The Balkan War of 1877–1878 did not end for Russia with the insulting Treaty of San Stefano. White General Skobelev’s troops enter Constantinople; in response, Britain sends its squadrons to the Bosporus and the Baltic. Russian turret gunboats and mine craft—against the formidable warships of the Royal Navy. The forts of Kronstadt and Sveaborg—against Armstrong and Whitworth guns. Furious naval battles, whose outcome is decided by ramming strikes, mines, and… very big guns! And somewhere beyond those foreign waters, Russian ocean clippers are already unleashed onto trade routes like hunting hounds freed from their leashes—the ocean hunt has begun! Will Britain remain the Mistress of the Seas? And against the backdrop of these grand events is the story of a young midshipman— a graduate of the St. Petersburg Naval Corps—who receives his first assignment on the Baltic monitor “Strelets.” On it, he will fight his main battle.