Dudley Pope

Ramage hopes to enjoy a well-deserved leave when he receives new orders: commission and take command of the Dido--a massive 74-gun ship, that carries enough weight of metal to destroy a frigate in a single broadside, or sweep a ship's decks clear of men. Accompanied by the courageous crew of the Calypso, Ramage ventures to sea once again--bound for the West Indies where he faces the challenge of commanding this massive weapon of war.

Lord Ramage returns to fight in the most famous of Britain's sea battles. Summoned by Admiral Nelson himself, Ramage is sent to join the British fleet off Cadiz where the largest battle in naval history is about to take place. Finding himself in the front line of battle, Lord Ramage must fight to save his own life as well as for his country. The result is a thrilling, hair-raising adventure from one of our best-loved naval writers.

The youngest captain in His Majesty's Navy, with a reputation for landing impossible assignments, Lord Ramage is dispatched to the Caribbean islands of Martinique and Diamond Rock. The mission seems humdrum: barricade the French within Fort Royal. But sent to sea in the Juno with a crew grown restless and undisciplined under the prior commmand of a drunk, Ramage realizes his vssel may not be up to battle with the French.

The West Indian bases are desperate: post vessels—a vital communications link between England and the West Indies in the war against France—are mysteriously disappearing and no packets have arrived with orders in months. Were the privateers out in full force again? Had Napoleon's navy a secret new weapon? Lieutenant Lord Nicholas Ramage sets out from Jamaica to discover what treachery is threatening to throw the British navy into chaos.

Lord Ramage, on leave from Nelson's Navy since the signing of the Treaty of Amiens, is called upon to inspect the small island of Trinidade off the coast of Brazil where he and the crew of the "Calypso" become caught up in a battle with pirates.

Barbary Coast pirates—the Saraceni—are capturing slaves and terrorizing fishing villages along the coast of Sicily. Ramage and his crew are sent to track them down before they can devastate another town.

Captain Lord Ramage and his bride are nearly captured by Napoleon's secret police on their honeymoon in France, but when their host is taken as a prisoner to Devil's Island, Ramage sets sail aboard "Calypso" and attempts to rescue his host from the island's impregnable penal colony.

In a brilliant yet daring spy scheme to protect Britain's shores, Lieutenant Lord Nicholas Ramage is chosen to plumb the secrets of the French High Command.