Nicholas Ramage series:

Lord Nicholas Ramage, eldest son of the Tenth Earl of Blazey, Admiral of the White, was born in 1775 at Blazey Hall, St. Kew, Cornwall. He entered the Royal Navy as a midshipman in 1788, at the age of thirteen. He served with distinction in the Mediterranean, the Caribbean, and home waters during the war against French, participating in several major sea battle and numerous minor engagements. Despite political difficulties, his rise through the ranks has been rapid.

Readers of the Ramage series soon become good friends with the regular cast of character. There is the old master Southwick with his peculiar sword, the Scottish first officer Aitken, the ship's doctor (a former alcoholic) Bowen and the Marchesa's nephew Midshipman Paolo Orsini. There is the trio of seamen Jackson (the American) , Rossi (an Italian from Genoa) and Stafford (a Cockney) and the remaining gun crew comprised of Louis "and the three other Royalist Frenchmen." And there is a passing parade of many stalwart Lieutenants. On the home front there is always Hanson the butler, and Ramages's parents the Earl and Lady Blazey. And so there is Gianna, the Marchesa di Volterra, and there is Sarah. And we occasionally meet the Earl of St. Vincent, Lord Nelson - and even Hornblower.



#1 Ramage (1965)
In 1796 third lieutenant Ramage of the frigate SIBELLA must complete a mission after the attack of a French 74 kills all the other officers.

Raiding Party ...

The special orders come direct from Nelson himself, and contains news of a mission close to young Lieutenant Ramage's heart. In a daring foray, under the very nose of the French Mediterranean fleet, he is to sail his tiny cutter close in to the Italian shore - there to rescue a party of stranded aristocrats from Napoleon's fast-advancing army .

He does not know that one of them, the beautiful Marchesa di Volterra, will soon capture his heart...
#2 Ramage and the Drumbeat (1968) (Drumbeat in the US)
Proceed with all possible despatch . .  

Lieutenant Lord Ramage in command of His Majesty's ship Kathkeen, cutter,  is ordered to proceed to Gilbraltar. Lt. Ramage captures a dismasted Spanish frigate, gets the KATHLEEN captured in turn, becomes a spy in Cadiz, then, escaping, is restored to command of the recaptured KATHLEEN, and helps Captain Nelson win the battle of Cape St. Vincent.

 #3 Ramage and the Freebooters (1969)
(The Triton Brig in the US.)
Lieutenant Lord Ramage is summoned to the Admiralty, where the First Lord gives him command of the 10-gun brig Triton, as well as three sealed despatches addressed to the admirals off Brest and Cadiz, and in the Caribbean. Ramage, who has sympathy with some of the mutineer's complaints, must overcome a crew that has joined the Spithead Mutiny to deliver the dispatches to the Caribbean. Failure to deliver the dispatches means he will be a convenient scapegoat for the Admiralty. Once on station, he is given the task of finding why coastal freighters are disappearing as they sail from Grenada -- a puzzle whose solution has eluded two post captains. This, is an exciting story which captures all the mystery and adventure of the Caribbean in Nelson's day.

#4 Governor
Ramage RN (1973)
 Lord Ramage finds himself in a dramatic, swashbuckling adventure, set in the West Indies against the background of the war with revolutionary France. Ramage has to be especially vigilant while guarding a convoy enroute from Barbados to Jamaica. This is usually a routine, tedious task but the dreaded Admiral Goddard means to continue his vendetta against the young Lieutenant! Ramage, tangles with hurricanes and disguised French privateers after a very special cargo. He handles these situations credibly, of course, and in addition he captures an island from the Spanish, discovers buried treasure and falls in love. But he returns to discover that the evil, obsessed Rear-Admiral Goddard is having him court-martialled - for cowardice ...

#5 Ramage's Prize (1974)
Lieutenant Ramage is sent to find out what is happening to His Majesty's mail packets in 1798. The West Indian bases are desperate: no packets have arrived with orders in months. Were the privateers out in full force again? Based on true incidents.

 

#6 Ramage and the Guillotine (1975)
France 1801 ...
As Napoleon masses his armies for the Great Invasion, the hard-pressed British Navy sends Lieutenant Lord Ramage to learn how many men threaten England's shores.
French-speaking Lt. Ramage, now 25, is off to France spy on Napoleon and the impending invasion of England. Ramage embarks on a spying mission which will require all his nerve and resourcefulness, and in which the penalty for discovery is the guillotine ...

#7 Ramage's Diamond (1976)
Blockade ...
Lord Ramage, the navy's youngest and most junior captain, is ordered to set sail for Diamond Rock, off the West Indian island of Martinique in 1802. It is a routine mission - to blockade the French in Fort Royal - but the Juno, his new command, is not a routine navy ship. With a crew grown slack and mutinous under its alcoholic ex-captain, the Juno is in no state when she arrives to take on the pride of the French fleet. Then a sudden and daring attack by ruthless French privateers in West Indian waters stretches the new captain and his untried crew to within an inch of their lives ... Captain Ramage attacks a French convoy. Many readers consider Ramage's Diamond their favourite of the series.. 

 #8 Ramage's Mutiny (1977)
Mutiny on the Spanish Main
English Harbour, Antigua, is buzzing with the news - of bloody mutiny and desertion on board one of His Majesty's frigates. The Admiral considers young Captain Ramage expendable enough to be sent to rescue her. Ramage, now commanding the frigate CALYPSO, is given the impossible assignment to cut out the captured British frigate from the impregnable Spanish stronghold at Santa Cruz.To get in past the Spanish guns - and out again - Ramage uses all the sea cunning that is in his blood. Even when it comes to encouraging his own crew to 'mutiny' ...

#9 Ramage and the Rebels (1978)
Pirates on the Spanish main ...
Two days out from Jamaica on a routine patrol against privateers, Captain Ramage and his ship Calypso come up a sight that terrifies even his battle-hardened crew. A French privateer, caught in the act of taking a British ship, has ruthlessly butchered the passengers and crew - sparing not even the women. Armed only with the privateer's name, Ramage and his crew are determined to get revenge on the pirates - and set out to find them in the hostile ports of the Spanish Main...

 

 #10 The Ramage Touch (1979)
Ramage and the CALYPSO are sent into the Mediterranean to wreak havoc.
False colours ...
Alone in the French-infested Mediterranean, a thousand miles from the nearest English ship, Nicholas Ramage stumbles on a French invasion fleet. With only the Calypso and two unwieldy prize bomb ketches under his command, he must stop them - and only the most desperate ruse will save the Calypso and its two prizes.
 #11 Ramage's Signal (1980)
Ramage and CALYPSO continue their solo mission into the Mediterranean to confuse the French.
Sink, burn and destroy
Napoleon's boast that the Mediterranean was a French lake seemed true when he blasted the British out and pinned them down elsewhere.So when the Admiralty send Captain Ramage and the Calypso on a lone foray into his domain, Napoleon gets a shock. For once there Ramage quickly spots the Frenchman's jugular - and sets out to cut it. 		#12 Ramage & the Renegades (1981)
Ramage and CALYPSO are off to the coast of Brazil to claim an island.
The dangers of peace...
With the Treaty of Amiens signed, Nelson's navy relaxes its guard. But Captain Ramage, on leave at home, suspects Napoleon of trickery. Secret Admiralty orders are to survey a small island off the coast of Brazil, so Ramage sails the Calypso into the island's only anchorage - and into more danger than the war has ever flung across his bow... Ramage finds that the harbor of the island is filled with pirates and the merchantmen they have captured. Ramage must free the merchantmen's passengers—including the bewitching Lady Sarah!

#13 Ramage's Devil (1982)
With the Treaty of Amiens signed, and the Calypso about to be paid off, Ramage and his new bride can at last honeymoon in France as guests of the Count of Rennes.Ramage is on his honeymoon in France when war breaks out again in 1803. Finding themselves on unfriendly soil just hours before hostilities commence, Ramage and Sarah elude the grasp of Napoleon's secret police. Even as they escape, their host is captured. Ramage steals a ship and escapes.
Perfidy...
Napoleon - his armies restocked - has all foreigners and French royalists arrested and sent to Devil's Island, the French prison colony. Ramage is despatched in Calypso, but can he pull off the rescue?

 #14 Ramage's Trial (1984)
Ramage is assigned convoy duty, is attacked by another British ship, and then is accused of nasty crimes
Captain Lord Ramage and the Calypso puts into Barbados for food and water upon his return from Devil's Island. Ramage is dismayed to find a fleet of merchant ships waiting for a frigate to escort them back to England.
Dark tidyings await.
His wife, Sarah, is missing. But instead of being free ro sail with all haste for home, Ramage is ordered to shepherd the lumbering convoy of merchant ships back to England. On the way, a bizarre sequence of events leads Ramage to a full Court Martial in Plymouth -- presided over by his old nemesis, Rear-Admiral Goddard. Ramage must clear his name... or face a sentence of death! 		#15 Ramage's Challenge (1985)
The Admiralty have ordered Ramage's return to the Mediterranean. This time his task is not to pursue the French fleet, but to rescue a group of influential British prisoners being held hostage by Napoleon - among them Ramage's first love, Gianna, the Marchesa di Volterra. Admiralty spies think they have discovered where the prisoners are being held - but Ramage is forced to doubt the accuracy of their information. Ramage returns to the Tuscan coast, where the hostages are being held for an unkown fate. Still grieving over the disappearance of his wife, Ramage must lead the Calypso into enemy waters, venture deep inland, locate the hostages, and -- against all odds -- bring them to safety!
 #16 Ramage at Trafalgar (1986)
Captain Ramage is personally summoned by Admiral Nelson to join his fleet in blockade duty off Cadiz. When.
Captain Ramage is personally summoned by Admiral Nelson and sent to join Nelson's fleet off Cadiz where the British are blockading the French and Spanish navies.
At home in Kent, Ramage's young wife Sarah is distraught when the news reaches her that one of the biggest naval battles the world has ever known - the battle of Trafalgar - is about to take place. Sarah hopes that Ramage will manage to avoid the front line of battle. But her hopes are in vain. The French and Spanish navies try to break free and Ramage is drawn to the front lines of Britain's greatest naval battle. Fighting for his country, Ramage soon finds himself struggling to save his own life, as well as that of his fearless little frigate, Calypso...
#17 Ramage and the Saracens (1988)
When Captain Ramage is ordered to Naples in 1806, neither he nor the crew of the frigate Calypso expect to meet hostile ships in the Mediterranean so soon after the battle of Trafalgar. Yet hardly have they cleared the Straits of Gibraltar than they sight two French battleships of the Line.
Arriving eventually in Naples, Ramage reports to Admiral Rudd, expecting to be given the tedious task of escorting merchantmen. Nothing could be further from the truth. The mission he is given is one far better suited to his reputation: he is to sail to Sicily where the Barbary Coast pirates - the Saraceni - have been terrorizing the fishing ports. 		#18 Ramage and
the Dido (1989)
Ramage is given command of the DIDO, 74, and sent to the West Indies. Their Lordships of the Admiralty have seen fit to make Lord Nicholas Ramage the youngest captain of a ship of the line since Nelson himself. His new vessel is the most formidable war machine in the British Navy, carrying enough weight of metal to sink a frigate with a single broadside, and arms capable of cutting down enemy seamen like a scythe through grass.
Accompanied by his faithful old crew, Captain Ramage sets out for the West Indies. But before he reaches the Caribbean he runs into a storm of trouble. The Dido is a powerful weapon: if he is to survive his first mission as captain, he must learn to use her destructive capabilities to the full.

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