The Devil Himself

The French corvette La Vaillante, built in 1796, was captured and renamed Danae by the British Royal Navy in 1798. Two years later, she was returned to France in an amazing fashion: her British crew mutinied, sailed the Danae to France, and turned her over to the enemy for a cash reward. Accurate, fair, thorough, and lively, this penetrating account of a mutiny and its aftermath is compiled from contemporary British documents and the dusty French naval archives. Dudley Pope describes the men, the ship, and the tragic chain of events following their capture by a press-gang, bringing this extraordinary 1800 mutiny to life and chronicling those who survived, hanged, or died disgraced in a far-off colonial posting. This history is also significant in that it inspired Pope to try his hand at fiction, resulting in the Lord Ramage novels. The historical figures and events found in this true story are the basis for some of the favorite fictional characters and plot elements in Pope's novels.