Small Paperback, Good Condition, 1976, 256 pages, ISBN 0 09 907060 X

Send a Gunboat – Douglas Reeman

H.M.S. Wagtail: river gunboat. A ship seemingly at the end of her useful life, lying in the Hong Kong dockyard, awaiting her last summons to the breakers’ yard.

Commander Justin Rolfe: also seemingly at the end of his useful Navy life. An embittered man, brooding and angry from a court-martial verdict.

Then the offshore island of Santu is threatened with invasion from the Chinese mainland. On the island: a small British community that must be brought out.

Commander Rolfe and Wagtail are ordered to the island. The job is regarded with sullen resentment by his crew, but to Rolfe, and even the ship, it is a job that offers the chance of a reprieve and a restoration of self-respect.