In Portsmouth, by the fireside of Will Tunn's Cheerful Tortoise taproom, British seamen quaff pints and regale themselves with tales of grapeshot and gales. Enter the one-legged Royal Navy surgeon, Doctor F. Dogbody, raconteur extraordinaire.

In each of the ten stories collected here, the good doctor recounts the loss of his "larboard" leg, and each story is more outrageous and hilarious than the last. Weaving rich historical detail into his fantastical tapestry, Dogbody encounters such real-life personages as Horatio Nelson, Thomas Cochrane, Benjamin Franklin, and Catherine the Great of Russia.

Contents:

• The Cheerful Tortoise
• The Silver Buckle
• For Russia
• The Vulnerary Water
• Rule Brittania
• The Happy Return
• Attica, the Twelfth
• April First on April Second
• Feadle and Foster
• The Greenwich Pensioners