in Port Royal, Jamaica. And at the center of all the excitement, passion, and intrigue are two of the finest "super frigates" ever constructed: USS Constellation and her sister ship, USS Constitution. As with all books in the series, the author's careful research and attention to detail, coupled with his thorough knowledge of sailing and the ways of the sea, bring history alive in a refreshing and entertaining fashion.
A Call to Arms
Book 4·May 2022
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$5.99
A Call To Arms, the fourth novel in the award-winning Cutler Family Chronicles by William C. Hammond, features the epic saga of the seafaring Cutler family of Hingham, Massachusetts, and an ever expanding cast of characters, including real historical figures Captain Edward Preble, Lieutenant Stephen Decatur, Lieutenant Richard Somers, Samuel Coleridge, Bashaw Yusuf Qaramanli, and Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson. Interwoven with these historical characters is a fast-paced and gripping plot that takes the reader from Java in the Dutch East Indies to New England at the start of the nineteenth century, and on to Gibraltar, Tripoli, Malta, Sicily, Alexandria, and Cairo. Set primarily in the Mediterranean Sea during the First Barbary War (1801–1805), A Call To Arms offers the reader intriguing and often startling insights into a young republic's struggle to promote its principles of liberty, equality, and free trade in a world ravaged by the Napoleonic Wars in Europe and ruthless piracy in both the Mediterranean and Far Eastern waters. The US Navy answers the call of an aroused nation, and the fate of the young republic turns on the actions of a few heroic officers, sailors, and Marines.
How Dark the Night
Book 5·Aug 2022
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$5.99
How Dark the Night continues the seafaring adventures of the Cutler family by picking up the action where the fourth volume, A Call to Arms, ends in 1805. The years leading up to the War of 1812 were devastating ones for the young republic. The life-and-death struggle between Great Britain and France caught the United States in a web of financial and political chaos as President Jefferson and Secretary of State Madison labored to keep the unprepared United States out of the conflict without compromising the nation's honor. On the home front, Jefferson's embargo threatened the livelihood of the Cutlers and other New England shipping families as merchant ships rotted on their moorings and sailors sat on the beach, penniless. Far worse for the Cutler family is a grave illness that threatens the life of its most beloved member. As in previous books in the series, the action is brought to life by such colorful historical figures as the infamous pirate Jean Lafitte, Secretary of the Navy Robert Smith, Robert Fulton (and his prototype for a submarine), Captain Stephen Decatur, Captain Salusbury Pryce Humphreys, RN, and Commodore James Barron.
No Sacrifice Too Great
Book 6·Dec 2021
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$5.99
The sixth volume in the award-winning series profiling the American perspective in the Age of Sail, No Sacrifice Too Great chronicles the swashbuckling adventures of the Cutler family as the United States takes on Great Britain in the War of 1812. Richard Cutler and his two sons, William and James, serve in the US Navy, weak in number of ships but strong in experience and fighting-spirit. Battles in which the family participates include high seas drama between the USS Constitution and HMS Guerriere, fleet engagements on Lake Erie and Lake Champlain, the siege of Baltimore, and the epic Battle of New Orleans.
To Distant Shores
Book 7·Jan 2023
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$12.99
The decades after the War of 1812 were years of introspection for the fledgling American republic. Having twice prevailed against the military might of Great Britain, there was now no power on Earth ready, willing, and able to take on the United States. As America entered the 1840s and began expanding its dominion over North America and opening lucrative overseas markets in Asia and elsewhere, all that was needed to secure its place in the world was an alliance with a like-minded nation with the naval resources to guarantee the integrity of global trade routes and the financial rewards accruing to both parties of such an alliance. Captain Richard Cutler commands the new United States steam frigate Suwannee on a mission to the South Seas to the distant shores of New Zealand.