Ramage and The Drum Beat (Dudley Pope)

Ramage and The Drum Beat (Dudley Pope) lands on the shelves of my shop, where it will be found in my Fiction Author: P section. priced at £6.50! Call in and get 40% OFF that price when you mention this post…

London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1967, (First Edition) Hardback in dust wrapper.

From the cover: Nicholas Ramage, a lieutenant in George IIIs navy, was the hero of Dudley Popes Ramage. Then he rescued and fell in love with the beautiful young Marchesa di Volterra, and was ordered by Nelson to take her safely to Gibralter in his tiny cutter HMS Kathleen.

On the way Ramage sights a Spanish frigate, which he should have left severely alone. But egged on by the adventurous Marchesa he captures it but loses the Marchesa (temporarily, anyway) to the captain of a passing British frigate who disapproves of Ramages ideas about the Marchesas safety. And she had a lucky escape the Spanish fleet arrives, captures the Kathleen and her prize frigate, and Ramage. But by posing as an American seaman press-ganged into the Navy against his will, Ramage persuades the Spaniards not to imprison him.

Back in the Spanish naval base of Cartagena, Ramage manages to read the Spanish admirals secret orders, steals a ship and sails to warn the British the Spanish Fleet is at sea setting the stage for the real-life Battle of Cape St Vincent (in which the young Nelson first distinguished himself- by disobeying orders). Dudley Pope describes the Battle through Ramages eyes a battle in which Ramage suddenly finds the only way he can outsmart the Spanish admiral who is fleeing under the cover of the smoke of the British broadsides is to give an order which will sink his own ship and kill himself and all his crewVery Good in Good Dust Wrapper. Unlaminated dust wrapper a little edgeworn and faded with a little loss to the head of the upper panel. The pages are somewhat tanned, if tight, and a little musty.

Red boards with Gilt titling to the Spine. 270 pages. 8″ x 5¼”.

ramage and the drum beat dudley pope weidenfeld nicolson

ramage and the drum beat dudley pope weidenfeld nicolson b