V. Laptukhin is a writer and journalist who worked for more than eight years in the countries of Western and Southern Africa. The action of the adventure novel “Secret Frigates” takes place at the beginning of the 17th century. Novgorod youth Ivan Plotnikov sets off with merchants “across three seas.” Having miraculously escaped from the pirates, he was forcibly recruited into the English fleet. Battles in the Mediterranean Sea, hunting elephants in Africa, participation in the secret purchase of foreign frigates to replenish the Russian Baltic Fleet - these and other adventures befall the protagonist.