As the boys prepare to celebrate Brhadain Auchinleck's birthday, they are called to assist a friend who has often been there for them. At first they are confused as to what they should do, but when the request becomes a need, they answer.
Commodore Percival Neasmith makes his return - with newcomer Diggory Applegarth - to seek revenge for how he was treated. With the evilist of intentions and the memory of the months spent in his prison cell, he has concocted a plan only a madman could be proud of... and he is.
Traveling as fast as the Sea Witch will sail, they are drawn into the teeth of the enemy. Young men all, they do what they can to right the injustice being done. They even employ the assistance of Balthazar Strangewayes.
"A harbor be a place of refuge, lessen a course ye be a pirate,then the only safe haven -- as some would have ye believe -- be at the end of a rope or inside a pine box"