Claire Monson to me, 6 July 2011:

"Sorry it's taken me so long to get to this. They're keeping us busy in Berlin.

Here's what I could find:

"Around the town, Cornwallis had constructed ten redoubts. There were
approximately 6,500 troops at Yorktown with another 700 over at
Gloucester Point, with Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton -"Bloody
Tarleton." Also anchored in the York River were the frigates, HMS
Guadalupe and HMS Charon, each with 44 guns, plus three transports.
For armament, the British had approximately 65 cannons of various
sizes, the largest being only 18 pounders. Some of the cannon were
from ships. Once a naval cannon was in place, it lacked the mobility
of the land cannon because of a completely different type of carriage.
...
The Frigate HMS Charon became one of the first casualties of the
French guns. Before she could move to a safer location, she was hit by
a French "hot shot" amidships and set afire. The three British
transports suffered a similar fate. The British in Yorktown were
forced to keep their heads down for the firing was continuous. Within
a few hours, the British return fire had slowed to about six rounds an
hour."
http://www.revolutionarywararchives.org/yorkfinish.html

Wikipedia backs this up:

"On October 10, the Americans spotted a large house in Yorktown.
Believing that Cornwallis might be stationed there, they aimed at it
and quickly destroyed it. Cornwallis sank more than a dozen of his
ships in the harbor. The French began to fire at the British ships and
scored a hit on the British HMS Charon, which caught fire, and in turn
set two or three other ships on fire. Cornwallis received word from
Clinton that the British fleet was to depart on October 12, however
Cornwallis responded by saying that he would not be able to hold out
for long."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Yorktown

It seems the book is at least partially based on truth.