Life seems pretty good for Richard Cutler. The U.S. Navy captain is given a fine new ship, the steam frigate USS Suwannee, along with a fine crew, his best friend as first lieutenant, and a plum assignment to facilitate trade negotiations with the British in New South Wales, on the east coast of Australia.

To make the assignment even sweeter, Cutler is asked to take his wife Anne along to assist with talks, since her brother, a British admiral, is involved in the discussions, and her other brother is the British ambassador to the U.S..

Unfortunately, things don't go as planned. A massive storm separates the Suwannee from three other vessels in the tiny American fleet and wrecks her off the coast of New Zealand. Soon, Cutler and a small number of survivors are doing their best to survive an unfamiliar wilderness as well as hostilities between warring tribes of Maori natives.

And Anne, who only recently informed her husband that she was pregnant with their first child, is among the missing.

Surprisingly, Richard does not long remain faithful to his wife's memory, even though her body is never found. It's no great spoiler to reveal that she's also alive, since that's revealed to readers early on in the story, and her attention also wanders since her husband is presumed dead.

Author William C. Hammond continues the Cutler Family Chronicles with a strong entry that leaps forward three decades from the end of the last book, which took place during the War of 1812.

The protagonist of this novel, by the way, is not the same Richard Cutler who was featured in earlier books in this series. To Distant Shores begins in 1843, and the original Cutler has aged out of the spotlight. The story now focuses on his namesake grandson.

Hammond has found ample grist for this story, placing his American naval characters in the middle of quickly evolving events in New Zealand, where the native Maori are not all happy with existing treaties with the British empire. The book reveals a great deal about Maori culture, as well as the New Zealand landscape, all while telling a thrilling tale of duty and survival. While the romance felt out of place in this story, given the circumstances -- and both situations were resolved a little too neatly in the end -- To Distant Shores is an excellent new chapter in the Cutler saga, one I am eager to continue.