Experience life in the Old Navy through the eyes of Josiah Tattnall as he rose from Midshipman in the War of 1812 to Commodore in the China Seas, from sailing ships to an unprecedented ironclad warship, from chasing barbarous pirates to fighting former friends in the Civil War. Tattnall was a Georgia gentleman from first to last. But he clashed with superior officers again and again, struggled with financial problems in his underpaid profession, and suffered repeated disappointments in the lives of his many children. A man of principle, Tattnall did what he felt was right and left the US Navy for service in the Confederacy, a new nation without ships. This took him from the height of his fame to virtual oblivion. Yet he is a man worth knowing.