'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 flûte, 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 Carénage.
'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.'
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The Scourge came in sight just seven days after leaving for Barbados, and in reply to the signal for her captain, Lieutenant Bennett arrived on board the Dido just as the men were being piped to dinner.
He brought a letter from Admiral Cameron congratulating Ramage on the capture of the two frigates, and Bennett told him what had happened to the mangoes. It turned out that Cameron had served in India and knew the fruit well, and thought it a good idea to try to plant them in the West Indies. He was therefore planting half the trees in Barbados and sending the other half to Jamaica.
More important, as far as Ramage was concerned, the Scourge had brought back every man who had formed the prize crews for the Alerte and the Volage. As soon as Bennett told him this, Ramage gave instructions to Aitken to send the Dido's boats to collect them.
Ramage then gave Bennett his orders: he was to resume his patrol off Fort Royal, and the Dido would move further south, to cruise off Diamond Rock. If the Scourge saw any sign that the Achille was preparing to sail she should make the signal to the Dido, which would immediately move north to see what was happening. If, on the other hand, the Dido sighted a convoy coming round the south end of Martinique she would engage immediately.
Bennett had just left to rejoin the Scourge when Kenton and Orsini arrived back on board the Dido, both excited at being back.
'What sort of trip did you have in the Alerte?'Ramage asked.
'Fine, sir: she's a fast ship. Very like the Calypso. Her bottom was very foul, so she didn't go to windward too well.'
'Did you see Admiral Cameron?'
'Yes, sir. I gave him your despatch. He was delighted. He remembered that he had complained to you about the shortage of frigates, and made some joke about appreciating that you had listened to what he had said. He was very friendly, sir. And he knows about mangoes.'
