Review written by Brian Lowen & read live on the bookshow 14th May 2015
One of the series
of books featuring Captain Ramage during the Napoleonic wars in the glorious
days of fighting sail.
An enjoyable story
centred on the island of Martinique in the Caribbean which at this time was
owned by France.
Ramage is now the
Captain of a ship of the line, a 74 gun man of war in the Royal Navy who has
been ordered by the Admiral in Barbados to blockade the port on Martinique to
prevent the French getting out to greet and protect an expected convoy from
France, desperately needed to supply the island with the essential materials of
warfare.
Dudley Pope goes
to great lengths to explain the sailing terms and ship details in what seemed
to me to be an unrealistic way, by his wife asking Ramage lots of questions
when he is commissioning the ship in Portsmouth before setting out for the West
Indies. He has been a Captain for several years and I thought that his wife would have known
all these details by now!
To me Captain
Ramage is really too good to be true in that everything he does turns out to be
a great success and this does not strike true with me. I have been following
the stories of Julian Stockwin and his hero Captain Kydd which I find much more
realistic and enjoyable.
But maybe I am
being a bit too harsh as this is an enjoyable story but to me it lacks that
cutting edge so necessary in stories of this type.
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