Ramage At Trafalgar r-16

by Dudley Pope

  He buckled on his sword and carefully put on his hat, making sure he did not disturb the bandage. He would go up on deck a few minutes before the men could muster, to tell Hill, Southwick and the rest of the officers of his conclusion.

  In this rising wind, would Orsini be able to distinguish if any of the ships had their colours at half-mast? No, they were too far away for that. What should he do with the Calypso's colours? Well, he was only concluding that His Lordship was dead, and that was all he could tell the men. Leave the colours as they are, until he could get sight of another ship, one nearer the centre of events.

  As he prepared to go on deck he listened. The wind was beginning to howl and the ship pitch and roll. Already the Calypso had reduced to reefed topsails, having had them set only for a short while, and soon it would be time for storm staysails . . .

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  The gale lasted five days: the wind blew from the west as though demented, sweeping dismasted prizes before it to their destruction on Spain's beaches and reefs, while other ships under storm canvas fought to ride out wild and mountainous seas racing in across the Atlantic.

  Before the gale broke, Ramage had seen Vice-Admiral Collingwood's flag (the blue ensign, since he was a vice-admiral of the blue) struck on board the Royal Sovereign and hoisted in the Euryalus, while the mainmasthead of the Victory remained bare.

  That could mean only one thing, and it was stupid to keep on hoping otherwise: Collingwood's move could only mean that he was now the new commander-in-chief.

  But at least, after all these weary days, the storm was blowing itself out. The fleet had not anchored as Nelson had signalled because it was in deep water too far offshore, and whoever was in command (Ramage assumed Admiral Collingwood) had made no effort to get them close inshore, into shallower water. In normal circumstances, ships were better off riding out bad weather in the open sea under sail; but with so many lost masts and torn sails and rigging, not to mention the battered prizes . . .

  Ramage went up on deck and found the wind had dropped considerably. The low clouds still scudded across but they had lost some of the menacing blackness: there was a hint that above the greyness there might be a blue sky.

  Orsini suddenly pulled open the binnacle box drawer and snatched out a telescope.

  "Euryalus, sir: our pendant numbers . . . 213, for captain to come to the admiral ..."

  Ramage looked across the grey, wave-swept gap between the two frigates. "Hoist out the cutter," he told Martin, who was officer of the deck. "Double-bank the oars. I'm going below to put on my oilskins."

  There were eight other ships in sight, apart from the Hasard, all rolling and pitching under storm canvas, little more than black clumps on the grey surface of the sea with masts scribing circles in the sky. There was no sign of the other French frigates; those ships in sight were all British, and all had either survived the battle without damage to masts or made jury rigs.

  "Not much of a day to go visiting," Southwick commented. "I wonder what he wants?"

  Ramage had a shrewd idea: the Calypso had attacked an enemy frigate without orders. He had not actually disobeyed any orders from Blackwood in the Euryalus but had ignored the possibility there might have been any and, more important, he had broken the tradition that frigates did not get involved in battles between ships of the line. Yes, one could argue that it was the sort of thing that Nelson might have done when he was a junior post-captain, but that was not the sort of argument with which Vice-Admiral Collingwood was likely to agree.

  Why did you do it, Mr Ramage? He could hear Collingwood's chilly voice. Well, sir, I'm so pleased with the way the French shipbuilders designed the Calypso that I thought the Royal Navy should have another one like her, so I ...

  Collingwood would (quite reasonably) scoff at that, since it was not true. Very well, tell him the truth: I set out to capture her because my fellows wanted a fight, but the 74s were too big for me.

  That way, Ramage knew, would lead straight to a court-martial . . .

  Up and down, the bow plicing off spray and sending it hissing across the open boat to run down his oilskins, the cutter rolling and pitching so badly that the men could not help catching a crab with the oars which, the next moment, would be caught in a rogue wave and snatched viciously so that the looms slammed them in the chest.

  Every stroke seemed to hold the cutter midway between the Calypso and the Euryalus, even though the Calypso had hove-to to windward, so that the cutter would be rowing to leeward. Ramage held his hat on to stop the spray soaking the bandage round his head. Bowen had promised to take out the stitches later in the day. When he had inspected the wound this morning, as usual sniffing for smells of gangrene, he had declared that there was no sign of trouble: the wound was healing cleanly.

  Ah, the Euryalus was at last getting closer. In fact he could see a small group of officers waiting at the entryport, and sideboys were waiting to scramble down and hold out the manropes . . .

  It was all a lot of trouble, in this vile weather, just to administer a reprimand to a post-captain so junior that his name was still among the last twenty or thirty on the Post List. Nelson would have waited, but Collingwood was a colder sort of man.

  Ramage began cursing to himself. He had left London full of enthusiasm and hope: he had said goodbye to Sarah and his parents thinking (he admitted it honestly) that with any luck he would be returning in something approaching triumph.

  But now he would be going back in disgrace: when he arrived in Palace Street and they asked him what had happened (expecting a cheery reply) he would answer that he was due back in Chatham (or Portsmouth or Plymouth) to face a court-martial. Perhaps, he thought idly, Admiral Collingwood would instead send him down to Gibraltar to face a trial: there it should not be difficult to muster the five post-captains necessary to convene a court-martial.

  And now Jackson was rounding up the cutter: the bowman hooked on and Ramage made a lunge for the manropes, jumping on to a batten as the cutter lifted on the top of a swell wave and paused a second. Many an officer arrived on the quarterdeck with his boots full of water because he jumped in the trough and was caught by the next crest.

  Up, up, up ... he climbed the battens, hauling on the manropes, and suddenly he was at the entryport, with a smiling Blackwood and another man, presumably his first lieutenant.

  "My dear Ramage," Blackwood said, "a lot has happened since I last saw you! Congratulations on wrecking that 74!"

  Ramage mustered a modest grin and thought: why mention Le Brave and ignore the frigate? A hint of what was in store?

  "Yes," Ramage said, "he just followed us without looking at his chart. Forgot he drew several feet more!"

  "You didn't, though," Blackwood said heartily and waited while the first lieutenant helped Ramage take off his oilskins. "Oh, what happened to you?" Blackwood asked, seeing the bandage.

  "Just a cut; a bang on the head, in fact."

  Blackwood asked sombrely: "Have you heard the news?"

  "Not heard, but guessed. What happened?"

  "A sharpshooter hit His Lordship as he walked the quarterdeck with Hardy. He died several hours later. Not in great pain, thank God." Blackwood looked down at the deck. "He knew he would be killed. His last words to me before I left the Victory were that he would never see me again. He wasn't sad; just a comment, as though he might have been remarking on the weather. Anyway, Admiral Collingwood is waiting . . ."

  "How many?" Ramage asked.

  "As far as we can make out, seventeen ships captured and the eighteenth blown up. Just two short of Lord Nelson's target. Not counting your frigate: just ships of the line."

  Ramage nodded and followed Blackwood as he led the way to the coach, where Admiral Collingwood was now being accommodated.

  The admiral, grey with tiredness, stood up and held out his hand. "Ah, Ramage, I'm sorry to have to bring you over in this weather, but I can't wait any longer. What have you done to your head?"

  Ramage said briefly th
at he had a slight wound, but he felt chilly. Did the admiral regard the Hasard affair as that serious? With eighteen enemy ships captured or destroyed? What a victory - and, damnation take it, planned by Lord Nelson but with only Collingwood surviving to get the credit!

  "By the way," Collingwood said tonelessly, "that frigate you captured. Under whose orders were you acting?"

  "Er - well, sir, I had no orders actually to -"

  "To break the line?" Collingwood asked.

  "No sir. There was a gap, with the French frigate beyond, so I just followed the Britannia, and -"

  "You just happened to run up alongside this other frigate and she surrendered?"

  "Yes, sir," Ramage said, knowing it was hopeless to begin to explain (and not being quite sure, even after five days, why he had done it).

  "What's her name?"

  "The Hasard, sir."

  "How many men did you lose?"

  "Eight dead and seventeen wounded."

  "And the enemy?"

  "Nineteen dead and thirty-three wounded, sir."

  "Ah," Collingwood said enigmatically. He walked over to the desk and sat down. Blackwood, still in the cabin, was staring down at the deck planking, as though fascinated by the grain of the wood.

  Collingwood opened a drawer, took out several sheets of paper and shuffled through them. Then he took the cap off the inkwell, wiped his quill on a piece of cloth, dipped into the ink, and wrote a few words.

  He then took up the sand dredge, shook some on to the wet writing and, as soon as it was dry, tapped the paper. He then folded it again and gave it to Blackwood. "Have your clerk seal it carefully."

  He looked at Ramage. His was not a face that hinted of a friendly nature, and his voice, still with the Northumberland burr, was remote.

  "Well, Ramage, you disobeyed - flouted is perhaps the better word - orders: you flouted the custom that frigates do not get involved in the line of battle, going so far as to break through it. And Captain Blackwood tells me that off Cadiz you lured a French 74 on to a shoal where she was wrecked."

  "Yes, sir," Ramage agreed.

  "You were not acting upon Captain Blackwood's orders then either?"

  "The Euryalus was too far away to see what was happening, and Captain Blackwood would not have known about the proximity of the shoal, sir."

  By now Ramage had realized that the court-martial would try him on two counts - both the Hasard and Le Brave. It seemed you couldn't do a damn thing in this man's Navy without having a senior officer in sight signalling orders . . .

  "Your senior officer is always conveniently out of range, Ramage," Admiral Collingwood said.

  But, damnation take it, senior officers in sight or out, I'll wager Le Brave and the Hasard will be included in the score you report to My Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, Ramage thought angrily.

  Collingwood suddenly smiled. "My congratulations over Le Brave. I'll make no comment for the time being over the Hasard. However, in my despatch to Their Lordships on the battle I have included your action against the 74, and you saw me write in the details of the Hasard."

  A startled Ramage stared at Collingwood and then mumbled: "Thank you, sir."

  Collingwood gestured to Ramage to sit down, seating himself at the desk. "You realize that carrying the despatch concerning this battle back to Their Lordships is a great honour, and normally I would have chosen Captain Blackwood and this ship. But I cannot spare him, and when I look round for another frigate I find one commanded by a young junior captain who pays scant regard to orders or custom. However, I have the choice of sending you back with the despatch or court-martialling you, and I really cannot spare five captains for a trial, so you'd better make the best of your way to the Admiralty."

  Ramage sighed. "Thank you, sir," he said, and there seemed little else to say.

  "There is one important point," Collingwood said. "The Admiralty must be the first to know - of the battle and the death of Lord Nelson. Wherever you land in England, you will anchor off and have yourself rowed on shore by a trustworthy boat's crew who will return to the ship immediately. Your first lieutenant will allow no one on board or on shore for a suitable number of days, depending where you land. You realize that anyone having this news before the government announces it could make several fortunes in the City of London?"

  Ramage nodded. Yes, someone could buy up shares at a low price and sell them high when the market went up on the good news. Consols would leap up ...

  "And Ramage," Collingwood said, a smile on his face, "you can describe in detail how you stranded Le Brave, but I should add some embellishments to the tale of the Hasard: some admirals may not agree with the way I've dealt with the matter."

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