Ramage's Mutiny

by Dudley Pope

  He turned suddenly to Ramage: “Young Aitken here has just brought in four mutineers from the Jocasta. Found ‘em on board a Jonathan off Guadeloupe.”

  Ramage almost sighed with relief. That explained the Marines, and the four men in leg-irons. He felt guilty of disloyalty to his Junos for thinking that any of them would have mutinied. His Calypsos, he corrected himself; Aitken would be ferrying them over within the next few hours.

  “Have to bring ‘em to trial,” Admiral Davis said, “and I need you to make up the number for the court. You won’t be able to sail until they’re sentenced, but you might get some useful information. Question ‘em about Santa Cruz.”

  There were only five post captains in English Harbour at the moment—six if you included the lieutenant whom Admiral Davis had just promoted and put in command of La Comète. A minimum of five captains was needed to form a court martial, and Ramage was not sure if the new man could sit before the Admiralty confirmed the promotion. Obviously the Admiral thought he could not.

  The Admiral could not preside at a court martial—by regulation that was a job for his second-in-command, in this case Captain Edwards. And they had to find someone to act as deputy judge advocate—the Invincible’s purser, probably, or the Admiral’s secretary. A court martial provoked a shower of paperwork.

  The Devil take it: he did not want to spend days sitting on a court martial when he should be busy getting the Calypso ready for sea. Yet the chance to examine the four British seamen about the Jocasta’s position at Santa Cruz would …

  “I’m doubtful if Ramage can question the prisoners before the trial if he is to be a member of the court, sir,” Captain Edwards said quietly.

  “Hmm, must admit I can’t think of a precedent, but what difference does it make if he questions them before the trial instead of during it? As a member of the court he can ask all the questions he wants.”

  “There’s no apparent difference, sir,” Edwards said patiently, “but we’ve no judge advocate to consult, and there’d be trouble if we hanged the men and the Admiralty later ruled the trial invalid because a member of the court was involved before the hearing.”

  “Oh, very well. No questions before the trial, Ramage.” Ramage realized that, with every ship in the Navy carrying a list of the names and descriptions of all the mutineers, several must have been captured and tried by now, and the evidence given at their trials would be available.

  “Nine of them so far,” the Admiral said in reply to Ramage’s question. “The first four were brought into Barbados a year ago. One turned King’s evidence so we could convict the other three, and they were hanged. The fourth hadn’t been a mutineer, or so he claimed. Then three more were found serving in a Spanish privateer and taken to Jamaica. The man who turned King’s evidence was sent to Port Royal to give evidence against them and they were hanged, too. Mutiny and treason. Then a pair of them were taken off Brest, and the man was sent to England to give evidence.”

  “So there is no one over here to give evidence against these men, sir?”

  “No,” Admiral Davis said crossly. “It would take too long to send to England for the witness.”

  Ramage realized that it was going to be a difficult trial. If all four men kept silent—remained loyal to each other, in fact—he did not see how they could be convicted. One of them must be persuaded to turn King’s evidence. Or Admiral Davis should send all four men to England so that they could be tried there. That was the surest way of seeing that justice was done.

  The Admiral obviously guessed Ramage’s thoughts. “We need a trial out here as an example. I’ve been hearing some disturbing reports from some of our ships. A few hotheads here, a few there. Easy to stir up a ship’s company, especially during the hurricane season when the heat makes everyone edgy.

  “We still don’t know why the Jocastas mutinied,” he added crossly. “Three trials, and all we know is that there were half a dozen ringleaders and the rest of the men followed them. And some loose talk that Wallis was a bit free with the cat-o’-nine-tails. Mind you, he had to be, after the Nore and Spithead.”

  Captain Edwards was shaking his head, and Ramage knew he too had compared the dates. “The Jocasta affair was a month before we had news out here that the Fleet had mutinied at Spit-head, sir.”

  “Same kind of hotheads, though,” the Admiral growled. “Irishmen, members of that damned London Corresponding Society—traitors, the whole bunch of them.”

  Edwards said nothing. Perhaps, Ramage thought, he too had reservations about the late Captain Wallis, who had sailed from Jamaica, where he had been one of Vice-Admiral Sir Hyde Parker’s favourites. He had been sailing under Sir Hyde’s orders at the time of the mutiny, and Sir Hyde would have made sure that no information detrimental to Wallis reached the Admiralty from Jamaica—even though, he reflected bitterly, the only way of preventing mutiny in other ships was to find out exactly why it had happened in the Jocasta. Obviously that was what angered Admiral Davis. He would know better than anyone else in the West Indies if Sir Hyde was covering up for Wallis.

  “The men you captured,” Ramage asked Aitken, “what were their ratings in the Jocasta?”

  “Two topmen, a quartermaster and a steward, sir—or so they claim. They were rated ordinary seamen in the American ship.”

  “Where did they join the American?”

  “La Guaira and Barcelona. They left the Jocasta—she has a Spanish name now, of course—several months ago. A year or more, in fact.”

  The Admiral grunted and took the glass of punch that a steward was offering him. “Very well, then. I’ve told Aitken to transfer the Junos to the Calypso tomorrow in the forenoon, so you get your men and your First Lieutenant back again. I can’t see the trial starting for a couple of days.” He took out a large watch and grunted yet again. “My guests will be getting impatient: I must go back to the Dockyard. Tell you the truth, staying on shore is a mixed blessing. All those people—and twice as many mosquitoes. Don’t know which are more irritating.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  ON BOARD the Calypso next day everyone’s temper frayed. More than 150 men had been brought over from the Juno and the purser had to enter details of each one of them in the muster book. There, in 27 columns, were recorded all the details that the Admiralty, Navy Board and Sick and Hurt Board would ever want to know about a man—including whether he was a volunteer or “prest,” where he was born and his age, his full name and rank, and what clothing, bedding and tobacco had been issued. The last column on that page, headed “D., D.D., or R.,” would not be filled in by one of those abbreviations until the man left the ship by one of only three possible ways: Discharged (to another ship or to a hospital), Discharged Dead (death from battle, accident or illness) or Run, the Navy’s phrase for deserting.

  Ramage paced round the deck, pausing occasionally at the table set up by the purser in the shade of the awning. The men were filing past fairly quickly and the list of names in the muster book was lengthening. Looking over the purser’s shoulder at the first few names, Ramage was once again reminded of the cosmopolitan nature of the Navy in wartime. The first five names in the book, filled in several days earlier, were of men from various parts of Britain, the sixth was Thomas Jackson, an American volunteer from Charleston, the seventh Alberto Rossi from Genoa, the eighth the Londoner Will Stafford, who served as apprentice to a locksmith and then became a burglar until a press-gang swept him into the Navy. The ninth was a Dane, the tenth an Irishman.

  All the men seemed to be glad to be on board: at the table and as he walked round the ship he saw grinning men who were hoping that the Captain would give them a nod. After telling Jackson how much prize-money each man was likely to get, he had the impression that the word went round the ship faster than if he had mustered them all aft and announced it. Prize-money did not make such men fight any better; they needed no inducement. But it was a satisfying bonus after the battle. Many of them would spend the money in a few days’ carousing, cutting a
dash with whichever fortunate doxies first hooked a grapnel when they went on shore. Others would save it towards the day when they gave up a seaman’s life. When would that be? The war had gone on for years, and there was no end in sight. Politicians in London talked loudly, and listeners to the voices booming with such authority could choose between forecasts of defeat for Bonaparte in one year or fifteen. Pitt was a fool or a genius; Fox a hero or a traitor.

  Whatever their politics, Ramage thought bitterly, they all cheered when one or other of these spice islands of the West Indies was captured, yet the value was only the cheers it brought in Parliament because the cost in garrisoning the islands was enormous. Regiments came out and within a few months half the men were dead from the black vomit. Such losses in battle would start a row in Parliament …

  The Devil take the gloomy thoughts. He walked away from the purser’s table. So far—and this was the second time he had commanded a ship in the West Indies—he had managed to keep his men fit, but he knew he had been lucky; stories of half a ship’s company dying of fever in a couple of weeks were legion. He was doubly lucky, because Bowen was a fine Surgeon.

  In fact, he reflected, a captain was no better than the men serving him. Southwick was a fine Master; he had good lieutenants, particularly Aitken, the First Lieutenant. Aitken had dumbfounded the Admiral who, because of the young Scot’s distinguished behaviour in the recent action off Martinique, had proposed making Aitken post and giving him command of the Juno, but Aitken had asked permission to continue sailing as First Lieutenant with Ramage. Both Admiral Davis and Ramage had been puzzled—it was the first time either of them had come across a man not wanting to be made post.

  The obvious explanation had been that Aitken was scared of the responsibility, yet he had fought well while commanding a prize frigate. And the obvious explanation had proved wrong: Aitken had explained—much to Ramage’s embarrassment—that he still had much to learn and wanted to continue serving with Captain Ramage.

  Bowen was perhaps the best example of Ramage’s luck. Bowen had been a doctor in Wimpole Street, one of London’s most fashionable physicians. Then he had started drinking heavily and soon, a gin-sodden wreck, was reduced to serving in the Navy as a surgeon.

  His first ship had been commanded by Ramage. The prospect of having the health of his men in the hands of a drunkard—and concern about what might happen if any of them were wounded in battle—had led to Ramage and Southwick effecting a ruthless cure of Bowen’s drink problem. Now, a couple of years later, Bowen was one of his most valued officers—a fiendish chess player, stimulating company, and a man devoted to the health of the ship’s company. He never touched a drop of liquor. He had since been back to London, where he could have returned to treating wealthy dowagers for non-existent complaints, but instead he had asked only that Ramage allow him to continue serving as his ship’s Surgeon. Well, better one volunteer than three pressed men.

  Ramage reached the fo’c’s’le, paused by the belfry and looked aft. What a mess! There was not a square foot of clear deck: sails were stretched out like collapsed tents with men busy at work on them with needles and palms. Southwick was prowling round looking for worn canvas and marking out where he wanted extra patches sewn on to take care of chafe.

  The bosun and his mates were working on a pile of blocks, with a carpenter’s mate driving out the pins so that they could be greased. As soon as men left the purser’s table and stowed their sea bags they were being given jobs. The decks were dirty, the brasswork green with verdigris, but a morning’s work would see all that cleaned up, though it would need a week to get it sparkling. It was important now that running rigging should rend freely through blocks, that sails should not chafe holes on rigging or spars.

  The gunner had the locks of all the guns up on deck, spread out on a sheet of canvas, and was checking them one by one. He had a large box of flints and a seaman was sorting through them, putting aside any that did not have a sharp edge that would ensure a good spark.

  Three men who had not been on board more than half an hour were manhandling the big grindstone into position while others were collecting the cutlasses—more than two hundred of them—ready to give them all a sharp edge. More men were taking boarding-pikes from their racks round the masts—the heads, exposed to the spray, were rusty. Once they had been sharpened they would be given a coat of blacking and the wood of the staffs would be oiled to stop it splitting in the heat of the sun. All small jobs and all tedious, requiring a lot of men, but vital if the Calypso was to be an efficient ship.

  There should be another ten men coming on board from the Invincible this afternoon to make up the Calypso’s ship’s company to two hundred, and more Marines had just arrived. Few frigates ever had more than three-quarters of their official complement, and Ramage knew it was an indication of how the Admiral viewed the Jocasta operation that he was making sure that the Calypso had more than her complement.

  He could see that Aitken, who had been on board only long enough to change into an old uniform, was busy with a group of men at a stay-tackle, hoisting up a heavy awning from below. There would soon be fifteen minutes of chaos as they stretched out the awning and tried to work out how the French secured it, but the sun was scorching and the men needed some shade.

  Wagstaffe should soon be back on board and no doubt telling a story of the insolence of the storekeeper. The Second Lieutenant had a long list of the Calypso’s requirements and Ramage was determined he was not going to be fobbed off. If the Calypso did not get them now, while commissioning, she never would, and with the Admiral anxious to have the frigate ready, Ramage knew he would have a sympathetic ear for any complaints about a storekeeper’s shortcomings.

  Jackson came up to him and saluted. “A boat from the flag-ship is coming to us, sir. She’s been to the other ships in the anchorage. There’s a lieutenant on board.”

  Ramage nodded. More orders, no doubt. The Marine Lieutenant, Rennick, approached and, coming smartly to attention, reported that all his Marines were now on board. “One lieutenant, one sergeant, two corporals and forty private Marines, sir!” he said like a priest reciting a liturgy.

  “Forty-three men, eh? Quite a force you have now!”

  “Yes, sir,” Rennick said cheerfully. “It’ll take a few days to lick the new men from the flagship into some sort o’ shape, but the sergeant’s a good man: served with me in another ship when he was a corporal.”

  “Very well,” Ramage said solemnly, half wishing Captain Edwards could have heard Rennick’s patronizing comment on the extra men sent over from the Invincible. Yet Rennick was probably right. He was plump, the tropical heat made him perspire like a leaking head pump, but he was a very efficient officer. He was a strict disciplinarian—but he knew when to crack a joke with his men, who were proud of him. And men proud of an officer would follow him into action whatever the odds.

  “These extra men from the flagship,” Ramage said quietly, “if you’re doubtful about any of them, send them back.”

  Rennick grinned and shook his head. “I know, sir, the one rotten apple! But the sergeant picked ‘em. Every man wanted to serve in the Calypso. Seems they’ve all heard about you, sir.”

  The Marine Lieutenant had all the subtlety of a caulker’s maul; he made the statement in his usual direct manner and Ramage knew it was not in him to flatter his Captain. For all that, Ramage found it hard to understand why Marines should want to leave the comparative comfort of a ship of the line and transfer to a cramped frigate—particularly as by now most of them would know the Calypso was bound for Santa Cruz. Even if a miracle occurred and the Calypso managed to cut out the Jocasta, at least half the seamen and half the Marines would be buried at sea the following morning; the most purblind optimist could see that.

  “I’m glad to hear it, and I can rely on you to polish them,” Ramage said. “Tell me when you want me to inspect them; I’ll breathe fire down their necks.”

  “I’ve already warned ‘em, sir; I sai
d all that easy living in the flagship is a thing of the past.”

  Ramage gestured towards the grindstone, which was just beginning to spin and shower sparks as it put an edge on the first of the cutlasses. “The men are attending to the cutlery. Your Marines had better start on the muskets; we have 250 on board. And check the flints, too. We have ten boxes, I believe, with two hundred flints in each. Make sure they are marked musket or pistol size—it’d be just like the French to mix them up. And the pistols: check them over, too. The French equivalent of a Sea Service pistol is not too reliable, if my memory serves me.”

  “Yes, sir. What about tomahawks?”

  Ramage pointed to the pile beside the cutlasses. “All we need is a tinker mending kettles.”

  Jackson came back to report that the boat from the Invincible had two lieutenants on board.

  “Very well,” Ramage said. “Tell Mr Aitken that our new Fourth Lieutenant is probably about to arrive.”

  The Calypso had all her men on board: four lieutenants, Master, Surgeon, and 203 warrant, petty officers and seamen, as well as Rennick and 43 Marines—a total of 253 officers and men, the most Ramage had ever commanded.

  In front of him on the desk were the first letters concerning the trial of the Jocasta’s four mutineers—and the news that Aitken would be needed, too. He had not thought of that, but apparently the machinery of a trial needed someone to start it off.

  “Whereas Lieutenant James Aitken, for the time being commanding His Majesty’s ship Juno, has represented to me that he did take four men from the American schooner Sarasota Pride on suspicion that they were formerly of His Majesty’s frigate Jocasta,” said Admiral Davis’s letter, he was ordering a court martial to try the four men for mutiny.