In this second book of the Blue and the Gray series, the Civl War is well uinderway and Christy is busy preparing his father's steam-yacht, Bellevite, for service in the Union navy. Christy foils an attempt to capture the Bellevite while still on the Hudson, engages in sea battles on the way to the Gulf, attempts a capture of a Confederate blockade runner in Pensacola Bay and is taken prisoner and then escapes.