Nelson's crews are standing down and Ramage is on leave when he receives secret Admiralty orders to inspect the small island of Trinidade off the coast of Brazil.
Reaching the island, Ramage and the crew of the Calypso fetch up in a battle to free several captive merchant ships-and a beautiful woman passenger-as they cross swords with blood-thirsty priates.
About the Author Dudley Pope, a naval defense correspondent of the London Evening News, progressed to writing carefully researched naval history.
Forester urged Pope to try his hand at fiction and saw the younger writer as his literary heir.
Pope began what was to become an impressive series with Ramage (1965) and, over the next 24 years, produced 17 more novels tracing Lord Ramage's career.
Pope died in 1997.
