Ramage and the Dido

'I can't get used to being in a ship of the line,' Orsini admitted. 'I still think in terms of the Calypso, then I suddenly realize the size of our broadside. The way we smashed in the stern of the Achille, for instance. Those 32-pounders throw a powerful shot.'

'Your carronades seem to be quite effective at clearing the deck. They certainly swept the Achille clean.'

'They have their uses,' Orsini admitted modestly. 'Having them so high means their shot get over the enemy's bulwarks. There's nothing between us and the target.'

'I wonder what would happen if you fitted out a ship of the line entirely with carronades. She'd be fearsome at close range.'

'They did try it - at the Battle of Copenhagen the Dictator had only carronades. Commanded by Captain William Bligh - "Breadfruit" Bligh. From what I heard she was quite a success, but because of the short range of the carronades she had to keep close.'

'They were short enough at Copenhagen,' Martin commented. 'Any closer and they would have been throwing pikes at each other.'

'Ah,' Orsini said sadly, 'I'm sorry we missed Copenhagen - and the Nile, too, for that matter, since Nelson used the same tactics. I suppose we were lucky to have been at Trafalgar. Mr Ramage was at the Battle of Cape St Vincent - and so was Southwick and several of the ship's company - so they have been in two of his Lordship's great victories.'

'Earl St Vincent got the credit for that last battle,' said Martin, who had read the description of it several times - in fact David Steel's Naval Chronologist had been one of his purchases just before they left Portsmouth. He had eagerly read the description of the battles, including Trafalgar, in which he had taken part. Admiral Duncan's victory at Camperdown was another battle he would like to have been in - it was, like the Nile and Trafalgar, clear cut.

'St Vincent may have got the title but it was Nelson's victory, no doubt about it,' Orsini said contemptuously. 'Mr Ramage was there and he saw it all. In fact he lost the Kathleen cutter in the battle.'

'I heard about that,' Martin said. 'Well, he would know!'

'To hear Jackson tell the story, it was quite a battle. Mr Ramage stopped a Spanish ship of the line by letting it ram the Kathleen. This slowed the Spanish up and gave Lord Nelson - Commodore as he then was - time to catch up. His Lordship never forgot that.'

'Yes, we lost a good friend when he was killed. It doesn't do to think what the Navy lost. There'll never be another admiral like him,' Martin said.

'Let's hope we don't have another battle like Trafalgar to fight, because I don't think we have an admiral capable of fighting it: they're all so old or inexperienced. Look what Calder did - he was court-martialled, and quite rightly so.'

Martin nodded and said: 'Yes, but it will be quite a day when Mr Ramage gets his flag. The war may be over by the time he has enough seniority - that's the curse of the Navy, seniority. Why they don't promote on merit alone I'll never understand.'

Orsini held his hands out in a typical Italian gesture. 'It would never work. It might start off with promotion by merit, but soon the politicians would get their fingers into it, and it would turn into favouritism, influence and patronage. Politicians foul everything they touch. So maybe it is safer to rely on seniority.'

Martin was startled by Orsini's matter-of-fact wisdom. 'Yes, I suppose you're right, but in the meantime we have to put up with the Calders and the like, promoted on seniority, not merit.'

'It's the price we pay. Sometimes merit and seniority combine and we get a Lord Nelson.'

'Don't forget,' Martin said, 'that it was Lord St Vincent that picked him for Copenhagen.'

'And put that old fool Sir Hyde Parker in command!' retorted Orsini. 'It nearly caused a disaster - in fact if it had not been for Lord Nelson it would have been a complete disaster: the command and the battle.'

'Well, Lord Nelson won, in spite of the confusion.'

'Yes, Mr Ramage says the Danes never studied the Battle of the Nile. Had they done so, they would never have fought the battle like they did because they let Nelson fight the same sort of battle - with the same sort of results.'

At that moment Ramage came on to the quarterdeck and, overhearing Orsini's last few words, asked: 'What are you two naval strategists discussing?'

'Lord Nelson and Sir Hyde Parker at Copenhagen, sir,' Martin said. 'The divided command.'

'You can talk about that for a month without reaching any conclusions,' Ramage said, deciding not to enter into any conversation criticizing senior flag officers. He had talked about Copenhagen with his father and Paolo at Palace Street, but they were family conversations, not exactly private but not the sort of talks he would have with his junior officers, since he had been very critical of Sir Hyde Parker, who was unsuited to Danish waters after several years of comparative luxury in the West Indies, where the only enemies were mosquitoes, yellow fever and occasional enemy cruisers.

'Well, can you two strategists tell me how far we are from Cabrit?'

'Five miles, sir,' Martin said with a promptness that told Ramage he was making a guess. Martin, he decided, had learned the old trick of always giving a prompt reply, relying on its promptness to assure the listener of its accuracy.

Not, Ramage admitted, that it mattered on this occasion: they were on course for Cabrit and were about halfway between Diamond Rock and the island itself, so five miles was a good guess. From this angle, Cabrit Island still seemed to be part of the southern tip of Martinique, not yet outlined against the sea horizon.

Which side of the headland should he wait on? He had already decided not to go hunting for the convoy; instead he would wait and tackle it somewhere between Cabrit and Diamond Rock. That gave him a distance of ten miles. In that distance he had to deal with two or three frigates, perhaps a ship of the line, and a dozen or so merchant ships (maybe more).

It was not a great distance, but he could always chase them the last few miles up to Fort Royal, and there was nowhere there for them to hide - they could not all huddle under the protection of Fort St Louis. But how many merchant ships would there be? It was hard to guess. A British convoy to England from somewhere like Barbados could amount to fifty ships, sometimes a hundred, and those coming back were as big. But the French were only supplying Martinique, they were not sending out ships to bring back molasses and sugar and hides and spices: no, they were just breaking the blockade, so the ships would probably be carrying supplies for the Navy (rope, powder, canvas and salt tack) and the army (guns, powder and shot, muskets, clothing) and, if they were lucky, some cargo for the civil population. The French were fortunate to have been able to assemble and sail a convoy from Europe - there were plenty of British squadrons cruising off the French coast, ready to intercept such ships.

Yet the French would be prepared to take risks to supply Martinique. It was one of their more important colonies and, to the authorities in Paris, it must seem to be one of the keys to French power in the West Indies. But at the moment it was a dog without teeth: the Alerte frigate was captured and in Barbados, the Achille was on the rocks. The army in Martinique was helpless without the French Navy to carry it anywhere.

Anyway, the convoy would have a large escort, and some of the ships might stay behind, to reinforce the French in Martinique. Or at least that would be the intention of the Ministry of Marine in Paris, unaware just what had been happening in the past few days. All of which boiled down to one thing - that the Dido might be in for a surprise when the French hove in sight; a surprise and a bitter fight against heavy odds. Well, as usual, the Dido's only ally would be surprise: the French would be expecting to be met by the Achille and the Alerte; in their place they would find the Dido.