Cornelius Noon, Chief Turret Captain USN

With his master gunner’s eye Cornelius Noon could drop a bird on the wing or punch a five-inch shell through a distant window. He had to flee from the Kentucky hills but his singular gift won him a berth in the United States Navy and swift promotion. When, in 1912, President Woodrow Wilson ordered the navy to take over a key Mexican port Noon’s deadly marksmanship made it possible. But Noon, always a loner, had his own ideas about what his country should be doing. And his educated eye was just as penetrating when came to sizing up the women intrigued by his take-it-or-leave it charm, Mrs Smiley the brash bordello keeper and Leonora the cool diplomatic wife who seduced him.