I am deeply indebted to the many people who have helped me write this novel. Chief among them are my wife, Sally Anne, for her encouragement to get going on writing it when it was only an idea bumping around in my head (not to mention her excellent editorial comments on each chapter as it was written, as well as her comments on the finished manuscript); my son, Joe, who also bugged me to write it and whose comments on structure and arc, once I got started, were extremely helpful (not to mention that he came up with the title!); my editor, Peter Joseph, who not only acquired the book for Hanover Square, but whose careful edit of the manuscript has improved it greatly, in ways both large and small; and Gina Macdonald, my excellent copy editor, who not only did a terrific job smoothing grammar, syntax and text and bringing the manuscript into compliance with the style manual, but also checking many hard-to-find facts and ferreting out a variety of anachronisms that had escaped me, despite my earlier efforts to find them all. I also want to thank the proofreader, Katie McHale; the publicist, Shara Alexander; Mary Sheldon, Natalie Hallak and the entire production crew at Hanover Square. Last, but hardly least, I am indebted to my wonderful agent, Erica Silverman, without whom this novel would never have seen the light of day.
A special note of thanks is also owed to Jacque BenZekry, who has been such a great cheerleader for the project as it has gone forward.
Various other friends have not only read the manuscript and given me their notes on it but, in the process, lent me their particular expertise—thank you, Roger Chittum and Mike Haines, for your knowledge of ships under sail; Clint Epps, for your insights into Revolutionary War weapons and culture; Brinton Rowdybush, for your knowledge of American diplomacy in the eighteenth century; Amy Huggins, for your knowledge of eighteenth-century costuming; John Brown, for your comments on New Jersey geography; Jeff Davison, for pointing out that no one could have drunk from a bottle of beer in America in 1780 since the first bottling in the United States didn’t take place until much later; Maggi Puglia, for your great tour of the Dey Mansion and your knowledge of how Washington’s headquarters functioned while he was there; and Gemma Smith, for your informative tour of the Benjamin Franklin house in London (now listed at No. 36 Craven Street, but numbered as No. 7 during the time that Franklin lived there). And last but not least, Diana Wright, for your help with my website and all things social media.
Whatever errors might be in the book are, of course, mine alone.
As always, still other friends and colleagues have given unstintingly of their time to read early drafts and provide general comments or to support my efforts in other ways. They include Melanie Chancellor, Dale Franklin, Lorie Stromberg, Tom Stromberg, Sam Ahn, Mi Ahn, Daniel Wershow, Alison Balian, Roger Toll, Mary Menzel, Dan Martin, Jack Walker, Belinda Walker, Wendy Joseph, Marty Beech, Hwa Kho, Ping Lee, Miriam Singer, Linda Brown, Maureen Gustafson, Elaine Katz, Lauren Gwin, Deborah Coontz, Maxine Nunes, Joel Davison, Jessica Kaye, Richard Brewer, Gayle Simon, Maryglenn McCombs, Tyson Butler, Carolyn Denham, Prucia Buscell, Deanna Wilcox, John Shelonko, Bob Vanderet, Mindie Sun, Diana Wright, Dick Birnbaum, Pamela Okano, Annye Camara, and all of those Facebook friends who suggested names for the ship.
I have had an interest in the American Revolution since grade school, when my fifth-grade teacher had me memorize Longfellow’s poem “Paul Revere’s Ride.” Over the years since, I have read dozens of books and articles about the Revolution, some of them now lost to memory. The research on this novel involved reading dozens more. I was, however, particularly impressed by what is “out there” now that wasn’t when I first began to read on the subject: online resources, which are today quite amazing. Those I found particularly useful included the digital resources at the British National Archives, Founders Online (supported by the US National Archives), as well as the website of Mount Vernon.
I must also mention Wikipedia. I know that it is often criticized and can sometimes fall short of pristine accuracy, that it can be guilty of bias or miss important facts. But, carefully used, it makes possible an initial dive into a pool of knowledge that is both broad and deep. And its footnotes frequently lead to specialty books and articles that would otherwise be difficult to find. I am grateful to the Wikimedia Foundation for supporting it, along with the thousands of volunteer contributors and editors who strive to make it an ever more useful tool.