Showing results by author "Dudley Pope" in All Categories

Charles II returns from exile bringing with him unease to the Spanish Main. In this vivid description of seventeenth-century buccaneers, Ned Yorke, the leader and hero of the swashbuckling band are depended upon for the defense of Jamaica, fighting with captured Spanish guns. Daring raids on the Spanish seem inevitable, as Yorke sets out on the high seas to distant adventures on behalf of the King and his own honor.

It is the 1650s, and Spain considers the Caribbean its own private sea, but England, Holland, and France conspire to battle for freedom on the oceans. Set in days littered with the plunder of piracy, Ned Yorke, a loyal royalist living in Barbados, has a small vessel and devoted crew, and together they sail, hunted by roundheads and Spaniards, determined to pay whatever the price for freedom from tyranny. What transpires is a colorful, dramatic retelling of historical events surrounding the capture of Jamaica and the infamous raid on Santiago.

In the 1660’s Jamaica was an uneasy island, occupied by Spain but settled by the English and French. When Admiral of the Brethren, Ned Yorke, a brave, loyal Buccaneer, learns that Spain is mounting a Caribbean fleet perhaps to protect the treasures of Spanish ships, or carry an army to Jamaica, he vows to find out the truth. Yorke’s audacious attacks on Spanish camps reveal all and the Buccaneers must fight a bloody, desperate battle to try and hinder them.

As England falls under a blanket of peace with the restoration of Charles II, in distant Jamaica all is not well. Though there is peace with Spain, there is no peace "beyond the line". It seems that the West Indies have become the private estate of the King of Spain. But Ned Yorke, Admiral of the Brethren and leader of the Buccaneers will not kowtow to the new Governor in Jamaica who is bent on weakening the Island’s defences and destroying its currency. The Buccaneers must not remain idle.

It is February 1942, and the war in the Atlantic looks grim for the Allied convoys. The Great Blackout has started, leaving the spy centre of Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire at a loss as to what the Nazis are planning. U-boat command has changed the Hydra cipher. The enigma cannot be broken. Cipher experts can no longer eavesdrop on Nazi command, which leaves convoys open for attack by packs of marauding Nazi submarines.

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.

Ramage, finally reunited with his beloved Sarah, hopes to spend at least a few quiet weeks with her. Instead, he is summoned by Admiral Nelson himself. His orders: Ramage is to join Nelson's fleet blockading the combined French and Spanish navies in the port of Cadiz. But Nelson's plan is not merely to blockade the enemy's fleet. He intends to confront it head-on in the biggest naval battle the world has ever seen.

Captain Lord Ramage and the Calypso return from Devil's Island, but Ramage's new wife, Sarah, is missing. The captain would like nothing better than to sail home immediately, but instead he is ordered to shepherd a lumbering convoy of merchant ships back to England. On the way bizarre events lead him to a full court-martial in Plymouth, presided over by his old nemesis, Rear Admiral Goddard. Ramage must clear his name--or face a sentence of death!

Captain Lord Ramage's honeymoon in France is interrupted by a sudden end to the Peace of Amiens. Finding themselves on unfriendly soil just hours before hostilities commence, Ramage and his bride elude the grasp of Napoleon's secret police.

Nelson's crews are standing down, and Ramage is on leave when he receives secret admiralty orders to inspect the small island of Trinidade off the coast of Brazil. Reaching the island, Ramage and the crew of the Calypso end up in a battle to free several captive merchant ships--and a beautiful woman passenger--as they cross swords with bloodthirsty priates.

Admiralty spies are hunting for British officers and allies trapped on the mainland, among them Ramage's first love, Gianna, the marchesa di Volterra. Ramage returns to the Tuscan coast, where Bonaparte holds a group of hostages for an unknown fate.

The vicious mutineers aboard the British ship Jocasta had surrendered their vessel to Spain. Sailing aboard the frigate Calypso, Captain Lord Ramage receives admiralty orders to recover her by any means.

A sinking British ship. Her crew and her passengers—men and women alike—are ruthlessly murdered at the hands of a French privateer. This is the nightmare Ramage and the crew of the Calypso stumble upon while engaged in a sweep for freebooters in the waters off Jamaica. Supported by his men in a thirst for righteous vengeance, Ramage sets sail to bring the murderers to justice.

The lieutenant is summoned by the admiralty and given command of the brig Triton. But like the rest of the Nnvy, Triton's crew has mutinied. Sympathizing with some of their complaints, Ramage also knows that if he fails to deliver three sealed dispatches to admirals off Brest and Cadiz and in the Caribbean, he will become a convenient scapegoat.

The lieutenant is ordered to proceed to Gibraltar "with all possible despatch" aboard His Majesty's ship Kathleen, to support Lord Nelson in a battle with the Spanish off Cape Trafalgar.

In a daring foray, under the very nose of the French Mediterranean fleet, Lieutenant Lord Nicholas Ramage is to sail his tiny cutter close in to the Italian shore and rescue a party of stranded aristocrats from Napoleon's fast-advancing army.

With Napoleon Bonaparte at the height of his powers, the Mediterranean can safely be considered exclusive French territory. So when Captain Ramage and his crew are sent alone into Mediterranean waters, they can expect to be outnumbered. But it is the French who discover they have an enemy for whom they had not bargained.

Ramage hopes to enjoy a well-deserved leave when he receives new orders: Ccmmission 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.

Across the English Channel, Napoleon has amassed a great invasion flotilla. English forces, under Lord Nelson, are all but paralyzed, not knowing the size, strength, or time of the foreign onslaught. In a daring spy scheme to protect British shores, Ramage is chosen to plumb the secrets of the French, and the penalty for failure is the guillotine.

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 vessel may not be up to battle with the French.