The Devil Himself

The French corvette La Vaillante, built in 1796, was captured and renamed Danae by the 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. 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. The men, the ship, and the tragic chain of events following a capture by the press-gang are described and this extraordinary 1800 mutiny is brought to life. It tells how the British crew of the Danae—a captured French corvette—mutinied, sailed the ship back to France, turned it over to Napoleon, and received a cash reward. Those who survived, hanged, and died disgraced in a far-off colonial posting are chronicled. This history is also significant in that it encouraged Dudley Pope to try his hand at fiction, resulting in theLord Ramage novels. The historical figures in this true story inspired some of the favorite fictional characters and plot elements in Pope’s novels.