Admiral

Ned Yorke #2

by Dudley Pope

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 defence 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 honour.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction, Historical

208 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 1982

About the author

Dudley Pope was born in Ashford, Kent.

By concealing his age, Pope joined the Home Guard aged 14 and at age 16 joined the Merchant Navy as a cadet. His ship was torpedoed the next year (1942). Afterwards, he spent two weeks in a lifeboat with the few other survivors.

After he was invalided out of the Merchant Navy, the only obvious sign of the injuries Pope had suffered was a joint missing from one finger due to gangrene. Pope then went to work for a Kentish newspaper, then in 1944 moved to The Evening News in London, where he was the naval and defence correspondent. From there he turned to reading and writing naval history.

Pope's first book, "Flag 4", was published in 1954, followed by several other historical accounts. C. S. Forester, the creator of the famed Horatio Hornblower novels, encouraged Pope to add fiction to his repertoire. In 1965, "Ramage" appeared, the first of what was to become an 18-novel series.

Pope took to living on boats from 1953 on; when he married Kay Pope in 1954, they lived on a William Fife 8-meter named Concerto, then at Porto Santo Stefano, Italy in 1959 with a 42-foot ketch Tokay. In 1963 he and Kay moved to a 53-foot cutter Golden Dragon, on which they moved to Barbados in 1965. In 1968 they moved onto a 54-foot wooden yacht named Ramage, aboard which he wrote all of his stories until 1985.

Pope died April 25, 1997 in Marigot, St. Martin. Both his wife and his daughter, Jane Victoria survived him.

Reviews

[Michael Koch · Rating 3 out of 5]

This will be my only review of a book in this series. This is another sail series by Dudley Pope. This series is set in the 17th century, long before the naval series of Ramage in the late 18th, early 19th centuries. These stories take place when Spain rules the seas, but buccaneers rule the main. The details may be authentic, the guns are more primitive, they take longer to load and prime, and the ships and navigation are also more rudimentary. However, the story is essentially a spoof. The players are all stereotypes, not necessarily of their own era. The Spanish king is in debt and cannot afford the annual armada to pick up the wealth collected from the Spanish main. The Spanish are double dealing but cowardly, the British ready to fight but not ambitious or good negotiators.

The buccaneers only want the loot and maybe the ships if they are the right size and condition. They prefer to work with proper documentation from the British (or French). Prisoners are just a pain and killing people just gets them into trouble. They have two problems now. The Spanish have no money as without the annual transfer of wealth, there is nothing to support trade, so nobody has money and there are no Spanish merchant ships with loot to steal. Also, Cromwell is in power, so the British have closed all bars and brothels thus allowing the buccaneers no viable home port. Their solution is to elect a new buccaneer, Ned Yorke, as their Admiral. His only real accomplishment to date has been to raid a Spanish town and steal its cannons for use by the British to defend Jamaica. The British wish to thank Yorke by arresting him for being a Royalist.

The King is restored so Yorke negotiates bars and brothels in Jamaica for the buccaneers in exchange for more Spanish cannons. The governor wants him to help fight off an oncoming Spanish invasion which Yorke ignores. Yorke also convinces his buccaneers to take four Spanish forts and gather their cannons for the British; along the way, they will collect the annual Spanish Main wealth for themselves to be used in the Jamaican bars and brothels. They are concerned about the soldiers that man the forts, but Yorke ignores their concerns too.

Of course the wealth and cannons are collected and the forts destroyed, the buccaneers are wealthy, the cannons given to the British and the buccaneers move their base to Jamaica and trade their newfound wealth at the newly opened bars and brothels. There was little life lost as the Spanish from the forts were trying to attack the British in Jamaica but the British fought them off with the cannons they had already received from Yorke. The buccaneers took the invasion Spanish ships but they did return the remaining Spaniards to their destroyed forts with no weapons whatsoever as these were all given to the British except those needed by the buccaneers. This all turned out well except that the British wanted to thank Yorke by arresting him for not fighting the Spanish invasion with them.

OK for those who like this kind of thing. Three stars

[Mrs Diana Caplin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Slow.....oh so slow...

Too much padding, little action, and no believable story line. I wouldn’t recommend this book to even my most boring friend.

[Anne Patkau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pope builds suspense toting up figures, how many men, guns, powder, swords, until the fleet is underway. Ned, unanimously elected leader of the Brethren, concocts a plan against Spanish Portobelo. Part fast talking, part deception, all "magic".