Hazard Of Huntress, The Phillip Hazard Novels, No. 4

The Crimean War rages on, and determined to break the stalemate, the British decide to send a spy into Odessa. And who better for this perilous mission than Captain Phillip Hazard, newly promoted to command of the steam-powered Huntress and fluent in Russian? Hazard bravely takes on the task, but saddled with a surly first lieutenant whose previous captain died mysteriously and with his crew plagued by an unknown illness, Hazard soon finds he must depend on his own resourcefulness to survive. Hazard of Huntress Paperback edition by V. A. Stuart