The Gun Ketch [Hardcover]

Dewey Lambdin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 23, 1993

In the Bahamas to protect British merchants from pirates, Alan Lewrie becomes embroiled in a campaign to bring "Calico Jack" Finney to justice.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Although we're accustomed to more rollicking tales about the Royal Navy's Lt. Alan Lewrie than Lambdin offers here--in the first scene our hero is being married, "quaking but not completely in terror of his bachelorhood's demise"--this followup to The King's Privateer is still a grand, satisfying yarn. Newlyweds Alan and Caroline set sail in 1786 for the Bahamas, where he'll captain HMS Alacrity to enforce the Navigation Acts. The handsome young Lewries are rapturously, carnally happy and Alan's occasional sea tours only hone their appetites for each other. But there are snakes in Eden. Alan finds himself in trouble with authority when he tries to fight smugglers honorably, and simultaneously to suppress jealousy about Caroline. Lambdin throws in a lot of ripping sea and land battles, a slew of vicious pirates and smugglers, a couple of nasty nemeses and one very dangerous corrupt official. Alan's triumph is only one of many things to cheer about--series fans as well as newcomers will relish Lambdin's unerring depiction of Navy politicking, the niceties of Nassau society (including the hierarchy of color among natives) and, in fact, all the rich details of late-18th-century life at sea and shore.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

This fifth book in a series of 18th-century sea thrillers (following The King's Privateer , Donald I. Fine, 1992) continues the adventures of Royal Navy Officer Alan Lewrie. Posted to command the two-masted, ten-gun Alacrity with its new crew and officers, Lewrie is to sail to the Bahamas to protect trade and suppress piracy. Before leaving England, he takes a wife, whose presence aboard the Alacrity serves to curb his previous hell-raising lifestyle. Patrols in the Bahamas provide the focus of a story involving piracy, corruption in high places, and naval action at sea. Finally, Lewrie is able to bring the notorious pirate "Calico Jack" Finney to justice. Lambdin's work is comparable to that of masters such as C.S. Forester in its technical detail, but it is distinguished by the interesting use of bawdy humor and the fact that the author is an American. Recommended for public libraries.
- Harold N. Boyer, Marple P.L., Broomall, Pa.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 312 pages
• Publisher: Donald I. Fine; 1st edition (April 23, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556113560
• ISBN-13: 978-1556113567
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #51,399 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dewey Lambdin is the author of fourteen previous Alan Lewrie novels. A member of the U.S. Naval Institute and a Friend of the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, England, he spends his free time working and sailing (he's been a sailor since 1976). He makes his home in Nashville, Tennessee, but would much prefer Margaritaville or Murrell's Inlet.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Historical Novel covering a period not commonly covered., July 20, 1998

By 

Fred Camfield (Vicksburg, MS USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Gun Ketch (Alan Lewrie Naval Adventures) (Mass Market Paperback)

For those with in interest in tall ships and the sailing navies, this novel covers a time period not well covered by other authors, i.e., the period between the American Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, when most of the British Navy was laid up out of service and pirates roamed the West Indies. Lambdin does an excellent job researching the information for his novels. While this book is one out of a series about the naval and amorous adventures of Alan Lewrie, the main plot stands alone and Lambdin fills in the reader with any incidental information on events from earlier books. A highly recommended book for filling in that time period of history.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What do you do when there's no war to fight?, May 25, 2004

By 

Michael K. Smith (South Louisiana) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Gun Ketch (Hardcover)

Lieutenant Alan Lewrie is enjoying a few weeks in England, in between the completion of his anti-pirate adventures in the Far East (as recounted in The King's Privateer) and taking up his new assignment in command of the gun ketch ALACRITY as part of the Bahamas Squadron. Such a small vessel doesn't ordinarily rate more than one commissioned officer, but on the Navy's books it's a "sloop," so Capt. Lewrie finds himself with a first officer, the rather prim but engaging Arthur Ballard, who actually is Lewrie's senior in terms of naval experience but seems to harbor no jealousy about their relationship. (In fact, the two soon become friends as well as trusting colleagues and it's apparent Ballard is destined to become "Bush" to Lewrie's "Hornblower.") Alan spends much of his time ashore with the Chiswicks in Surrey (the family he helped rescue in _The French Admiral_) and is dismayed to find that Caroline Chiswick, for whom he has a soft spot, is being matched off by her uncle to the swinish heir of the local baronet. Suddenly, Lewrie finds himself doing what he never expected: getting married. And, rather than leave his bride in Plymouth, he allows her to talk him into taking her to Nassau with him. Naval novels set in peacetime sometimes have to go far afield to find an entertaining plot, and Lewrie's domestic adjustments, together with a struggle against another set of pirates (and the corrupt civil and naval officials with whom they are in league) make for an engaging yarn.

However: The author seems not to understand the distinction between an exclamation mark properly used in dialog ("Kill them!") and its thoroughly annoying, rather gushing use in narrative (He killed them!). Though perhaps that's just sloppiness after the initial success of the series. And while he has become quite good at descriptive passages, especially those of the sea around the Bahamas (where he obviously has spent some time sailing himself), he also seems too willing to limit most of his principal characters' conversations to the same period slang, used over and over again. Lewrie is brighter than that. (I'm getting awfully tired of "ram-cat" and "caulk" and "putting the leg over" and "buttock-brokering" and "heel-taps" -- that one always in quotes, for some reason.) I don't much care for the smugness of Lambdin's Introductions and Afterwards, either.

Still, it's a good series with good plotting and (mostly) good character development and excellent detail on ship operations and tactics of the period, and I shall certainly keep reading.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ABSOLUTELY OUTSTANDING!!!, October 21, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Gun Ketch (Hardcover)

IF YOU HAVE NOT MET EITHER LAMBDIN OR LEWRIE IN EARLIER BOOKS, YOU SHOULD FIRST READ The Kings Coat, The French Admiral, The Kings Privateer or The King's Commission BEFORE YOU READ The Gun Ketch. I issue this caution because you cannot possibly appreciate the shock of learning that Alan Lewrie is married (!) without first reading at least one (preferably all) of its predecessors. I was HORRIFIED to find in the opening pages that LT Alan Lewrie was being married on the first pages. But then, so was he! (The author shares with you the thoughts of Lewrie -- which is what make him charming.) The story that follows is a delightful story of the sea, pirates, good (and ACCURATE) sailing descriptions. Alan Lewrie is lovable because he is so real and down to earth. He is more of a person than Hornblower or Bolitho, although I commend to anyone either of their authors (Forester and Kent, respectively). I note with interest that a previous reviewer has the same opinion (see [e-mail] from Cleveland, below.), although we would differ on what the "Trilogy" consists of. In any case it doesn't matter. This is good, solid writing; well-researched, greatly peopled with colorful characters that you come to care about, and the sea adventure is unparalleled. THIS IS GOOD STUFF!! READ IT. You won't be disappointed. And I think you will come to like Dewey Lambdin, as well. I suspect there is a bit of Alan Lewrie in him.