Ramage

 'Thus the wounded were abandoned to the French?' asked Captain Blackman.

 'You could put it like that, sir,' said Brown, making it clear that anyone who did would be a fool or a rogue. 'But we was mustered in three divisions: the dead - and they didn't care; the wounded, who couldn't get a mite o' medical attention 'cos our surgeon and his mate was already dead; and them of us who weren't wounded and didn't want to be prisoners of the Frenchies.

'Apart from that,' he added, 'there's the Harticles of War. Number Ten, last bit, about "if any Person in the Fleet shall treacherously or cowardly yield or cry for quarter", so it wouldn't 'ave been right for us who wasn't wounded to let ourselves be taken prisoner. And it stands to reason our chaps'd get properly treated by the Frenchies, who mightn't be much in a scrap but at least they don't murder the wounded. But even if we'd been able to get the wounded away in the boats - and we couldn't, mind you - we'd 'ave as good as murdered 'em. Christ!' he exclaimed at the thought of it, 'it nearly did for us that trip to Bastia in the boiling 'ot sun, and we wasn't even scratched.'

 'Quite,' said Captain Blackman, who had been trying to stop the Bosun's excited speech, partly because he realized the reason behind his question was now blatantly obvious, and partly because the Deputy Judge Advocate was waving desperately with one hand and scribbling away with the other.

 'Quite!' he repeated. 'Please pause after each sentence - the Judge Advocate simply cannot write at that speed.'

 Clearly Brown thought that at last he had completed his part in the trial, but Captain Croucher said:

 'Continue your narrative until the time you arrived in Bastia.'

The look of surprise on Brown's face could hardly be lost on the members of the court, Ramage thought, but if it was, Brown's next remark drew attention to it.

 'I hope as 'ow I'm not incrimuanatiug meself - or anyone else - by going on like this, 'cos that's got nothin' to do with surrendering the ship.'

 'You are not charged with anything so you cannot incriminate yourself,' said the Deputy Judge Advocate.

'No, I'm not charged with anything yet,' he retorted, 'but that's not to say the trip to Bastia's got anything to do with sinking the Sibella or why Mr Ramage is on trial. Nor's it to say I won't be charged later on.'

'Get on with your evidence, man,' said Captain Croucher impatiently, 'you've nothing to fear if you tell the truth.'

After Brown had described the voyage to Bastia, he declared: 'Well, that's all I've got to say.'

Captain Croucher glanced up. 'That is for us to decide. As it happens I have no questions. Have any of the members of the court anything to ask this witness?'

 'Where was Mr Ramage standing when he gave the order to wear ship?' asked Ferris.

 'On the nettings by the starboard mizen shrouds,' said Brown. 'He shouted at the Frenchies from there. I thought he was mad to stand up exposed like that, if you'll forgive me saying so, sir, 'cos apart from anything else if 'e got shot it meant I was in command again!'

 Ramage realized that Ferris would not be one of Captain Croucher's favourites by the time the trial ended: clearly Ferris wanted to underline the fact that Ramage had not been skulking somewhere out of the way of shot.

 'No more questions?' asked Croucher, in a voice that defied anyone to speak. 'Well, the prisoner may cross-examine the witness.'

 Anything Ramage said now could only be an anti-climax after Brown's bluff, honest and forthright narrative.

'I have no questions, sir,'

'Oh - oh well, read back the evidence, Mr Barrow.'

Only once did Brown interrupt, to make a correction, and  that was because Barrow had written that Ramage 'appeared dazed'.

 'I said "very dazed",' said Brown belligerently. 'Don't you go taking words out of my mouth!'

'Wait a moment, then,' said Barrow, picking up his pen.

 When he continued reading, Brown said, 'You read over that last bit again and make sure you've set it to rights!'

 The implication startled Barrow, but he slid his spectacles back up his nose and read it.

 'That's right: proceed, Mr Purser,' said Brown, making it clear that pursers should know they could not be trusted.

 When Barrow finished reading Brown was allowed to leave the court, and the next witness was called.

 Matthew Lloyd, the Carpenter's Mate, marched in and stood precisely where the Deputy Judge Advocate's pointing finger indicated. He was as thin as the planks he so often sawed, adzed and chiselled; his face was long and tanned, as if carefully carved from a narrow piece of close-grained mahogany.

 When Lloyd answered Barrow's routine questions about his name, rating and where he had been on the evening of the action, his voice was staccato, each word rapped out as if he was hammering in a row of flat-headed scupper nails. When he related what he knew about damage received during the action, he did it as precisely as if he had been marking out a piece of wood before starting to make some delicate cabinet work for the Captain. His answers were equally precise. No, he did not know exactly how many shot hit the hull because as soon as they plugged one hole another would appear. No, he wasn't sure which broadside it was that killed the captain but he thought it was the fifth; yes, he had been sounding the well up to then and at the time Captain Letts was killed there were three feet of water. Soon after that the ship seemed to be making nearly an inch of water a minute. No, he had not timed it with a watch, he told Captain Croucher, but it was a foot in less than fifteen minutes.

 There was no chance of keeping the ship afloat, he told Captain Blackman, because several shot had opened up the hull planking in way of the futtocks, and it was impossible  to fit shot plugs from inside the ship. No, he had not reported to Captain Letts that the pumps could not keep up with the leaks because by that time Captain Letts had been killed, but he had reported to the Master.

Yes, he told Captain Ferris, there had been a great deal of damage in addition to shot hitting the ship on the waterline; but he'd only mentioned those 'twixt wind and water because there were so many and they were his special concern.

 The first he knew of Mr Ramage being in command, he told Captain Blackman, was when Mr Ramage sent for him and asked the extent of the damage. What were Mr Ramage's exact questions? It was difficult to recall precisely but he remembered being very surprised that the Junior Lieutenant - if Mr Ramage would excuse him saying so - should be so thorough; and as soon as he was told the depth of water in the well Mr Ramage had worked out how many tons had flooded into the ship, roughly how much buoyancy remained, and how long - allowing for the fact that the lower the ship sank the faster the water would come in through the shotholes because the pressure increased with depth - the ship could stay afloat.

 'Yes, I know you know all about that, sir,' he said to Captain Blackman, 'but I'm giving my evidence and I'm describing what Mr Ramage said and did, and he was speaking out loud because - as far as I could see - he'd only just recovered from being knocked unconscious. Marvel to me,' he added, 'that he could work it out in his own head, anyway.'

 'Mr Ramage had worked out roughly how long it would be before the ship sank?' asked Ferris.

'Yes - between sixty and seventy-five minutes.'

 Ramage noticed Croucher was becoming increasingly restless: Ferris's questions were clearly annoying him, although Ramage knew that Ferris was only concerned with getting at the truth; while Blackman was, from Croucher's point of view, asking the wrong sort of questions: the Carpenter's mate was a steady man with a good memory, not at all intimidated by Blackman's hectoring manner. Blackman's blatant attempts to discredit Ramage were in fact only drawing attention tohis thoroughness.