Starts off with a bang when two French 74s collide. Excellent series, sometimes based upon actual events. Always a good story with interesting characters, puzzling quandaries and sometimes quirky solutions. Age of sail tyros should read early in their literary questing for his knowledge and insights into fighting, sailing and British Navy life during these quite fascinating times. Many set in the Caribbean where Pope lived for most of his writing career enabling him to provide very helpful maps, not often found in fiction, for his scenarios. ( )

When Captain Ramage is ordered to Naples, neither he nor his crew of the frigate Calypso expect to meet mostile 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 Napels, 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.