The Great Gamble: Nelson at Copenhagen - Tapa dura

On 2nd April, 1801, the Royal Navy anchored a few hundred yards off the Copenhagen waterfront and engaged the Danes in a brief but bloody battle. Earlier, insipired by Paul I of Russia, the northern powers began to form an armed coalition which could become a serious threat to British interests, and the arrival of a British fleet in the Baltic was in answer to this perceived threat. To Nelson, the battle of Copenhagen was more than a great gamble: it was unnecessary. He believed in a direct atack on the Russian fleet, but, failing that, he convinced Sir Hyde Parker, to whom he was second-in-command, that the best intitial step would be an attack on the Danish fleet at Copenhagen. This he was allowed to lead. Dudley Pope looks at what miscalculations, what stupidities, what order of politics combined to put Nelson second-in-command to a man over sixty, a man with no real knowledge of naval warfare, a man who, at the height of battle, when England so obviously had the upper hand, hoisted the signal for Nelson to retreat. Nelson famously disregarded the order for, as he said, he had a right to be sometimes blind, being sightless in one eye. But "The Great Gamble" is more than a full-bodied account of a great sea battle. With access to both British and Danish sources, Pope throws light on the background, the intrigues and the ramifications of the battle. But at the heart lies Nelson, triumphant after the Nile, once again delivering for his country a great victory at sea.

Dudley Pope, author of the best-selling Ramage series and Life in Nelson's Navy, needs little introduction. After service during WWII in the Merchant Navy, he went on to work for fifteen years in Fleet Street before settling down to become a full-time writer. In 1965 he set sail for the West Indies where he lived on his boat until his death in 1997.