The Devil Himself: The Mutiny of 1800

By Dudley Pope

Accurate, fair, thorough, and lively, this penetrating account of a mutiny and its aftermath is compiled from contemporary British documents and the dusty French naval archives. The men, the ship, and the tragic chain of events following a capture by the press-gang are described and this extraordinary 1800 mutiny is brought to life. It tells how the British crew of the Danae—a captured French corvette—mutinied, sailed the ship back to France, turned it over to Napoleon, and received a cash reward. Those who survived, hanged, and died disgraced in a far-off colonial posting are chronicled. This history is also significant in that it encouraged Dudley Pope to try his hand at fiction, resulting in theLord Ramage novels. The historical figures in this true story inspired some of the favorite fictional characters and plot elements in Pope’s novels.

• Language: English
• Publisher: McBooks Press
• Release date: May 1, 2003
• ISBN: 9781590136980

Dudley Pope

Dudley Bernard Egerton Pope was born in 1925 into an ancient Cornish seafaring family. He joined the Merchant Navy at the age of sixteen and spent much of his early life at sea. He was torpedoed during the Second World War and resulting spinal injuries plagued him for the rest of his life. Towards the end of the war Pope turned to journalism, becoming the Naval and Defence Correspondent for the 'London Evening News'. At this time he also researched naval history and in time became an authority on the Napoleonic era and Nelson's exploits, resulting in several well received volumes, especially on the Battles of Copenhagen and Trafalgar. Encouraged by Hornblower creator CS Forester, he also began writing fiction using his own experiences in the Navy and his extensive historical research as a basis. In 1965, he wrote 'Ramage', the first of his highly successful series of novels following the exploits of the heroic 'Lord Nicholas Ramage' during the Napoleonic Wars. Another renowned series is centred on 'Ned Yorke', a buccaneer in the seventeenth century Caribbean and then with a descendant following the 'Yorke' family naval tradition when involved in realistic secret operations during the Second World War. Dudley Pope lived aboard boats whenever possible, along with his wife and daughter, and this was where he wrote the majority of his novels. Most of his adult life was spent in the Caribbean and in addition to using the locale for fictional settings he also wrote authoritatively on naval history of the region, including a biography of the buccaneer Sir Henry Morgan. He died in 1997 aged seventy one. 'The first and still favourite rival to Hornblower' - Daily Mirror