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1636: Commander Cantrell in the West Indies  
1636
Author Eric Flint
Co-Author Charles E. Gannon
Language English
Series 1632 series
Genre(s) Alternate History
Publisher Baen
Publication date June 5, 2014
Preceded by 1636: Seas of Fortune
Followed by 1636: The Viennese Waltz

1636: Commander Cantrell in the West Indies is a novel in the 1632 series. It was published in hardback by Baen on June 5, 2014. It is set between April 1635 and January 1, 1636.

Plot[]

After leaving Denmark some months after the wake of the events of 1634: The Baltic War, Commander Eddie Cantrell of the USE Navy resumes his work under Admiral John Simpson, working on the USE's new fleet of ocean-going steam frigates and their breechloading rifled cannon. Simpson sends Cantrell to join an expedition to the Caribbean, which will take a variety of equipment and tools, and serve as a first test for the steam frigates. Their main objectives: link up with the survivors of the Dutch fleet defeated at the Battle of Dunkirk during the Ostend War, under the command of Maarten Tromp, and secure the easily tappable oil supplies at Pitch Lake on the island of Trinidad.

Simultaneously, Earl Hugh O'Donnell, commander of one of the Spanish-employed Irish tercios serving Fernando, king in the Low Countries, travels back to Grantville after the assassination attempt on Pope Urban VIII. O'Donnell has become disaffected from the Spanish cause. He becomes involved in the intrigues of King Fernando and the Infanta Isabella, who wish to secure the loyalty of the Irish troops in their bid to establish an independent Habsburg kingdom in the Low Countries. As a part of this, he seeks other employment with Vicomte Turenne, head of the French military research and development program. O'Donnell and a small force of his Irish mercenaries are hired by Turenne to take a single ship to the Caribbean, taking with them an up-timer expert in hot air balloon construction. Their main objective is, likewise, to secure the easily tappable oil supplies at Pitch Lake.

Both expeditions set sail in the summer of 1635. By this time, Cantrell's expedition has swelled to include Cantrell's young wife, Anne Cathrine and a coterie of her ladies in waiting... and a squadron's worth of Danish ships provided by her father, Christian IV of Denmark.

Notes[]

  • In this novel, the island commonly known as Saint Kitts is referred to by its formal name of Saint Christopher's, sometimes shortened to Saint Christopher.


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