Ramage's Diamond

By Dudley Pope

Newly promoted to be the youngest Captain in the Royal Navy, in 1804 Ramage is despatched to blockade the French in Martinique. The passage proves difficult; a slovenly crew under the command of a now incompetent drunk having to be overcome so as to realise the objective. Diamond Rock is fortified and a French convoy has to be dealt with as this gripping adventure proceeds, emulating the real life exploits of Commodore Samuel Hood RN.

• Language: English
• Publisher: House of Stratus
• Release date: Mar 24, 2013
• ISBN: 9780755124725

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

Reviews for Ramage's Diamond

[jamespurcell · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Assigned to the mutinous frigate, Juno, Ramage must gain their trust and get them ready to fight.on his way to the Caribbean.Excellent series, sometimes based upon actual events. Always a good story with interesting characters, puzzling quandaries and sometimes quirky solutions. Age of sail tyros should read early in their literary questing for his knowledge and insights into fighting, sailing and British Navy life during these quite fascinating times. Many set in the Caribbean where Pope lived for most of his writing career enabling him to provide very helpful maps, not often found in fiction, for his scenarios.

[ecw0647 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This is number 7 in the Lord Ramage series of nautical novels by Dudley Pope, considered by many (including me) to be a suitable replacement to C. S. Forester. This is also another nautical series I am trying to read in order, somewhat unsuccessfully, I might add.

Ramage is now a post captain. He has been awarded the Juno, a ship whose previous captain had left in disgrace. Ramage must whip the crew into shape (which he does) and then take the ship to the Caribbean and the West Indies to blockade the French at Fort Royal on the island of Martinique. (Apparently, the actions of Ramage are based on the real-life exploits of Commodore Samuel Hood.) After cutting out two small French frigates from the port, Ramage, hearing that a large French naval convoy is soon due, decides to fortify a huge rock that commands the sea lane to the French island. Some of the most interesting detail concerns exactly how the huge guns from the Juno were taken off the ship and hauled up to the top of this rock, substantially higher than the masts of the ship. Much too heavy to be placed on the ship's small boats, the guns were hung in the water on poles between two of the boats to reduce their weight and then towed in this way closer to shore where they could be lofted by a complicated system of blocks and tackles.

The English had advance information of the French convoy of merchant ships and the approximate date when they were to arrive, but not how many escort vessels would accompany the convoy, so they were at considerable risk. Ramage/Hood was very short of men, but he stationed the Juno in such a way that it could not be seen by the approaching enemy, and then he used one of the little French ships he had captured previously to masquerade as a French schooner. At the right moment, with the assistance of a favorable breeze -- and the ineptitude of the French commodore -- he managed to separate the merchant ships from the escort. That two of the escorts ran into each other helped him immeasurably. These actions, coupled with the plunging fire from the batteries he had placed on Diamond Rock, decimated the escorts, which had vastly outnumbered him in men almost five to one.

Pope was apparently "anointed" by C.S. Forester as his successor, and his books do have the flavor of the Hornblower series. Of the many people writing excellent nautical historical fiction, Pope has recreated the atmosphere and style of Forester most similarly. Other wonderful authors are Dewey Lambdin, Patrick O’Brian, Richard Woodman, and recently James Nelson, who approaches the war from the American point of view.