13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
22 year-old Lt. Lord Ramage outwits mutineers & pirates, April 16, 1998
In this, the 3rd of the Ramage series, Lt. Ramage is given command of the brig Triton whose crew is involved in the great fleet-wide mutiny at Spithead in the spring of 1797. His orders are to carry dispaches to the admirals off Brest , Cadiz and then to the West Indies. How does he set out to sea with such a crew? Then in the Caribbean, he is instructed to stop the mysterious loss of ships sailing from Grenada to Barbados after frigate captains had failed. There is an interesting discussion of the economics of the slave trade in the 18th century.
I find I re-read Pope's books more often that the smiilar books by Forrester, Kent or O'Brien. Pope always gives a good tale.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
As good as the last two. Read also The Black Ship, by Pope, April 18, 2001
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Review of the Ramage series of novels:
Don't read this until you have read the first book: Ramage and Ramage and the Drumbeat by Dudley Pope. Also included below a partial review of The Black Ship, also by Pope about a factual mutiny.
Book 1: Ramage
Book 2: Ramage and the Drumbeat
Book 3: Ramage and the Freebooters
Book 4: Governor Ramage RN
Book 5: Ramage's Prize
Book 6: Ramage and the Guillotine
Order them all, because you won't want to stop. The action is fast and furious.
This is third in a series of historical fiction by Dudley Pope. All of these are fictional novels based on British Admiralty records of the Napoleonic era. Written in the best tradition of Forester and O'Brien, these books will capture your imagination. And if you haven't read the Hornblower series by Forester, or the Aubrey/Maturin series by O'Brien, try them also. All of these are excellent books that you will treasure and reread. I particularly like these books by Pope. I recommend that you buy them all at once and read them in order. You will be glad you did.
If you enjoy reading accurate descriptions of naval maneuvers in the age of sail, or simply a good adventure yarn, Dudley Pope delivers. Pope conveys how the best of the best, handle emergency situations. He portrays these situations with realism and authenticity.
Review of this book:
Ramage, is given command of the Triton with orders to deliver a warning to three offshore fleets that the fleet in homeport has mutinied. His first job is to get the Triton under way and he comes up with a surprise to get the mutinous Triton's out of port. Even then he still has to hold the crew together and build their loyalty. Then upon arriving in the West Indies, he is given a mission and set up by his admiral to take a fall and must gamble against the odds to be successful.
Buy the series in the hard cover--worth keeping and handing down.
For more historical information about mutiny in history, read the factual story of the most notorious mutiny of all time in the, The Black Ship by Dudley Pope. It gives keen insight into the conditions of the time, an analysis of the mind of a heartless Captain whose floggings often resulted in the deaths of his men, the terrrible casualty rates due to Yellow Fever, and the gruesome deaths of the officers. One horrific tale, but if you have the stomach for it, well worth reading.
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6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good naval adventure almost ruined by romance, November 6, 2000
Ninty percent of this book is a well-written and exciting novel, filled with action at sea and a little espionage. The other ten percent concerns a romance that is corny, sappy, insipid, etc. The rest of this book is so good that the romance seems glaringly out of place. Our hero, Lt. Ramage, first has to overcome a mutinous crew, and then find a defeat a group of privateers in the Caribbean. As usual, he uses some creative tactics to overcome his problems, particularly to gain the loyalty of his mutinous crew. One of the things I like most about Pope is that he does not shy away from describing the harsh realities of the times. For example, he describes in such detail the poor treatment the common sailors recieved it is easy to understand why they mutinied and why they deserted whenever they got the chance. He also gets into some very dangerous territory in this book when he describes the slave trade. That is obviously a very sensitive issue but I think he did a good job describing it in some detail without diminishing its horrors but also without getting too melodramatic. I don't want to give away too much about the end of this book, so I will simply say that it is very exciting and at least the equal of the first two books in this series. So, in conclusion, just try to ignore the ridiculous romantic scenes and you will really enjoy this book.
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