This is the second installment in the "Lord Nicholas Ramage" series and it begins a few days after the first one ended, with Lieut. Ramage commanding an extremely cutter west of Sardinia in the Fall of 1796, trying to convey the refugee Marquesa di Volterra and her cousin back to Gibraltar, from which they will continue to England to make common cause against Napoleon. They weather a severe gale and shortly thereafter come upon a Spanish frigate that didn't do as well, having been reduced to a mastless hull. Still, the Spaniard is eight times the size of Ramage's cutter and her guns presumably still function perfectly; no sane skipper would do anything but give the derelict a wide berth and keep on going. Ramage, of course, has to take a crack at capturing the enemy -- which, of course, he does, through an ingenious stratagem involving a gig and fifty pounds of gunpowder. Awhile later, he meets a British frigate, which relieves him of the Marquesa, and after that the little cutter manages to run smack into a Spanish squadron, which relieves him of both his prize and his own ship. Ramage perseveres throughout, does a little espionage work (as the opportunity arises) regarding the plans of the Spanish fleet, and eventually finds himself reunited with his ship and his crew and attached to Sir John Jervis's fleet. This gives Pope the opportunity to present the reader with an excellent picture and tactical analysis of the Battle of Cape St. Vincent, one of the two or three most important engagements of the war. Ramage even plays a key role in "Nelson's Patent Bridge for Taking First-Rates." (Well, it is a novel.) Ramage is a personable sort and a (mostly) believable unintentional hero. It doesn't have the literary depth of Patrick O'Brian but it's a good, fun series nevertheless.