The Luke Ryan Books
Meet Captain Luke Ryan: Irish Swashbuckler, fearless American Patriot, Mariner Extraodinaire – Benjamin Franklin’s Most Dangerous Privateer…
You’ve probably never heard of Luke Ryan. You probably didn’t know that Benjamin Franklin had his own private navy during American War of Independence and yet Ryan – Franklin’s most dangerous privateer – did more damage to British shipping than any other commander, including the great John Paul Jones. This is an extraordinary, little-known story of selfless heroism, love, intrigue and betrayal. It is a bold story about bold men, about rough Irish mariners who in the beginning of their adventure sail for money but later find themselves fighting for a new nation’s struggle for liberty, becoming true American patriots along the way.
1778 Ryan, a 25 year old smuggler and thief, is the master of the Black Prince, one of the fastest ships on the water. He runs a very lucrative business between Dunkirk and Dublin and is indifferent to the brutal war raging back and forth between the Colonies and Great Britain until the British seize his ship one day and toss his men into Dublin’s notorious Black Dog. Ryan escapes capture, breaks his men out of jail and together they retake their ship by force. But now the Irishmen have committed piracy and they will all hang if caught. They cannot return to smuggling so Ryan sails to France to offer his services to Franklin, the American ambassador to the French Court who, Ryan has heard, is quietly assembling a private navy to fight the British in their own home waters. Franklin’s reluctant decision to unleash Ryan and his Irishmen will bring unforeseen consequences and have a significant impact on the outcome of the war…
1779 Despite French aid, and one impressive victory at Saratoga in New York, the American rebels are losing their life and death struggle for independence against Great Britain and they are losing badly. From north to south and in the west, their ragtag armies are in retreat. The British have swept the Continental Navy from the seas and have blockaded American ports. The fate of a fragile nation – the fate of the Revolution – hangs by a thin thread. In walks Ryan with his fast ships and iron men, eager to fight for the Americans for their own reasons. Before the Irishmen are finished, they’ll sink, burn or capture over 100 British ships, take hundreds of prisoners of war for Franklin and raid many English and Scottish towns along the coast – tying down precious military resources while causing a financial panic in London. For two years the Irishmen sail the oceans with impunity, until treachery finds them…
1781 With the help of French duplicity, the British finally capture Ryan, bringing his two-year reign of terror abruptly to an end. Ryan is taken in chains to Newgate Prison in London to stand trial for treason and felony piracy on the high seas in the same court where the infamous Captain William Kidd was convicted 80 years earlier. When Ryan is found guilty and sentenced to death an admirer, Queen Marie Antoinette of France, implores King George III to spare Ryan’s life and with a royal nod the king commutes Ryan’s sentence to life imprisonment. But later, as the war comes to a close and a more tolerant Parliament takes power, the English release their American prisoners of war, including Ryan. The young Irishman returns to France but he has no ships, no men and no money. Ryan’s prospects seem grim until he meets a man named Joseph Bonaparte, a promising entrepreneur who likes to dabble in smuggling, and his younger brother, a brilliant major in the French Army, a man on the rise who is hungry for fame and glory – his name: Napoleon Bonaparte…
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