Red flags flutter at the mastheads of the Channel Fleet ships gathered at the Spithead anchorage.
It is 1797, across the calm waters of the Solent the great naval base of Portsmouth lies impotent. Worse, unrest is spreading to Plymouth, backdrop to Francis Drakes Armada heroics two centuries earlier, and to the Nore, the great anchorage at the gateway to London. To the downtrodden sailors whose pay has not been increased for a hundred years and who endure a poor diet, harsh punishments and lack of shore leave, it is time to strike for better pay and conditions. But, according to the rigid Articles of War, akin to holy writ on board His Majestys ships, it is mutiny. And at a time when Britain is at war with Revolutionary France and threatened with invasion, the nation is plunged into grave peril.
Young Lieutenant Oliver Anson, a distant relative of the legendary circumnavigator Admiral George Anson, is keenly awaiting transfer to duties aboard a frigate in the Mediterranean. Any ideas of idleness while he waits are swept aside when he is ordered to travel to Portsmouth on a mysterious mission. What are the contents of the papers he is to deliver personally to the flag officer there? Who among his fellow travellers on the express Royal Mail coach would try to steal them? How does he survive a more dangerous attack after being despatched to the Nore on a further secret assignment?
David McDines Strike the Red Flag skilfully uses actual events in the Royal Navys history as the backdrop to some great swashbuckling fiction which remains true to social history while examining the idea of duty and the loneliness of command. His knowledge and evocation of the period is impressive, and his pitch-perfect phrasing recreates a fascinating world now lost to us.
David McDine, OBE , is a former Admiralty information officer, Royal Navy Reserve officer and Deputy Lieutenant of Kent, and the author of Unconquered: The Story of Kent and its Lieutenancy. He also wrote The Normandy Privateer , another naval adventure featuring Lieutenant Oliver Anson, of which Strike the Red Flag is a prequel.
ES Index : 2
Number of Words in Auth: 2
Formats : EPUB
Number of Formats : 1
Has Cover : Yes
All Identifiers : goodreads:36159500, google:j6ZWswEACAAJ, isbn:9781549715525, mobi-asin:B0758FKG82
Test Text Series Index: Anson
Single Author : David McDine
Original Source : New_Files_Oatmeal_07_21_PM
Sorted Author by LN, FN: McDine, David
Title Length : 019
Title Parm D : Strike the Red Flag
Title Parm F : Strike the Red Flag
Num of Aut : 1
Title Parm B : (
ES Lib Name : NIRC 2019-07
Record ID : 12651
Template Work Area : Anson
ES Name : Lieutenant Oliver Anson
Uncomma Author : David McDine
Title Parm A : Strike the Red Flag