Beginning in October 1796 and moving toward the Battle of Cape St Vincent in 1797, Ramage and the Drumbeat sends Lieutenant Nicholas Ramage from Corsica toward Gibraltar aboard the cutter Kathleen. His immediate duty is to carry the Marchesa di Volterra to safety, but an encounter with a dismasted Spanish frigate tempts him into an audacious attack against a ship many times his size.
The success draws him into greater danger. Captured and taken into Cartagena, Ramage learns enough about Spanish naval movements to realise that Admiral Sir John Jervis may be sailing into a major confrontation without vital intelligence. Disguised as an American seaman, he has to escape, recover his command and carry the warning west. Pope links personal ingenuity to fleet strategy, showing how information, timing and deception could matter as much as broadside weight in eighteenth-century naval war.
Alexander Kent
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Julian Stockwin
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Dewey Lambdin
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David Donachie
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Adrian Westbrooke
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