The Black Ship

Leg has it that Patrick O'Brian's editor paid that author's first manuscript what he considered to be high praise indeed: he compared it to the works of Dudley Pope. The late Pope's naval histories are renowned for the way they share the riveting, evocative character of his novels. This is true of none more than his masterly The Black Ship, a work of nonfiction that reads like a thriller. In a true story evocative of Mutiny on the Bounty, Pope recounts one of the most brutal episodes in British Naval history, the bloody mutiny aboard H.M.S. Hermione, and the Royal Navy's daring recapture of the same ship.

Dudley Pope was a greatly distinguished British author of naval history and fiction. He is best known for his novels of the Napoleonic wars that feature the unforgettable characters Nicholas Ramage and Ned York. His books have been translated into twelve languages.