by Dudley Pope
'This is the only possible landing place,' Ramage said. 'We'll chance it and inspect the big cave - and the others, if we have time.'
Ramage pointed to the ledge. 'Put us on shore there,' he told Jackson. 'Go in stern first and hold the boat there just long enough for Mr Southwick and me to jump on to the rock, then stand off.'
'Aye, aye, sir,' Jackson said. 'Rossi and I can give you a hand and Stafford can take the boat out until -'
'Mr Southwick and I can take care of ourselves,' Ramage snapped. 'You stay in the boat, and while you're standing off make sure you note any odd rocks: you might be coming back here a few times.'
The men bent to the oars while Ramage and Southwick scrambled across to the stern. 'Looks slippery, sir,' Southwick warned. That green weed ...'
A few moments later Ramage jumped, landed safely and turned to give Southwick a hand. 'Welcome to the Diamond,' he said, and stood watching for a moment as the oarsmen rowed steadily to get clear.
The Rock towered above them almost vertically. Apart from the wide ledge on which they stood and a flat section beyond, it was a home for goats and precious little else. But the cave was enormous, with several more smaller ones nearby and ones higher up the rock face. Ramage eyed the ledge, which formed a projecting point and gave a little shelter to the cove. A gun mounted here would protect it very well, and the surface of the rock was flat enough to allow for the recoil.
He turned towards the cave and saw Southwick about to enter it, the sheer size of the gaping hole dwarfing him. A moment later the Master vanished. Ramage heard him shouting and began running, thinking he had fallen in the darkness and hurt himself. As he heard the echoes, he realized that Southwick was using his voice to get some idea how far back the cave ran into the Rock. It was like entering an enormous cathedral and as his eyes became used to the darkness he saw the long stalactites pointing down from the roof. Yet the air was dry and it was dry underfoot: he had been expecting it to be dank, the sides running with water and green with moss.
Southwick loomed up beside him. 'Big enough to stow a complete frigate,' he said, and there was no mistaking his meaning.
sIf anyone could sway a couple of 12-pounders up to the top of the Rock, they'd need a magazine, and this cave is dry enough,' Ramage murmured, obviously doing little more than thinking aloud. 'They'd need a place to store provisions and water. The guns' crews would stand a couple of days' watch aloft while the others were down here; then they'd change over. I don't know how they'd get to the top - rig a jackstay, most probably ... It would be easier to work that out from the Juno, using a telescope: you can't see a damned thing just staring up from the ledge.'
'There's another ledge on the north side, two thirds of the way up,' Southwick said. 'It looks as though something took a big bite out of the rock. I think there's a cave at the back of it. It'd make another fine battery to cover the Fours Channel. A 12-pounder could probably reach the Grande Anse du Diamant. No ship could sneak through the channel without a gun there giving it a hot time. With a pair of guns right at the top - goodness me, nearly six hundred feet high: just think of the extra range - and plunging fire!' Even in the darkness Ramage sensed the old man's increasing excitement as he went on: 'That would give us three guns to cover the channel, and two of those, the pair at the top, can probably fire all round - north, west, south and east. And the lookouts could see all the way down to the southern tip of Martinique! Rig up a mast and they could hoist flag signals which the Juno would see while she was up to the north-west. Have to keep out to the west so the Diamond is clear of the land, but just think, a frigate off Fort Royal Bay would know what's going on right down at Pointe des Salines, twenty miles away! Why -'
'Easy now,' Ramage said mildly, 'you don't have to convince me: I've had something like this in mind ever since we first sailed past the place. But don't get too carried away; swaying a pair of 12-pounders nearly six hundred feet up to the top of this Rock will be more than a morning's work, if it can be done at all.'
They walked out of the cave and stood blinking in the bright sunlight, and then walked along looking into the smaller caves. Southwick kicked at the broad-bladed grass. The men will like this for making sennet hats.' He pointed to the caves. 'The whole place looks like that cheese with holes in it.'
'Gruyère,' Ramage said. 'And the big cave is where a mouse had a feast'
'More likely a rat,' Southwick said. 'It's the biggest cave I've ever seen, let alone walked into. Those spiky things hanging down from the roof make it look like a portcullis, I hope none of them drop off!'
They looked into the cave aad Ramage turned to seaward and waved to the boat. 'Come on, these caves remind me of witches' cauldrons and bats and vampires . . .'
Back on board the Juno Ramage silenced all Southwick's attempts to discuss the Diamond Rock; instead he took him down to his cabin, tossed his hat on to the settee and sat down at the desk. Taking out the pen and ink, he added a single paragraph to the draft of his letter to Admiral Davis.
After calling to the sentry to pass the word for his clerk, he began a letter addressed to 'The Agent for Transport and Prisoners of War'. The clerk arrived and was told to take the draft of the letter to Admiral Davis and make a fair copy, and bring it back when it was ready. 'Don't waste time copying it into the Captain's Letter Book,' Ramage told him. 'Make the entry afterwards from my draft.'
Ramage then finished a brief letter to the Agent, describing how he had landed the prisoners because he was unable to guard them, and saying that he was enclosing a list of their names and the signature of the surviving French commanding officer agreeing that the men should not serve against the British again until the exchange had been regularized. Ramage knew there would be a fuss, but he had covered the point in his letter to the Admiral. The letter to the Agent was a formality to cover the list he was sending.
As he wrote at the desk, Southwick sat back in a chair with ill-concealed impatience. The clerk returned with the fair copy of the dispatch and took the draft of the letter to the Agent.
Ramage turned to Southwick. 'You remind me of an impatient bridegroom. Baker is probably in his cabin packing his sea chest. Find him and bring him here. Once he's on his way to Barbados we can start making plans.'
The clerk arrived with the fair copy of the letter to the Agent, waited until Ramage had signed it and the dispatch, and then took away both letters and the list of prisoners to seal. After wiping the pen and screwing the cap on the ink bottle, Ramage sat back and stared down at the polished grain of the desk top. In the past two days he had not had a moment for real thought. He snatched at ideas as they raced through his mind, rejecting some and adopting others; decisions seemed to arrive already made but without proper consideration. He felt like a clucking hen startled to find it had laid an egg. So far his decisions had been the correct ones, but this was due to good luck rather than judgement. It was only a matter of time, he thought gloomily, before one of the eggs turned out to be bad.
Yes, the present difficulty is Admiral Davis, not the French. Should he have mentioned his plan in the dispatch? He sighed and tapped his fingers on the desk top. Should he, shouldn't he, should he ... and so it went on. Indecision, indecision . . . Well, not exactly indecision because he had already signed the dispatch without mentioning it, so at least he had decided that much. No, his bother was that, having made the decision, he was starting to question himself. It always happened, and he hated it.
Very well, what are you trying to do, Captain Ramage? You are carrying out Admiral Davis's orders which are simple enough: blockade Fort Royal, preventing any ships from entering or leaving. Splendid, my dear fellow; you have a firm grip on the situation. The new development is that by a stroke of good fortune you have discovered from that boastful French lieutenant that a convoy (he implied a large one) is due in Fort Royal within a week. A large convoy means a large escort, and 'a week' after an Atlantic crossing could mean today or two weeks' time; more, if the convoy met bad weather off Biscay
followed by Trade winds.
Go on, Captain Ramage, he jeered at himself, so you had to make a decision: should you send the Surcouf to Barbados with a prize crew on board, with one of the schooners to bring the prize crew back, leaving yourself with only the Juno (minus the men needed to provide three prize crews) and a schooner to fight off the escorts and capture the convoy - or, at the very least, prevent it from entering Fort Royal Bay? That was the question, and it was a simple one.
The difficulty arises because there is more than one answer. You can hurriedly fit out the Surcouf, so that you have two frigates to tackle the convoy, keeping one schooner and sending the other to Barbados with the dispatch to raise the alarm, and hope Admiral Davis is still there with the Invincible and some frigates, so that he can get under way for Martinique immediately to help tackle the convoy. (Help, he thought to himself: the Invincible and a couple of frigates would be more than enough.)
That is one answer but it certainly is not the one that Admiral Davis will expect. It is the right answer, though - with due respect to you, Admiral - because it takes into account the time factor; that the convoy is just as likely to be early as late: one can be damned sure it will not be on time.
Another answer would be for the Juno to tow the Surcouf to Barbados, leaving the two schooners to maintain the blockade, That is the answer that the Admiral would expect: a bird in the hand (and so a share of the prize money in the pocket) was worth two in the bush. Admiral Davis would argue that only the Invincible and more frigates could deal with the convoy, and that the Juno's absence from Martinique for three or four days was an acceptable risk since the two schooners would be patrolling, and one could reach Barbados and raise the alarm.
If you were an admiral, Ramage asked himself, would you accept that the commanding officer of the Juno - ayoung man at the bottom of the post list - could in fact perform magic, doing something which is a compromise between the two answers? Instead of sending the Surcouf to Barbados, fit her out so that quite unexpectedly an extra frigate is available for the Martinique blockade, and send a schooner to Barbados with a warning of the convoy. In the meantime, he had a plan for the Diamond that no one had ever tried ...
He balanced the quill pen on a finger. Captain Ramage was not an admiral nor ever likely to be, so he ought to look at the situation through the protruberant and bloodshot eyes of the man who was, Henry Davis, Rear-Admiral of the Red and Commander-in-Chief of his Majesty's ships and vessels ...
The Admiral would not believe it possible, with the Juno already stripped of men to provide the prize crews for the two schooners, for Ramage to get the Surcouf ready for action within a week. He would also say - and that was much more important - that even if the French frigate could be got ready, there was still the problem of manning her. Ramage would have to halve the number of men remaining in the Juno and send them on board the Surcouf. Instead of two fully-manned frigates ready for action he would have two frigates manned with skeleton crews.
Ramage tipped the feather end of the quill so that it dropped to the desk, He had to admit that the Admiral would (by his own standards) have grounds for complaint. The difference was that the two frigates would be manned by Junos, who had already achieved more in less than a week on the station than Captain Eames and his frigate had in several months. That was not an answer he could possibly give the Admiral, though, since Captain Eames was one of his favourites.
To divide one ship's company between two frigates and two schooners might horrify Admiral Davis, but that was not the end of it. Ramage was proposing to take away another twenty men and use them for a hare-brained scheme which could make him the laughing stock of the Navy.
His thoughts were interrupted by the clerk bringing back the letters, having applied the seals. The man had no sooner left the cabin than Southwick arrived with Baker, both apologizing for being so long. Ramage told them to sit down and stared at the sealed packets. The clerk had a flowing style of handwriting and Ramage picked up the letter addressed to Admiral Davis. It would take only fifteen minutes to write another one. Or he could get the Juno under way and tow the Surcouf to Barbados. Or he could see if one of the schooners could tow her, with the second schooner in company. Or -
He picked up the two packets and handed them to Baker, deliberately ending the conflict in his mind; he then opened a drawer and took out another letter which he had written earlier.
These are your orders,' he said. 'They tell you to proceed to Barbados and deliver this to the Admiral and -' he pointed to the thinner packet '- this to the Agent for Prisoners. If you can't find the Agent, leave it with the Admiral's secretary.'
'Aye, aye, sir,' Baker said. 'I'll be under way in a few minutes: we've already shortened in the cable.'
'My written orders tell you to return here immediately you have delivered the dispatch,' Ramage said. 'It might occur to the Admiral, if he thinks about it, to keep you and La Mutine with him in Bridgetown. You might find it possible to ...'
'I'll stay on board the flagship for as little time as possible, sir,' Baker said with an understanding grin.
'What about charts?' Ramage inquired, suddenly remembering this was Baker's first voyage as an acting commanding officer, apart from the visit to Fort Royal.
'I've just been making copies of Mr Southwick's, sir.'
'I've given you copies of the challenge and reply for the next week and you have a copy of the signal book. Remember, guard them with your life and keep them in a weighted bag ready to sink if there's a chance of you being captured.'
'I know, sir.'
'I know you know,' Ramage said sternly, 'but for the whole of your time at sea up to now it has been your commanding officer's responsibility. Now you are the commanding officer ...’
‘I understand, sir,' said a chastened Baker.
When the lieutenant left the cabin, Southwick nodded. 'He's a good lad, that one. Not many young third lieutenants could take command of a schooner the way he did and handle that flag of truce business so well.'
'We've a lot to thank Lord St Vincent for,’ Ramage commented. 'He sent us good officers.'
The Master straightened up in his chair and said in what Ramage immediately recognized as his serious, let's-get-down-to-business voice: 'The Diamond, sir, what are we -'
Ramage held up his hand to silence him and stood up, going to the skylight and calling: 'Deck there.'
‘Benson here, sir,' the midshipman answered from the quarterdeck.
'Has Mr Baker left the ship yet?'
'Just gone, sir; boat's about thirty yards away. D'you want me to hail him, sir?'
'No, it's all right,' Ramage said, and sat down again.
Southwick looked puzzled and Ramage smiled. 'My dispatch to the Admiral told him that we had captured the Surcouf and were making her ready for sea. The Admiral will assume I meant making her ready to send her to Barbados. Very well, that dispatch is now on its way. Unfortunately the circumstances changed just after the dispatch had been sent and fresh decisions had to be made ...'
Southwick slapped his knee in a familiar gesture and grinned broadly. 'So that was why you kept shutting me up.'
'I don't know how you dare suggest that your commanding officer might be party to any deception, Mr Southwick,' Ramage said mildly. ‘Ishould have thought that up to now we were all far too busy to do anything more than write reports and see what was needed to get the Surcouf under way, after all, it was my duty to inform the Admiral immediately that a French convoy was expected, and using a schooner was the quickest way. I think any group of captains would see the necessity for that.'
'By jove, yes!' Southwick exclaimed, realizing that Ramage's mention of 'any group of captains' was a veiled reference to the officers forming a court martial. 'So now at last we have a few minutes to decide about the Surcouf. After you discovered you could commission her, sir, anyone would agree that you dare not send another schooner with a further report: that would weaken the blockade at a critical time.'
; 'Precisely,' Ramage said, 'since the convoy is likely to arrive any day.'
‘When do we start the work?' Southwick asked eagerly. The moment La Mutine is out of sight. I want Baker to be able to tell the Admiral in all honesty that when he last saw the Surcouf her yards were bare of sails and there had been no time for anything more than a quick inspection by the Juno's Master. That is what I say in my dispatch, incidentally.'
'We'll have those sails bent on and the ship ready for action by this time tomorrow, sir,' Southwick promised. 'How many men can I have for the Diamond?'
Ramage raised his eyebrows in mock surprise. 'What do you propose doing over there? Chase goats or let the men cut that broad-bladed grass and plait sennet hats?'
'I want to get the Surcouf's sheep landed there to start with,' Southwick said. 'Can't stand the constant baaa, and there's grazing plenty at the landing place. After that, a 12-pounder to cover the landing place - or a 6-pounder, if you'd prefer it, sir. Then two 12-pounders hoisted up on top of the Rock and another 12-pounder half-way up on the north-west side.'
'How do you propose getting the 12-pounders up to the top?' Ramage inquired mildly.
‘I’ll find a way,' Southwick said grimly. 'Give me those dozen Tritons and we'll haul 'em up with our teeth if necessary.'
Ramage shook his head. 'First, I want you to get those sails bent on the Surcouf’s yards: use every able-bodied man you can find. The Marines can help if necessary. I think we need Aitken; I'm going to call him in and put Wagstaffe in command of the Créole. You'd better rouse out one of the Surcouf’s own cables; we are going to need the one we used to tow her.'
Southwick looked puzzled. 'The ten-inch cable, sir?'
‘The only way you're going to get those guns up to the top of the Diamond is to rig a jackstay, and the other cables we have on board are seventeen inch, almost twice the weight...’
'A jackstay, sir?' Southwick exclaimed. 'But where can you secure the lower end? The water's too deep for the men to dive down and find a big rock, and anyway, that'd –‘
