Ramage and the Dido

As soon as the Dido reached Cabrit Point she tacked and began retracing her course up to the north-west. Ramage told Southwick: 'We'll hold this course for an hour and then wear round and steer back for Cabrit. We'll continue doing that until we sight the convoy.'

'What'll the French do when they don't see the Achille and the Alerte?'the master asked.

Ramage shrugged his shoulders. 'I hope they'll assume there's been some mix-up and that both ships have gone to a different rendezvous. It wouldn't be the first time that something like that has happened. They wouldn't have sent that frigate very far ahead: just to give the Achille time to get ready for sea. Perhaps twenty-four hours, and another day to reach the rendezvous.'

'Yes, they wouldn't be sure enough of their navigation to set a time and place too far ahead.'

'I doubt if they did much more than give a latitude,' Ramage said. 'They probably aren't very sure of their longitude after an Atlantic crossing. Most likely they said "Rendezvous in 14° 40' North", or something like that. I can't see them being more exact. Nor is there any need.'

'I'd give a lot to know whether they are going to try to get into Fort Royal in the dark,' Southwick said.

'The easiest way of answering that is to ask yourself what you would do if you were the French.'

'I'd have a go,' Southwick declared. 'The frigate did it once, and there's no reason why he shouldn't try it again, and pilot the convoy in.'

'Exactly. He will be very confident of himself. And quite rightly so: that was a very creditable piece of seamanship. He fooled us!'

'He did that,' Southwick said ruefully. 'But perhaps we'll get our own back by fooling him.'

'I hope so,' Ramage said. 'Though we haven't a lot of room to tackle both escorts and convoy.'

'But if we manage to destroy the pilot, perhaps a lot of the French merchantmen will run aground through not weathering Pointe du Diamant. It's a big gulf, and a lot of them might go aground on the north shore.'

'Not too many,' Ramage said jokingly. 'I want to send most of them into Barbados as prizes.'

'Well, the former Calypsos don't need the money, but the new Didos will be thankful. The prize and head money from the Alerte will have just whetted their appetites!'

At that moment Aitken came on to the quarterdeck, and Ramage asked: 'How did the gunnery exercise go? I was busy writing the Achille report for the admiral, otherwise I would have been down there with my watch, timing them.'

'I gave my watch an airing,' Aitken said, 'and their times are much better. That action against the Achille seems to have woken them up.'

'Well, they'd better be wide awake when we meet the convoy: they're going to have to do a lot of shooting in a very short time.'

Ramage thought a moment. 'If we're likely to meet the convoy at night it might be a good idea to train the men to work in darkness. Blindfold them, so that they get used to moving round the guns instinctively.'

Aitken looked doubtful and Ramage said: 'You don't seem very keen on the idea.'

'No sir, to be quite honest I'm not. It's never quite that dark: the flashes of the guns going off - except for the first broadside they never fire at the same time - gives light enough for the men to move about.'

'Maybe you're right,' Ramage agreed. 'All right, let them exercise in daylight, but tell the officers to remind them what it's like at night, with smoke as well as the darkness.'

CHAPTER TWENTY

All that night and the following day the Dido tacked and wore to the north-west of Cabrit Island, but there was no sign of the convoy. Ramage would have worried that the ships had come in round the north of the island but for the fact that the Scourge was still off Fort Royal and would come south immediately to warn if any ships arrived.

The fine weather continued but the wind fell light. The sea was almost flat calm, with just a slight swell from the east, and overhead there was the scattering of balls of cotton as Trade wind clouds made their way westward in even lines, like marching soldiers. Flying fish flashed up from the depths, skimmed above the waves and then vanished as effortlessly as they came. Gulls mewed pitifully in the Dido's wake, as if pleading to be thrown scraps, and the black and menacing frigate birds curved and dived gracefully, swooping down almost faster than the eye could follow to pursue a flying fish or snatch up a piece of rubbish from the sea, careful never to get their feathers wet.

The ship's company had spent the morning exercising at the guns. It was tedious for the former Calypsos, Ramage realized, but the new Didos had to reach their standard, and only constant exercise would do that. And all the time Ramage was waiting for a hail from the lookout aloft, reporting sail rounding Cabrit. There were times when it was as much as he could do not to seize the speaking trumpet and hail the lookouts. He cursed the fact that he had been born impatient: he wanted the action to start.

Southwick took his hat off and ran his fingers through his flowing white hair. 'This light wind must be delaying them,' he said, 'I can just imagine the trouble those French frigates are having with the mules. I'll bet they're the same as our merchantmen - reefing right down at night, falling astern, and not getting back into position until noon.'

'You sound as though you have unhappy memories of convoys,' Ramage said jokingly.

Southwick sighed. 'Is there any naval officer alive, British or French, that remembers convoy work with affection? D'you remember that convoy we took to England from Barbados, when we met that frigate commanded by a madman?'

'I'm not likely to forget it, since it led to me being court-martialled. I remember it because of the trial; I suppose you remember it for other reasons.'

'Well, of course I remember the trial, sir, but it was the last time those mules had a chance of driving me mad!'

'You'll recover in time,' Ramage said consolingly. 'Just think of other things - like flogging to windward down the Channel with snow flurries and leaking oilskins ...'

'That's done it,' Southwick said, laughing. '1 could just feel the cold water trickling down my neck, and my eyebrows begin to freeze up.'

'It's amazing how thinking about that can cheer you up,' Ramage said. 'It's one of the worst experiences I can think of.'

'It's worse for the topmen having to handle frozen ropes and sails. I get sorry for them, too!'

'Well, don't waste sympathy on Frenchmen jogging along comfortably in the Trades with reefed sails at night,' Ramage said. 'They're not only upsetting the French frigates, but they're annoying me!'

The rest of the afternoon passed quickly, with the men aloft exercising at sail handling, this time sending down a topsail and hoisting it again, all against Ramage's watch. It was hot work in the Tropical sun but the men, naked to the waist and now well tanned, enjoyed it.

'Next time we'll send down the yard as well,' Ramage told Aitken. 'If these Frenchmen don't arrive soon, we'll have them sending down the yard at night. I want the men as used to doing things in darkness as in daylight. We were lucky in the action against the Achille. Next time we might not be so lucky.'

At dusk the lookouts were brought down from aloft and, with more men, stationed round the ship. At the same time the drums beat to quarters, so that the Dido met the night ready for action.

When the time came to stand down, Ramage gave orders that the guns were to be left loaded and run out. The big disadvantage of a seventy-four, he reckoned, was that it took a quarter of an hour for the men to get to quarters and be ready for action, against the five minutes it took a frigate. If the French suddenly turned up in the darkness he could ill afford to waste fifteen minutes while the men went to quarters. They would have to sleep by their guns.