"Ramage and the Dido" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pope Dudley)

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

His instructions to Hill had been very exact: he was to take a boat to Fort St Louis with a flag of truce flying from the bow and stern, and he was to offer an exchange of 233 prisoners - the number of Frenchmen in the Alerte for the same number of Britons - thus establishing a credit, but with the firm agreement that none of the Frenchmen would serve again until regularly exchanged. No other terms would be acceptable, Ramage had emphasized, and the French acceptance had to be in writing.

Now three hours had elapsed since Hill left the ship in a cutter. The lookouts had seen his boat arrive at the Fort but since then there had been no sign of movement. Ramage had suggested, if the French accepted the terms, that they should send out a couple of droghers, and the prisoners would be transferred to them: this would save the tedious task of rowing the prisoners ashore.

Finally, soon after noon, when the ship's company had been piped to dinner, a lookout hailed that the cutter was now leaving the Fort. Twenty minutes later an angry Hill arrived on board.

'Not surprisingly, the French are furious at losing the Alerte,'he reported to Ramage, 'and they were determined to take it out on me. First of all I was marched on shore under armed guard and taken to the commandant of the Fort. He kept me waiting half an hour and then took two minutes to say it was a matter for the governor, whose residence is in the middle of Fort Royal. He seemed to think it was up to me to walk there, but I reminded him that we were discussing the fate of 233 of his own people. He then provided a carriage and escort.

'The governor was not too delighted at seeing me, but at least he did listen carefully to my proposals. He said he wanted fifteen minutes to think about them, but he kept me waiting half an hour in an anteroom.'

Ramage interrupted impatiently. 'Get to the point, Hill!'

'Well, sir, he agreed to everything! He's going to send three droghers out later this afternoon - I suggested two, but he insisted on three - under a flag of truce. And I have his agreement to the terms in writing, complete with the stamp of the Republic, "One and Indivisible".'

'Good work,' Ramage said. 'What were your impressions of Fort Royal?'

'The blockade is bothering them. For instance, a wheel came off the carriage before we were a couple of hundred yards from the Fort, and from what the driver said when he went off to get another carriage, everything was just wearing out. The Fort is in a poor state, and the governor's residence needs the attention of carpenters, and a few coats of paint. The people in the street look starved and unkempt, though there's enough fruit growing on the trees.'

Ramage saw Aitken coming on to the quarterdeck and waved to him. 'Hill's foray was successful: the French accept our terms. They are sending out three droghers this afternoon, so we'll be able to get rid of our prisoners.'

'Are you keeping the captain, sir?'

'No. He's a pathetic specimen, anyway: he's a martyr to stomach ulcers, so he tells me, and I suspect he thinks he's going to die.'

'Perhaps he is,' Aitken said unsympathetically. 'Ulcers can kill you just as surely as yellow fever, only they take a lot longer.'

'I'll tell him what you said: he needs cheering up.'

Aitken pointed to the frigate anchored a hundred yards to leeward of the Dido, all her boats hoisted out and lying astern on long painters. 'I can't get over how like the Calypso she is. Except for the paint. I don't know when she last saw a pot of paint.'

'That's a fair indication of how our blockade is bothering them: the Tropics are no place to neglect a ship's paintwork.'

'No. But the Alerte really looks sad, as though no one loves her.'

'Admiral Cameron will love her!' Ramage said. 'He'll soon have her painted up and fitted out with new standing and running rigging. I noticed most of her running rigging was stretched, and the standing rigging is more tar than rope. I had no idea our blockade was hurting them so much.'

'I wonder if that seventy-four is in any better condition,' Aitken speculated. 'Not that I'm suggesting we try to cut her out,' he added hastily.

'I have been trying to make up my mind who to send to Barbados with the Alerte. We seem to be losing so many officers and men in prizes - men, anyway.'

Aitken gestured towards the brig, passing southwards two miles away on one leg of its sweep. 'We could always send the Scourge along as well, and she could bring our people back.'

'That's a good idea,' Ramage said enthusiastically. 'Well, that settles it: Kenton can command her and he can take Orsini. It'll be good experience for them. Twenty men should be enough to handle her. It's only a hundred miles or so, even if they'll be hard on the wind. Now, if you'll be good enough to pass the word to the Alerte that Kenton should be ready to transfer the prisoners to the droghers and then take command. He'll need a chart and his quadrant. Tell him to pick twenty men from among the guards, and pass the word to Orsini too: he'll enjoy the cruise.'

He thought a moment and then added: 'Our boats will help transfer the prisoners to the droghers so that we have them all out of the ship before it's dark.'

'Orders for the Scourge, sir?'

'Oh yes, hoist her pendant number and the signal for the captain. Luckhurst will have his orders written out before he gets here.'

The droghers arrived at three o'clock and anchored to leeward of the frigate, whose boats, along with those from the Dido, quickly transferred the prisoners. Hill had prepared written receipts for the drogher captains to sign, so there was a record of how many prisoners had been handed over to the French.

Soon the droghers were on their way back to Fort Royal, and the Alerte and the Dido hoisted in their boats. Ramage was thankful that part of the operation was over: little did the governor in Fort Royal realize how accommodating he had been . . .

With the Alerte and the Scourge on their way to Barbados, the Dido began to patrol across the mouth of the great bay, from Cap Salomon in the south to Pointe des N#232;gres to the north, a distance of six miles.

The French seventy-four - she was called the Achille, according to the Alerte's lugubrious captain - stayed in the Car#233;nage, topsail yards sent down on deck and obviously not ready for sea.

'We might just as well be blockading Brest,' Southwick grumbled.

'At least we don't get a westerly gale once a week,' Ramage commented. 'And we don't have an admiral peering over our shoulder.'

'He's not that far away. Who knows what orders the Scourge might bring back?'

'He can't be very upset with us at the moment: he was grumbling to me that he hasn't enough frigates, and we've sent him two already.'

'Wait a week or two and he'll be complaining that we're using up all the stores in Barbados refitting them,' Southwick warned. 'There's no satisfying admirals: you ought to have learnt that by now.'

'You're probably right,' Ramage said. 'Anyway, there are no more frigates around for us to capture.'

'No, but we'll probably build a reef with our own beef bones, sailing up and down here keeping an eye on this fellow. How are we going to winkle him out?'

Ramage shrugged his shoulders. 'I don't know about winkles; he's stuck in there like a limpet. We're going to have to wait until he sails to escort a convoy in - whenever that is.'

'We're going to be heartily sick of this bit of coast by then.'

'As soon as the Scourge gets back she can resume this close watch: we'll spread our wings a bit.'

Down at mess number seventeen, Stafford was making a similar complaint. 'Back and forth, six miles south and then tack, six miles north an' then tack; I tell you, we'll get dizzy afore long.'

'Stop grumbling,' growled Jackson. 'When we're in the Channel you're always complaining it's too cold and wet. Now you've got lovely weather and you're still complaining. What's the matter, tired of the sun?'

'Not the sun,' Stafford said defensively, 'just the same view: we're going to be lookin' at it for the next six months.'

'Why six months?' demanded Rossi.

'S'gonna take six months for that Frenchman to sail.'

'Brest,' Rossi said laconically. 'Don't forget we thought we were going to blockade Brest.'

'At least there's variety there!'

'Variety!' Rossi said scornfully. 'Yes - a westerly gale alternates with an easterly one, so one day you're close up with the Black Rocks and then you're giving them a good offing. And for a change, it blows hard from the north and maybe there's some snow, and the canvas freezes. I don't notice any snow round here.'

'All right, all right,' Stafford said placatingly. 'But when we're on the Channel station at least we get fresh meat while we're in port.'

'Damnation!' exclaimed Jackson. 'Out here you get fresh limes, fresh oranges, and fresh bananas, as well as perfect weather - except for a bit of haze, and the occasional squall. You get cold, you put on a shirt: you get wet, and you're dry in ten minutes.'

'My oath!' grumbled Stafford, 'a chap can't comment on the view without a lot of bullies jumpin' on 'im.'

'And judging from the last few days, there's plenty of prize and head money around,' Gilbert said unexpectedly.

'Don't you start,' exclaimed Stafford. 'I've had enough from Jacko and Rosey.'

'Well, you should be ashamed of yourself,' Gilbert said. 'Here you are, serving in a fine ship with a good captain and officers, we've had plenty of action in the last week, and now we have to wait for this ship of the line. You are too impatient, Staff.'

'Well, I may be a bit impatient,' Stafford admitted, 'and I wouldn't want to swap this for blockading Brest, but when is this Frog going to move?'

Gilbert ignored the 'Frog' epithet and said quietly: 'If you were him and you saw what happened to the frigate, and you knew the Dido is waiting outside and commanded by the famous Captain Ramage, what would you do?'

'I s'pose I'd stay where I was,' Stafford admitted grudgingly.

Jackson said: 'As long as he stays in there, you stay out here. Which would you prefer, being him trapped in there or us out here?'

'All right, all right, you're boarding me in the smoke,' Stafford said. 'Can't a chap have a grumble now and then?'

Gilbert, to change the subject, said: 'How much do you think we're going to get for the frigates?'

'Not so much for the first one,' Jackson said. 'She was armed en fl#251;te, so she didn't have many guns, nor a very big ship's company. I can't see the admiral or their Lordships allowing us much for all those plants - after all, no one knows what they are. Whoever heard of a mango? But anyway she wasn't damaged, nor was this last one, the Alerte. We should get a fair price for her - apart from a coat of paint and new rigging, she'd pass for new. And a full crew means plenty of head money.'

'Yes, but it's not like the Calypso days: we've got a bigger ship's company to share the money. Nearly three times as big.' Stafford sounded as though he could burst into tears at the mere thought of sharing with the new men in the Dido. 'In the old days we were 225 or so in the Calypso; now there are 625 of us. I'm not very good at sums, but I reckon that means we get two-thirds less for every ship we capture.'

'There's a big "but",' Jackson said. 'The bigger our ship, the fewer the casualties. And we could never have cut out the Alerte so successfully with the Calypso - we wouldn't have had enough men. We cut out the Alerte so easily because we had enough men to swamp 'em. If we'd been in the Calypso we'd have had only half that number of men. And we may not have carried her. Don't forget that. There's an advantage in being in a ship of the line.'

'More deck to scrub and more brass to polish,' Stafford said sourly. 'That's the only difference.'

'And you're alive to grumble about it,' said Jackson.

'The way you chaps keep nagging at me, I sometimes fink life's not worth living,' Stafford said, far from mollified.

'You forget we have three frigates and one ship of the line within a month, and we're still alive to collect our prize money,' Rossi said. 'So cheer up, Staff; you'll have us all in tears in a minute!'

'All right, all right; call me 'Appy Staff and I'll sit here making funny faces for you all.'

'I'm glad we didn't get sent to Barbados as prize crew in the Alerte,' Jackson said. 'You never know when you're going to get back to your ship.'

'But they sent the brig this time,' Gilbert pointed out.

'Yes, and if there's another ship short of men lying in Barbados they'll talk the admiral into transferring you.' Jackson said darkly. 'Prize crews are anyone's men, mark my words.'

'Well, we've all been lucky - three frigates needing prize crews, and none of us picked,' Stafford commented.

'I reckon we can thank Mr Ramage for that,' Jackson said. 'He knows what I've just been saying. We'll never see those fellows sent off in the first frigate again: someone will snatch them at Plymouth. That's why Mr Ramage sent the brig to Barbados: he's getting worried about the number of men he's losing.'

'When do you expect to see the Scourge back, sir?' Aitken asked.

'Under a week,' Ramage said. 'Give her a couple of days to get there - the winds have been light. And a day at the outside for the Scourge to put the prize crew back on board and sail. Give her a day or two to get back here and that's your week.'

'I'll be glad to get those lads back. Rennick is sure someone in Barbados will steal his Marines.'

'Not this time, I think. We're in good odour with Admiral Cameron - or should be, anyway - and I think he will make sure we get our men back. It's pretty obvious why I sent the Scourge - to bring all our men back.'

'I hope you're right sir,' Aitken said. 'I hate losing a single man.'

'I think the Barbados ships are well manned: they probably send out pressgangs as soon as a convoy comes in from England.'

'One can't help feeling sorry for the men in the merchant ships,' Aitken said. 'Just imagine - arriving in the Chops of the Channel after a year out here and looking forward to seeing your wife and children, when one of our pressgangs comes alongside and whisks you off, to serve in one of the King's ships until this war is over.'

'I don't know anyone who likes the pressgang system, but how else are we to man the ships? With no men for the King's ships, who is to defend the merchant ships? And without the merchant ships we'd be in the sort of state Martinique is in - worse, in fact.'

Aitken shrugged his shoulders. 'One thing about it, the pressgang certainly produces an odd mixture of men!'

'Yes, the oddest sort seem to turn into prime seamen, whether volunteers or pressed men. It doesn't seem to matter whether the man was a footpad or a footman; he's likely to make a good topman, as long as he's sound in wind and limb.'

'By the way, sir, what do you intend for the men this afternoon?'

'Gunnery exercises,' Ramage said emphatically. 'Keep them at it: don't forget that it won't be long before we're tackling that seventy-four over there, and the one that wins is the one who fires fastest and most accurately: and I want to encourage Higgins, who is proving an excellent gunner.'

'We're short of Kenton and Orsini; I'll have to replace them with a couple of older midshipmen.'

'Very well: it'll give them some experience.'

Ramage picked up his telescope and walked to the ship's side, examining Fort Royal and the seventy-four in the Car#233;nage.

'I wish I knew why she had her yards sent down. Have they found some rot in them, or are they changing some running rigging?'

'Judging from the condition of the Alerte,'Aitken said, 'it could be both. I've seldom seen so much stretched rigging and bare wood. They must be getting desperately short of all sorts of stores. But sending the yards down doesn't make it seem they expect a convoy within the next few days.'

'I wonder what the Achille does when a convoy is due. Does she sail and meet the convoy a few hundred miles out in the Atlantic? Or wait ten miles or so offshore and just escort the convoy in for the last part? Or does she wait off Cabrit Island, at the south end of Martinique? It's hard to know - the convoy could be a couple of weeks late: perhaps more.'

'Do you propose to sail out and wait, if he shows signs of getting ready for sea?'

'No - we'll follow him and wait. He and the convoy are bound to meet somewhere and some time, and that's where we'll tackle him, I think.'

'It all sounds rather hit or miss, as far as the French are concerned.'

'They don't have much choice,' Ramage said. 'That's the trouble with being blockaded. From the French point of view the blockade isn't - or wasn't, before we arrived - being imposed here. Oh no, it is our cruisers off the coast of France that are making it dangerous for that convoy. It has got to escape them to get here, and it might well accidentally meet one of our ships of the line which just happens to be on passage. And now Admiral Cameron has the ship of the line he wanted - us, in other words - he can impose a close blockade of the island.'

'Well, we made a good start by taking the Alerte!'

'Yes, but we mustn't let the Achille slip through our fingers. The French may have another ship of the line escorting the convoy. So we might find we have to tackle two ships of the line before we can get at the merchantmen.'

'It doesn't give the Achille much time to get under way, unless she has a rendezvous at a certain date.'

'Perhaps the convoy will send a frigate ahead, to warn the Achille to sail and meet them,' Ramage said. 'That's quite likely.'

Aitken grinned cheerfully and said: 'That might give us yet another frigate to snap up!'

'Certainly I doubt if she'll expect to find a British seventy-four waiting for her. I think we have had just a frigate or a brig keeping an eye on Fort Royal for a long time. I had the impression from Admiral Cameron that he couldn't spare a seventy-four, until we arrived.'

'I get the impression, sir,' Aitken said, 'that we have not been taking the blockade of Martinique very seriously.'

Ramage nodded. 'I think you're right; but put yourself in the admiral's place. You're very short of all types of ships, and you know a convoy rarely comes to Martinique. Are you going to keep a ship of the line off Fort Royal - if you have a spare one - or are you just going to keep an eye on the place using a frigate or a brig?'

Aitken thought for a few moments and then said: 'One forgets he has responsibility for Trinidad, Grenada, St Vincent and St Lucia, quite apart from the Main coast and Martinique.'

'Yes. He's lucky that Guadeloupe comes under the Leeward Islands station, otherwise he'd be even more hard pressed.'

'We seem to be sympathizing with admirals,' Aitken said ruefully, it must be because we're in a ship of the line now, not a frigate!'

'It's probably old age,' Ramage said. 'We're getting on in years and we're growing benevolent.'