[citation needed] Reeman also states that the real Richard Bolitho was the brother of the Lord Lieutenant of Cornwall.
He rises to high rank—despite the opposition of less competent men—because of his ability to win crucial victories against seemingly impossible odds.
His most lasting relationships are with Thomas Herrick—a fellow officer and his oldest friend—and John Allday, a former Cornish shepherd who became Bolitho's coxswain and de facto bodyguard.
His relationship with the second, Belinda, the mother of his child Elizabeth, deteriorated when it became clear that she was nothing like the person he thought he married and was a very selfish individual.
He saw active service with the Royal Navy during the Second World War, serving in the North Sea, Arctic, Atlantic and Mediterranean campaigns.
Adam, the only son of Richard's disgraced older brother Hugh, was born in 1780 in Penzance, Cornwall, shortly after his father joined the revolution in America.
Having been sent to Richard at the age of 14 by his dying mother, he joined the Royal Navy, rising through the ranks to establish himself as a daring and resourceful frigate captain, as his uncle had once done.