A naval commander was still a naval commander.
And a ship was still a ship.
If she could handle a Perry-class frigate, she could handle a sailing frigate as well.
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Roy watched the commander work her way along the deck. He’d been up at the bow sketching the long lines of the ship as seen from the foremast hand’s perspective. Joshua Humphreys had designed the Constitution to be longer and leaner than any other fighting ship of her size. It made her fast and it made her strong, especially backed up by a two-foot thick oak hull. That was how she’d earned the nickname “Old Ironsides”—the British eighteen-pound cannon balls had bounced off her thick, well-braced sides in the first battle in the War of 1812.
The woman walking toward him had those aspects in common with the ship: long, lean,
