Captain Hale’s Covenant is a family saga about an American Revolutionary War blockade runner who with his sons built a fortune in trade with France, England, Portugal and Jamaica during the Federal Period (1783-1822), when American captains dominated the seas.
Portland, Maine is the closest American port to Europe, and it grew very wealthy indeed from sea trade in the late 18th to early 19th century. The book is set in this outward-looking period when Americans sailed to fortune and adventure. The story develops the interplay between the industrious, self-made American Captain Adam Hale and his sons and a series of sweeping global events which test and tease them to grow, as each of the main characters defines for himself exactly what it means to be an American. There also are strong female characters who are critical to the plot of the book. The backdrop includes a purloined and invaluable map of the Royal Navy's mast timbers in Maine, the armed privateer with which the captain builds his fortune, Barbary pirates, press gangs, Regency balls, a slave revolt, storms at sea, a decades-long vendetta, duels, Napoleon’s Peninsular Campaign and pitched naval battles.
Captain Hale’s Covenant portrays how the family patriarch Captain Adam Hale struggles to achieve a meaningful personal commitment to civic duty to his country, all the while wrestling with grievous personal losses and the great moral question of why does a just and loving God allow bad things to happen? It is a book about family, citizenship, slavery and faith in America. It tells how Americans ventured into the unknown in ships, never knowing if they would come back or what rewards they might reap. It is an American story, part of our background, part of our history. While Captain Hale’s Covenant is a story of drama on the lawless high seas and at times equally lawless terra firma, it is not a simple sea yarn.
Captain Hale's Covenant is scheduled to be released June 1, 2022 by McBook Press, an imprint of Globe Pequot, the trade division of Rowman & Littlefield.
Early praise for Captain Hale's Covenant:
“A truly swashbuckling tale yet also remarkably historically accurate, Captain Hale's Covenant is a page-turner novel written the way they ought to be. Part C.S. Forester and part Patrick O’Brian, it is tailor-made for a splendid movie or TV series.” Andrew Roberts, author of Napoleon: A Life
“Make room on your shelves -- next to Patrick O'Brian's nautical novels -- for Captain Hale's Covenant, a stirring American tale of the battles in the North Atlantic in the decades after America won its independence. Thomas Crocker brings you the snap of the sails and the wind singing through the rigging while you taste the salt air and marvel at the adventures of Adam Hale and his family.” David O. Stewart, author of The New Land, Book 1 of the Overstreet Saga trilogy
“Spanning from 1783 to 1822, this multi-generational novel is both a sentimental family saga and a rip-roaring, action-filled adventure of sailing ship battles in the Atlantic... There were a few historical anecdotes which surprised and fascinated … especially as to the importance of Maine in trade and commerce at the time—it’s a very interesting period, when an infant country was just beginning to spread its wings. Recommended.” Historical Novel Society
"Thomas Crocker has written an epic American novel... " Quarterdeck Magazine
To watch a video clip by author Thomas E. Crocker on Captain Hale's Covenant click on: