Allow me to present a seafaring adventure of three boys, sixteen, fourteen, and twelve, sold into bondage in 1776 aboard the British Naval ship, the HMS Culloden. It is an endeavor starting on the ship’s maiden voyage as it enters the colonies' rebellion in the American Revolution. The story ventures into the open seas like the great novel Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson.

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The shock of being sold into such an experience by their beloved mother gives them little time to deal with the trauma of the endeavor. The sudden thrust into sailoring takes the boys by the seat of their pants into the world of sea challenges and danger. Live the life of these three boys from one adventure to another, bonded to that ship as long as it sails.

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Things take a turn toward a different path when the ship runs aground on Long Island in New York, and they volunteer to remain on the ship as the rest of the crew escapes the approaching French Navy with the assignment to light the explosives in the hull of the ship and flee for their lives as the ship is boarded by hostile French marines. One escape from danger and bondage brought capture by the colonists and sent to General George Washington’s forces across the bay. Using wit and survival skills, convincing the captures they are pirates washed ashore, they manage to join the colonial army as cannoneers.

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Their expert cannon assignment aboard the HMS Culloden brings them good favor, finding the French had finally arrived, joining the fight in full force, carrying a significant resupply of newly designed rifled cannons to the battlefield. From seafaring men to artillery men, they continued their adventure. George Washington moved his forces south to take on an exhausted British force under General Cornwallis. Using the French Navy to blockade, reinforced soldiers on the ground, they pin Cornwallis down at the port city of Yorktown, and the cannons rang a constant bombardment on the tattered army rendering an eventual surrender of Britain’s seasoned forces.

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This story, told to this writer by his late grandfather, a historical fiction manuscript takes the given account and matches the research of the only British naval ship to shipwreck and sinking during the American Revolution. The story unfolds outlined by the authentic voyages of the HMS Culloden, the historically short five and a half years at sea, and the three ancestors of this author; their adventures come alive in growing up challenges, angry at their situation, but determined to stick together with hopes of one day being free.