Long Fight

by D.A. Rayner

The year is 1808, the story is of a three day epic fight between the sailing frigates San Fiorenzo and the Piemontaise. Based on an actual historical event, enriched by the author's knowledge of ships and the sea.

Captain Epron of the French frigate Piemontaise sailed from the Ile de France (Mauritius) bent on capturing a convoy of heavily laden East India Company merchantmen bound for Ceylon. Guarding the convoy was the elderly Royal Navy frigate San Fiorenzo under the young, inexperienced Captain Hardinge. The British ship was out gunned, out-manned, her crew weakened by malaria. For three days and three nights the ships engaged in a series of ferocious battles. As one hour followed the next, the advantage. like the sea, changed constantly. In a test of wills both captains employed brilliant tactics and made devastating mistakes and both ships fought gallantly until the tolls of combat brought humiliating defeat to one and victory to the other.

About the author: Denys Arthur Rayner was a Royal Navy officer who fought throughout the Battle of the Atlantic. After intensive war service at sea, Rayner became a writer, a farmer, and a successful designer and builder of small sailing craft.

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1978

About the author

Denys Arthur Rayner DSC & Bar, VRD, RNVR (9 February 1908 – 4 January 1967) was a Royal Navy officer who fought throughout the Battle of the Atlantic. After intensive war service at sea, Rayner became a writer, a farmer, and a successful designer and builder of small sailing craft - his first being the Westcoaster; his most successful being the glass fibre gunter or Bermudian rigged twin keel Westerly 22 from which evolved similar "small ships" able to cross oceans while respecting the expectations, in terms of comfort, safety and cost, of a burgeoning family market keen to get to sea. Before his death in 1967, Rayner had founded, and via his pioneering GRP designs, secured the future expansion of Westerly Marine Construction Ltd - up until the late 1980s, one of Britain's most successful yacht builders.

Reviews

[Chaplain Stanley Chapin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love sailing stories and their various actions, however, this one never caught my interest

[Larry · Rating 4 out of 5]

A 38-gun British frigate has a running fight with a 50-gun French frigate while protecting a convoy of East Indiamen. Rayner's other books include "The Enemy Below" and "The Long Haul," both reflecting his wartime service in the North Atlantic. This book may be the best account of a ship action that I've read, especially with ragrd to technical details. Though fiction, it presents an account of a real event.

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Long Fight is very much like Rayner's The Enemy Below however this is a fitionalized version of a real battle. Why this book hasn't been made into a movie is beyond me. At 181 pages I read it in a day but it is a remarkable novel. It is on the must buy list!