The youngest captain in His Majesty's Navy, with a reputation for landing impossible assignments, Lord Ramage is dispatched to the Caribbean islands of Martinique and Diamond Rock. The mission seems humdrum: barricade the French within Fort Royal. But sent to sea in the Juno with a crew grown restless and undisciplined under the prior command of a drunk, Ramage realizes his vessel may not be up to battle with the French.

Across the English Channel, Napoleon has massed a great invasion flotilla. English forces, under Lord Nelson, are all but paralyzed-not knowing the size, strength, or time of the foreign onslaught. In a daring spy scheme to protect British shores, Ramage is chosen to plumb the secrets of the French, and the penalty for failure is the guillotine.

Captain Lord Ramage's honeymoon in France is interrupted by a sudden end to the Peace of Amiens. Finding themselves on unfriendly soil just hours before hostilities commence, Ramage and his bride elude the grasp of Napoleon's secret police.

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 pirates.

Captain Lord Ramage and the Calypso return from Devil's Island, but Ramage's new wife Sarah is missing. The captain would like nothing better than to sail home immediately, but instead he is ordered to shepherd a lumbering convoy of merchant ships back to England. On the way, bizarre events lead him 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!

Barbary Coast pirates-the Saraceni-are capturing slaves and terrorizing fishing villages along the coast of Sicily. Ramage and his crew are sent to track them down before they can devastate another town.

The Calypso and her captain, Lord Nicholas Ramage, venture further into the French-dominated waters of the Mediterranean on an Admiralty mission to sink, burn, and destroy.