Set in 1797 after the Battle of Cape St Vincent, Ramage and the Freebooters gives Nicholas Ramage a new command, HMS Triton, at the worst possible moment. Her crew has joined the great Spithead Mutiny, and Ramage must persuade angry sailors to return to duty without turning a crisis over pay, conditions and discipline into bloodshed.
Only after restoring a working relationship between officers and men can he carry the secret dispatches entrusted to him. Pope makes mutiny a problem of command rather than simple disobedience: Ramage has to understand legitimate grievances while preserving the authority on which a warship depends. Once Triton sails, the wider conflict with Revolutionary France resumes, but the experience at Spithead continues to shape how Ramage judges loyalty, discipline and the limits of coercion at sea.
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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