THE CONTINENTAL RISQUE by James L. Nelson, Pocket Books, 1998, 372 pages, paperback, $14.

The year is 1775. A heavily armed British frigate is chasing you and your brig — which happens to be carrying the renegade John Adams — through Long Island Sound. Your benefactor’s daughter is so attractive and feisty you can hardly attend to your duties. Adams won’t shut up. Then one of your crew announces the ship has sprung a leak.

What to do?

Stop and drop anchor, of course. Your brig is small and manageable, but the current is too strong for the lumbering frigate to come about before being swept through Hell Gate into New York’s East River.

For those who have read the first two books in the “Revolution at Sea Saga,” this daring maneuver by Capt. Isaac Biddlecomb early in “The Continental Risque” will come as no surprise, but it will be an anticipated delight. Biddlecomb is an intrepid sea captain being pulled by the tide of the times into the American Revolution, and “The Continental Risque,” once it gets some wind in its sails, relates Biddlecomb’s exploits in the fledgling navy that the Continental Congress has “risqued” creating.

The word “saga” probably overstates the case, nonetheless this book’s plot sweeps forward like a stiff breeze propelling a well-rigged ship. The American fleet is variously icebound, storm-beleaguered, tricked, victorious and battered as it makes its way on a mission that Commodore Esek Hopkins largely (and historically) keeps secret. Biddlecomb, meanwhile, wrestles with problems among the crew of his ship Charlemagne — problems he is not used to, having been to this point in his career an exemplary captain. His officers clash. A despicable, Iago-like “sea lawyer” churns up considerable trouble. Meanwhile Biddlecomb faces down one peril after another with cleverness and courage worthy of Indiana Jones.

James Nelson, a Maine native who lives in Harpswell and is a professional sailor, interweaves the plots involving Biddlecomb’s difficulties and the fleet’s mission with, for the most part, great deftness. His understanding of sailing and rigging emerges continually, enjoyably and naturally in the course of the narrative, and the descriptions of shipboard life are vivid. His sense of suspense is as keen as — if less complex than — Stephen King’s.

Early on, the book navigates narrow channels, introducing some themes and characters which do not play major roles in the main story. Later, questions arise about one or two characters, notably Lt. Tottenhill, who is repeatedly described as profoundly boring, but whom we never actually witness in the act of being boring. But once the vessel gets under way, the action never stops, and at times you almost feel the salt spray soaking you on the decks.

“The Continental Risque” invites comparison to the novels of Kenneth Roberts, and Nelson’s knowledge of the Revolution seems as thoroughgoing as his predecessor’s. The difference between the two authors, perhaps, is that Roberts gives a more comprehensive feel for the time, place and people than Nelson.

But James Nelson accomplishes what he sets out to do, and does it well. “The Continental Risque” is no risk for the reader looking for a good sea story unfurled in the traditions of Roberts and C.S. Forester.