The Only Victor

Details: By Alexander Kent

1806

February 1806. Vice-Amiral Sir Richard Bolitho carries the news of Trafalgar to southern Africa, where he is to aid the ground forces any way he can to retake Cape Town from the Dutch. Impatient to be home, Bolitho decides yet again that the boldest measures are best, and proves to the army that brave men do not die in vain.

But there is little respite. After a defiant, all too brief reunion with his mistress, Lady Catherine Somervell, a secret mission to Denmark nearly ends in disaster for Bolitho, and further damages his sight. When diplomacy fails he is eager to quit the land, and joins the expedition to bombard Copenhagen in a new flagship, Black Prince.

All too soon he must lead his cheering sailors into the roar of battle, where amid the upturned guns and splintered decks, Death is truly the only victor...