Ramage

 'My dear boy,' Croucher replied, 'we can't spend all the week on this triaclass="underline" let's get on with hearing the evidence.'

Ramage rubbed the scar over his right eyebrow and blinked  rapidly: excitement and anger were mounting: he must keep calm: once these men found their victim showed signs of fighting back, they became nervous, and he had to watch for every opportunity to attack: he must continue the bluff.

'With respect, sir, it is only fair to me to have it read.'

'Oh, very well, then.'

 Everyone looked at Barrow, who gripped his spectacles in both hands and almost giggled with nervousness.

'I made no note, sir...'

‘You what?'

'No, sir.'

 Ramage interrupted smoothly: 'Then perhaps we can agree on a paraphrased version, sir?'

 It only needed someone to point out that Gianna had not been on oath and he'd lost the gamble; but it was worth it. To his relief Croucher finally agreed, and for the next five minutes he and Ramage argued over the wording. Ramage insisted that the Marchesa's remarks should be put in word for word, and when Croucher declared that it was impossible to remember what she said, Ramage suggested she should be called in to repeat her remarks. Croucher, alarmed at the idea, eventually agreed on a short version and asked sarcastically: 'Are you satisfied now?'

'Indeed, sir.'

 'Thank God for that. Barrow, make a note of that and recall the first witness!'

 The Bosun walked straight to the witness chair, and since there was no need for him to take the oath again, Barrow began the questioning.

 'You were formerly Boatswain of His Majesty's late ship Sibella on Thursday the eighth of September, when you fell in with the French warship?'

'Aye, I was that!' replied Brown.

'Kindly answer, "yes" or "no",' Barrow said acidly. 'Relate to the court every particular you know concerning the action from the time Captain Letts was killed.'

 Ramage was just going to protest that Brown should begin his story earlier, since the court was investigating the loss of the ship as well as trying him, when Captain Ferris interrupted.

 'From the wording of the order for the trial, I think the witness should tell what he knows from the time the French ship came in sight. Captain Letts' activities are of equal interest to the court.'

 'Since Captain Letts is dead he can hardly be a witness,' said Captain Croucher, trying to avoid openly rejecting Ferris's demand.

 'Had the prisoner been killed he would not be on trial either,' retorted Ferris. 'But it would be unfair to blame the prisoner for anything which was Captain Letts' responsibility.'

 'Very well,' said Croucher. 'Strike the last part of the question from the record and substitute "from the time the French ship was sighted".'

 Brown was a simple man but although nervous at facing so many senior officers he obviously knew that this was no ordinary trial. And since Brown was a simple man, he told his story simply. He had just said he had heard some of the men say they'd been told several of the officers were killed, when Captain Blackman, sitting next to Captain Croucher, interrupted: 'What you heard other people say is not evidence: speak to facts.'

'Them's the facts!' said Brown, taking little trouble to hide his contempt for anyone so stupid as not to understand. 'The orficers were killed. Couldn't see it with me own glims 'cos I couldn't be everywhere at once. But they was dead all right.'

 'Carry on,' said Croucher, 'but try and remember that what someone said to you is evidence, but what you were told someone said to someone else isn't - that's just hearsay.'

Clearly Brown neither understood nor cared, but launched off again on his narrative, bringing it up to the time that all the officers appeared to have been killed and the Master had taken command. The Master had just given orders for knotting some torn rigging when he was himself cut in two by a shot.

'I thought to meself, "Allo, won't be long afore I'm dragging me anchors fer the next world too", and I didn't fancy taking command of that lot.'

'What "lot"?' asked Croucher icily.

 'Well, sir, the ship as she was. A complete wreck by then. Anyway, sir, since I was apparently the senior man alive I sends men to make a tally of 'ow many was dead and 'ow many was winged. They came back and reports there aren't no more'n a third of us left on our pins.'

 'Exactly how many were killed and how many wounded?' asked Captain Ferris, indicating to Captain Croucher that he wished to see the ship's muster book.

 'Forty-eight dead, sir, and sixty-three wounded - a dozen or so o' them mortually.'

'Mortally,' corrected the Deputy Judge Advocate.

'That's what I said. Mortually. Means they died later.'

 'Out of a ship's company of one hundred and sixty-four,' commented Ferris, closing the muster book.

'Wouldn't be knowing, sir.'

 'That was the total at the last muster,' Ferris said. 'Note it in the minutes, Barrow. Carry on with your evidence, Brown.'

 'Well,' said Brown, 'I was just wishing I could lash up me 'ammick, stow me bag and go 'ome when the bleeding Master-at-Arms mentions, ever so casual, that he thought one of the orficers on the main deck wasn't dead, sir, only wounded. I sent a lad down to make sure and I heard he found Mr Ramage unconcherous—'

‘Unconscious,’ said Barrow.

‘Hearsay evidence,' Captain Blackman interrupted triumphantly.

'Nor it wasn't!' retorted Brown. 'In a minute the boy came back and told me with 'is own lips as 'e'd found Mr Ramage breathin' but wounded and unconcherous—'

'Unconscious,' said Barrow.

 'Unconchirous, then,' said Brown, determined to ram home the point. 'I sent 'im down again to tell Mr Ramage he was in command, and the lad came back and said—'

‘Wait a moment,' said Barrow, 'you're talking much too fast.'

 Brown could not resist a chance of a dig at a purser — for he had recognized Barrow's trade — and sniffed, 'First time I met a pusser slow with 'is pen!'

'Steady there!' warned Captain Croucher. 'Confine your remarks to the case on hand.'

 'Well, as soon as Mr Ramage came on deck I reported the state of the ship and the butcher's bill and told 'im that 'e was in command.'

 Captain Ferris asked, 'What condition was Mr Ramage in?'

‘He looked as though 'e'd tripped over the standing part o' the fore sheet and bin hauled back on board just in time!' said Brown, and Ramage almost laughed at the simile, since 'Going over the standing part of the fore sheet’ was slang for dying, or being killed.

'Be more specific,' said Ferris.

'Well, 'e was groggy on 'is pins: he'd 'ad a terrible bash on the 'ead.'

 Why, thought Ramage, can the man tackle one aitch and miss the next? He was just making a mental note to ask Brown a question when it was his turn to cross-examine as Ferris asked:

'Did he appear dazed?'

'Looked like a grampus that'd been luffed into a brick wall, sir.'

 Several people in the court laughed, including Ramage: it was an apt description, since, like a grampus, he'd been soaking wet after ducking his head in the water tub; and the picture of a grampus swimming head first into a brick wall seemed to describe how he'd felt at that moment. Ferris seemed satisfied, but Croucher said to Barrow:

 'With the witness's consent, you'd better put that down as "Yes, he appeared dazed." Is that correct, Brown?'

'Better make it "very dazed", sir.'

'Carry on, then.'

 ‘Well, there aren't much more to it. Mr Ramage got a round turn on 'iself in a moment or two and took command.'

 Brown obviously thought that was all the evidence he needed to give, but Croucher said, 'Well, go on to describe the surrender of the ship.'

Briefly Brown told how by cleverly wearing round the Sibella at the last moment so that her foremast collapsed over the side and acted as an anchor, Mr Ramage had given the unwounded men a chance to get into the boats and escape in the darkness, and left the wounded to surrender the ship.