Ramage's Prize

Lord Ramage #5

by Dudley Pope

"Lord Ramage returns for another highly-charged and thrilling adventure at sea. Instructed with the task of discovering why His Majesty's dispatches keep unaccountably disappearing, Ramage finds himself involved in a situation far beyond his expectations. Based on true events, Ramage's Prize is another gripping story from Dudley Pope."

Genres: Historical Fiction, Historical, Fiction, Nautical, Adventure, War, Action

352 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

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

[Angelo Cabingan · Rating 5 out of 5]

My introduction to Dudley Pope’s books, having watched Master & Commander. I’d been reintroduced to my love of this era (loved the Sharpe novels as a kid), and had my historical itch properly scratched. Worth a read!

[Alex · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another gripping and well written adventure investigating the mystery of the excessive captures of Post Office Packets from the West Indies.

[Rich Lambert · Rating 4 out of 5]

excellent ramage as per. my dad said it's like the Sharpe novels so will try them at some point

[Reni · Rating 3 out of 5]

They did it. They got rid of some of the more silly, yet charming quirks of the series, and I really don't like it. Without some of his more outrageous and over the top aspects Ramage is just another Age of Sail adventure hero. I'm not giving up on the series yet, but I am a bit disappointed right now.

Plus, I cannot stop reading now that we're finally leaving Yorke behind. He was a good character, but I actually prefer it when Ramage only has himself and his seamen to look to for help.

Anyway, like the other books in the series, this volume is well written. Pope is not a master of words like O'Brian, so the language is nothing to get excited about, but the writing style fits the swashbuckling, adventure style of the series' plots very well. And even better, Pope knows how to create suspense and still exceeds at writing action scenes.

Sadly, this volume is less fast-paced than even the one before. It starts of slow with a rather unexciting investigation (in what later turns out to be the infamous packet scandal that shook the British Post-Office in the late 1790's), followed by a nice build-up for a few chapters until the capture of the packet about halfway through the book, and then the pacing is back to a bit of a slog until Ramage and Gianna are re-united. (btw. even though they are both a bit too good to be true, I have found they really work as a couple. I really enjoyed their scenes together. A shame that I already spoiled myself that Ramage marries someone else instead, eventually. Even if the break-up happens off screen, I really hope Pope milked it for drama!)

At first I was bit miffed that the privateers -- or rather, their prize-master --, after first having been set up as being worse than pirates, turned out to be so nice and friendly, so our protagonists trip to Lisbon is pretty comfortable. However, it does set up a nice contrast to have the French privateer be a decent person, while the true villains of the book are British.

I also noticed that in this volume less people immediately took a liking to, or simply worshipped Ramage without any good reason. Heck, Lord Spencer didn't even want to talk to him, and unjustly snapped at him, after gushing about his sparkling eyes in book #3! ;) It's like these books are becoming proper, serious novels! While I will miss the stupid throwing knife, and Ramage not being able to talk like a normal person when he gets angry, this is a change I actually approve of.

The last conflict of the book is a bit contrived (I don't really buy that our hero wouldn't even think about asking the British frigates for help with a crew that he knew, not just feared or expected, to mutiny, especially after he took his girlfriend on board!), but as it is exciting I can't really stay mad at the book for it. This is just how this series works. Logic doesn't always play into it, when it would mean you had to pass on a good adventure plot. Plus, actually having to deal with a mutiny facilitated the mutineers punishment, which makes it certainly the most satisfying solution from an adventure reader's point of view.

[Tony Hisgett · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ramage is investigating why so many ‘Post Office Packet Boats’ are being taken by French Privateers. However when the reason became obvious, Ramage didn’t seem to have a clue. In fact it was at this point in the book I almost lost interest in the story, it didn’t help that a big chunk of the book involved waiting around with nothing happening.
It has been a long time since I first read this book, nearly forty years and I don’t remember being quite this frustrated with Ramage’s stupidity in dealing with the traitorous captain and the crew of the “Lady Arabella”. Perhaps my tastes have changed with age.
The book was definitely not one of my favourites, if possible I would have given 2.5 stars.

[Viva · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm reading the series partly in chronological order and this 5th book appears to be the best one he's written so far.

Spoilers ahead:
The plot is a little different, not really your ship to ship action. There have been a lot of post packet ships lost lately. Apparently they are British postal service ships that carry mail from England to the West Indies here. They are at a loss to why and what's happening and the Admiralty directs Ramage to investigate. So it's bit of a mystery book.

Some of it doesn't make sense. Ramage quickly finds out that French privateers are capturing the packet ships and everyone knows that because the officers and men are quickly exchanged by the French and they go on to command new ships. So don't the Admiralty or the Postal Service (I forget the name) question the men or officers after they're exchanged? From the beginning of the book, it seems like they think the ships vanished off the face of the Earth.

Next Ramage and a dozen of his men decide to go in one of the packet ships going back to England to find out exactly what happens. After some questioning of the commander of the ship, the reader should figure out easily that it's all just an insurance scam. The commander and the men insure the ship and the goods going there and back and they let themselves get captured by the privateers and the insurers pay out.

They make money because they sell the goods when they get to the West Indies but they lie and don't actually carry any goods back but they are allowed to claim the whole value after they are exchanged. Anyway the commander of the packet ship tries his hardest to pretend to get away from a privateer on the way back and the author writes that Ramage and his men still can't figure why!

The packet ship is seized and the commander and surgeon are taken aboard the privateer to go France. Ramage and the rest of the crew are taken to Lisbon by the prize master. Once there, they make a deal with the prize master (who turns out to be a decent guy) to buy the ship from him. Ramage sorts this out with the Postal Service and Admiralty and they even have Parliament change a law in order to do it.

Ramage sails from Lisbon, endures a mutiny by the original crew on the way back and reports back to the Admiralty. It seems that the authorities didn't believe the report he sent from Lisbon but the report of the mutiny seals the deal.

I gave 5 stars to the book because of the effort the author put into his writing when Ramage was dealing with the first Sea Lord and the Postal Service administrator at the end. This is why Hornblower was so good, every character in that series was full of personality. From the wherry man bringing HH to his ship to the diving master to the captain of the barge on the canal journey to Maria's mother. Every character, even someone with a paragraph never to be seen again got the full treatment. You could feel the person through the words and pages. And it wasn't done with a lot of dialog or writing, it was succinct and precise.

Pope put a lot of effort into writing Lord Spencer and Lord Auckland. Why couldn't he do that in the entire series? I think he tried. Sometimes it was overdone, sometimes it wasn't enough, but I think mainly it wasn't convincing. It was a bit overdone in the beginning with the Ramage worship and lacked effort at the end. I think he was just hitting his pace in the later beginning of the series so I look forward to the next book.

[Michael Koch · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the fifth adventure of Lord Nicholas Ramage in the Royal Navy at the time of Napoleon. Britain’s war with revolutionary France is being waged. Ramage is stuck in Jamaica having solved a major problem with privateers taking merchantmen even when in convoy. Unfortunately, he lost his own ship to a hurricane. The admiral owns him appreciation, but he has too few ships and too many mentees; Ramage expects to have to find his own way home as a passenger. Ultimately the admiral gives him a serious problem to solve and a dozen Tritons, (sailors from his previous ship, HMS Triton).

Over the last year or so, the number of Post packets lost to privateers has escalated dangerously. As many as three out of every four packets are lost. So many are lost that the Foreign Office is unable to communicate with its locations and officers in most of the world. Even the Royal Navy is losing communications with most of its distance stations unless a warship happens to be sent there or is returning. The packets are small ships with small crews and a handful of small cannons. They are fast but cannot stand up to a heavily armed privateer, crowded with men eager to share in the prize. The loss of communications is impeding the war effort; strategy cannot be executed dependably. Secrets and orders might even be getting to the French if the captains do sink the mail before the privateers take their ships.

Ramage goes around gathering as much information as he can. He talks to the post manager, the captain of a packet that just arrived, other ship captains and some packet crew members. He learns that packets seem to mostly make it from England to the Caribbean but are lost mostly on the journey home to Britain. I think I can say without spoil alert that Ramage decides the only way he can discover the answers is to travel home on a packet as a passenger. The packet meets up with a privateer and Ramage is put seriously at risk.

When Ramage identifies the problem and takes his solution to the Admiralty and Post Office, he is not fully believed. Fortunately, he has brought a passenger and the Mate from the packet who can confirm his findings. All will be handled with due thanks to Ramage, his helpers and the Tritons. Little will be public because of negative reflection on the Post Office.

This was a good story, well told. Although there was little outright action in this story, Pope is adept at ensuring there was always a sense of tension; fear for Ramage’s life or more likely imprisonment as a POW.

Four stars.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book begins with an Author's note that this story is based on true events.

This story begins with Ramage in Jamaica during hurricane season. He receives a letter from Sir Pilcher with an offer. On the Jamaica Station promotion is rapid for those who are favored. Ramage would never be in Pilcher's favored circle. Originally Ramage had come to the Caribbean with secret orders from the First Lord of the Admiralty, and that insured that he would never be one of Pilcher's favorites. Ramage had lost his ship during a hurricane. His friend, Yorke, owned fives ship that he could order to come for him. Ramage figured that the offer from Pilcher was for an unpleasant job. Yorke found his life in London was boring, & felt that meeting Ramage was a refreshing change. Ramage had been lucky so far, but he was weary. The packet boats weren't getting thru with the mail, & the Deputy Postmaster-General blamed the Navy. More packet boats were being taken, but the navy saw fewer privateers. Why was Pilcher offering him this job instead of giving it to a captain with a 74 gun ship with a few frigates? Ramage & Yorke agreed that Pilcher should be given an ultimatum.

[Jason Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting little adventure, more so when it is understood that it is based on real events. Ramage continues his habit of beating the odds at every turn. It is a bit creepy that after falling madly in love with every skirt in the Caribbean, he somehow considers himself a one-woman man. It’s the little inconsistencies that can ruin serial adventures. For now, though, I still like these light and breezy adventures, though it feels like our Nicholas is overdue for a frigate command.

[Jack Sakalauskas · Rating 3 out of 5]

The only thing that kept my interest in this book was the information on the Packet Boats. Although it is based on true events, we have to take it with a grain of salt. I skimmed through pages of descriptions and conversations, like the discourse with the agent in Lisbon. Just a jumble of words. If the next book doesn't improve, I'll have to ditch this series.

[John Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of boring sections and repetitious.

Pope, Tubbs, Lambdin, Stockwin...everyone bitches about Admiralty protection over it's family of assholes, over and over and over again ! We get it, it's at least a third of every book we read, in a series of 15 or 20 books it is hashed over book after book.

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty decent Ramage novel but not a lot of sea action. Ramae is investigating how the mail is being stolen. Somehow London cannot communicate with the rest of the Empire. he and his merry band of seamen try to get to the bottom of it. Okay for 1 book but hopefully the rest get back to some sea battles.

[sarg · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Ramages Prize" Dudley Pope
Ramage is sent to investigate why the mail packets from the West Indies are being lost. Not one of popes best. Used to more swashbuckling adventures than this one. Gave it3 stars

[Anne Patkau · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another thrill-packed Ramage "based on true events. P.O. packet brigs were surrendered to French privateers in the manner described" p 9.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not very good. An uninteresting premises, insurance fraud, made even less interesting by the author.

[Coleen Dailey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finding who is intercepting packet mail boats and why. Another interesting story.

[Steven Mann · Rating 5 out of 5]

another fine entry in this series.

The mystery and action make up for Ramage’s lack of a ship to command. What comes next, can’t wait to see.

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good view into a short but eventful episode in the Ramage adventures!

[Sue Foster · Rating 3 out of 5]

a good series of books stands along side Hornblower.
Having read this series I find this is the weaker one.
but still a good read.

[Gareth Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pope weaves a convincing tale from obscure material in this luting for Ramage. Where does the Post Office fit into the war at sea against the French? Read Ramage’s Prize to find out!

[Michael Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the previous novel in this (so far) excellent naval historical series, Lieut. Lord Ramage barely survived French privateers and a hurricane in the Caribbean, and his brig ended up with her bottom torn out on a reef, though Ramage was able to save all her people. As this fifth novel opens, he’s sitting on the veranda of a Kingston hotel, wondering what the next phase in his career will bring -- assuming he can get another ship. Then the Commander in Chief of the Caribbean station taps him for an unusual assignment: The packet boats operated by Britain’s Post Office Department are being captured by French privateers at a prodigious rate, much more frequently than one would expect the usual odds to support. Most people simply assume there are a lot more privateers operating than earlier in the war, but Ramage and the commanding admiral both know that isn’t the case. There’s a mystery here and Ramage’s commission is to solve it -- though he still doesn’t have a ship. Deciding the only way to get to the bottom of the puzzle is to take passage on the next homebound packet himself, he gathers his small but loyal group of subordinates, supporters, and friends and sets out. It turns out to be a complex combination of issues but all of them turn on greed, treachery, and political blindness.

Pope is sometimes content to give his protagonist more in the way of intellectual problems and puzzles and less gore and cutlass-swinging, and that’s okay. And it’s especially interesting when you know that the whole episode -- including the official ransoming of a captured packet out of Lisbon harbor -- is closely based on historical fact. In fact, Pope has followed the best tradition of Napoleonic-era naval fiction in taking many of his plots (and all the background and color) from the records at the Admiralty. Ramage himself is a likeable character and the supporting cast isn’t too badly clichéd, the descriptions are beautifully done (especially in the Caribbean, where the author was cruising on a schooner at the time he was writing these novels), and there’s a nice leavening of humor.

[Douglas Love · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rampage is one lucky Lieutenant

Dudley Pope's Ramage boulevard a rollicking good read, but the hero seems to be entirely too lucky by far. Every time he is in danger, there is some sort of near miraculous escape.

[Peter · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first of the Ramage books - all of which are exciting and well written. The Ramage series ranks 3rd with me behind Hornblower and Bolitho for age of sail excitement. Ramage is just a little too good and nothing is impossible..

[Bob Cantrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one was a bit of a mystery story. What was happening to the mail packets from England to the Caribbean. The French are taking them but the question is how are they being so successful at and that is what Ramage is giving the job of doing. I won't say what happens, but will say it was exciting.

[Gerold Whittaker]

Enjoyed

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked it! Am reading through the rest of the series.

[Juanita · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting look at the wiles of old time seafaring.

[Jon Box · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ramage takes a voyage in a Post Office Packet to investigate losses to French privateers-will he ever get another ship? Another good Pope adventure . . .

[william . T. Yarham · Rating 4 out of 5]

What will be be up to next


Very good and full of adventue always something brewing.gets you thinking can not wait to get the next book to find out where to next?

[Holly Bartlett · Rating 4 out of 5]

these are great popcorn reads...fun and quick.