Rockets' Red Glare is set during the War of 1812. Samuel "Codder" Copeland witnesses the slaughter of his father at the hands of the HMS frigate Cordelia (36 guns). Captain Worthing. Codder seeks atonement and joins the U.S. frigate Cougar (32 guns). Captain Brian Savage, as a topman. Cougar sails around Cape Horn into the Pacific to capture or sink enemy whalers, depriving the English economy of vital whale oil. HMS Cordelia pursues Cougar. The point-of-view ship. sailors. and country is American, marking a departure from the typical British navy genre. Although loosely based on the voyage of the US. frigate Essex. pursued by HMS Phoebe, as told in Essex's captain's own journals and some of the fabric of O'Brien's The Far Side of the World. Rockets Red Glare is quite different from each.