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Lord Ramage #16
Ramage At Trafalgar
Ramage, finally reunited with his beloved Sarah, hopes to spend at least a few quiet weeks with her. Instead, he is summoned by Admiral Nelson himself. His Ramage is to join Nelson's fleet blockading the combined French and Spanish navies in the port of Cadiz. But Nelson's plan is not merely to blockade the enemy's fleet. He intends to confront it head-on in the biggest naval battle the world has ever seen.
278 pages, Paperback
First published October 6, 1986
62 people are currently reading
190 people want to read
About the author
Dudley Pope
130 books93 followersDudley 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
May 3, 2020
It's always a tall ask trying to fit a fictional series around such a well known event in history, but I like the way pope cleverly has Ramage as a frigate captain paying a vital part of the preparations but then he can be excused from the line of battle where he doesn't belong.
I have no idea of there was a frigate to frigate action off to the side of the main battle. Whilst unusual it would be perfectly feasible and makes a good story.
It's also interesting how the cast place Nelson and the battle into their life stories right from the very moment of the battle. Can you really always tell history in the making?
Better paced than some of the recent books in the series although again it seems to end somewhat abruptly without thorough resolution
I have no idea of there was a frigate to frigate action off to the side of the main battle. Whilst unusual it would be perfectly feasible and makes a good story.
It's also interesting how the cast place Nelson and the battle into their life stories right from the very moment of the battle. Can you really always tell history in the making?
Better paced than some of the recent books in the series although again it seems to end somewhat abruptly without thorough resolution
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 15, 2021
I'm already 3 books ahead in this series so this isn't going to be a very detailed review. What it probably means is that it wasn't a very great read. I'm also using some notes I wrote down before. Though this book is named Ramage at Trafalgar, there's quite a bit of book before Ramage gets there.
As usual Pope uses his books to pass on to the reader what he thinks are interesting tidbits of the age of sail, using events that his characters experience.
The first one is his take or society's take on Nelson and his mistress and daughter. We're given several chapters' worth of interaction with Nelson and his family. After the fact I actually found that quite interesting. He had a loveless marriage with a wife who couldn't bear children and had a daughter with Emma Hamilton named Horatia. Other authors have included meeting Nelson in their books but I found Pope's treatment most succinct and least boring.
Then Pope describes the long trip down the River Medway from the Chatham dockyard to Sheerness and then down the coast.
Lastly there was an interesting section on the powder room and magazine of a ship as Ramage inspects the area with his first lieutenant. He highly dislikes the gunner (who is lazy) but can't find a way to get rid of him.
Ramage finally reports to Nelson as part of the fleet guarding Cadiz and waiting for the combined French and Spanish fleet to come out. Ramage is part of the inshore squadron under Blackwood. There's a small subplot where Ramage goes onshore to meet with a Spanish nobleman to get news. This seems to be a right of passage of fictional naval protagonists as almost every series has them going ashore in occupied Europe to get information.
Anyway Ramage gets the goods and the fleet comes out. Instead of just watching the action, Ramage decides to get in the action and engages an enemy frigate and destroys it. And the book pretty much ends there.
As usual Pope uses his books to pass on to the reader what he thinks are interesting tidbits of the age of sail, using events that his characters experience.
The first one is his take or society's take on Nelson and his mistress and daughter. We're given several chapters' worth of interaction with Nelson and his family. After the fact I actually found that quite interesting. He had a loveless marriage with a wife who couldn't bear children and had a daughter with Emma Hamilton named Horatia. Other authors have included meeting Nelson in their books but I found Pope's treatment most succinct and least boring.
Then Pope describes the long trip down the River Medway from the Chatham dockyard to Sheerness and then down the coast.
Lastly there was an interesting section on the powder room and magazine of a ship as Ramage inspects the area with his first lieutenant. He highly dislikes the gunner (who is lazy) but can't find a way to get rid of him.
Ramage finally reports to Nelson as part of the fleet guarding Cadiz and waiting for the combined French and Spanish fleet to come out. Ramage is part of the inshore squadron under Blackwood. There's a small subplot where Ramage goes onshore to meet with a Spanish nobleman to get news. This seems to be a right of passage of fictional naval protagonists as almost every series has them going ashore in occupied Europe to get information.
Anyway Ramage gets the goods and the fleet comes out. Instead of just watching the action, Ramage decides to get in the action and engages an enemy frigate and destroys it. And the book pretty much ends there.
April 21, 2024
The obligatory Trafalgar novel
Pope tells another rip roaring tale. Still not much in the way of character development. Whatever Ramage does comes out well, and we even have a disservice to the HMS Pickle n the handling of news to England. Gripping, lightweight fare.
Ship: HMS Calypso
Crew: the standard cast of Calypsos - no addition or subtraction
Love Interest: looks like Sarah is here to stay.
Pope tells another rip roaring tale. Still not much in the way of character development. Whatever Ramage does comes out well, and we even have a disservice to the HMS Pickle n the handling of news to England. Gripping, lightweight fare.
Ship: HMS Calypso
Crew: the standard cast of Calypsos - no addition or subtraction
Love Interest: looks like Sarah is here to stay.
May 17, 2020
It's a slow starter, the first half goes over most of what I already know from reading the series, but if I hadn't would be necessary to know what's going on! The last half, the actual story of the battle at Trafalgar was extremely interesting! Couldn't put it down the last few chapters, & I was planning on reading a chapter a day!
January 19, 2022
A lot of lead up to the battle, and then a role is carved out for Ramage. Lots of geographical description of the area which seemed to me to be “fill”. Oh, well, the series is running out of steam, but only a couple more…
December 22, 2022
The Latest in the Ramage series finds him being asked by Lord Nelson to join his command to fight against the French and Spanish fleet. As a frigate Ramage is not tasked to be in the line of battle at Trafalgar but he still manages to get in a spy mission and mixed up in the action. Good read.
November 10, 2025
I will miss this series when I’m done. I don’t know why I’m so into the Napoleon era sailing ships but I feel at home with Ramage.
July 16, 2012
The book was fascinating both for its historically accurate representation of Horatio Nelson and for a relatively significant bit of character development for Ramage in this, the 18th book of the series. Ramage has, to this point, operated mostly under independent command. For Ramage to take part in the Battle of Trafalgar, he has to join Admiral Nelson's fleet. While under independent command, Ramage has interpreted his orders liberally in order to best achieve his ends and further the interests of the Royal Navy. Indeed, orders were often worded vaguely precisely to give commanders this sort of leeway. As an industrious commander, Ramage has never shied away from action but, as a frigate serving as part of a larger fleet, his orders while the larger ships of the line are engaged involved staying out of the action and relaying flag signals. Unable to stand on the side-lines, Ramage flagrantly disregards these orders and takes his ship into action. Here we see the first hint that Ramage is not merely industrious, he is, to a certain extent, addicted to the thrill of action, even to the point of insubordination.
It's nice to see a bit of a character flaw in Ramage who is larger unimpeachable. Most of the protagonists in the Age of Sail genre are based to some extent on Thomas Cochrane and Ramage's behavior in this book is consistent with something we might have seen from Cochrane who was brilliant when given independent command but who bristled under authority.
I'm sad that there are only two books left in the series as I enjoy all of these Ramage books greatly.
It's nice to see a bit of a character flaw in Ramage who is larger unimpeachable. Most of the protagonists in the Age of Sail genre are based to some extent on Thomas Cochrane and Ramage's behavior in this book is consistent with something we might have seen from Cochrane who was brilliant when given independent command but who bristled under authority.
I'm sad that there are only two books left in the series as I enjoy all of these Ramage books greatly.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 5, 2014
Another great Ramage novel. True, the Captain seems to be able to leap tall buildings in a single bound unlike Bolitho, Hornblower, Kidd, or Lewrie, but all of his books have been well written and hard to put down. I'm just sorry to see the end of the series in sight. If I had to write anything else that detracted from the book, it would be the repeated use of the French, Spanish or Italian names of every headland, bay, shoal, rock, fort, town or tower they come across. A slight distraction in any case, and I would highly recommend the series to anyone interested in historical, nautical, or Napoleonic era fiction.
July 18, 2015
Short read as Pope normally goes; started slow with a good deal of filler ... English countryside road and stage stop descriptions, further description of the waters and shoals departing port and getting to sea; however, thrilling account of joining the British feet off Cadiz, Spain for the greatest naval battle of the Napoleonic years. Really enjoyed Ramage's personal interactions with Lord Nelson ...
May 14, 2012
I have read all of Mr. Pope's Lord Ramage series and this one was the one I looked forward to the most. The battle of Trafalgar is one of my all time favorite battles to read about and I thought Mr. Pope did very well; even if Tanager does do more with a Frigate than most Captains would have with a 74. B-)
May 5, 2012
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..
April 29, 2011
2nd Ramage in the row that wasn't great. Just not as much going on in these books as with the first ones. Don't know if I'll read any more.
July 2, 2015
Good action although
Injoyed the book plenty of action good story all through
Good crew also from the first officer to the cook
Injoyed the book plenty of action good story all through
Good crew also from the first officer to the cook
June 13, 2016
This was a short book than most of the Damage series but it is still a good read.
Read
July 28, 2009Enjoyed
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews