Jackson's laugh was mirthless. He had fought the French for too long to have much sympathy for them. 'What about Gilbert?'
Ferris puffed out his lips and then opened his mouth as if blowing out a plum stone. 'Don't make a mistake about that fellow! He may be small and he may be a Frog - it's easy to forget that because he speaks such good English - but you should see him when he gets worked up!
'Before we took half the prisoners over to the Calypso he talked to all of them below decks (this was while you was ferrying across our seamen) and gave 'em a warning. All French to me, of course, but I understood everything he said just by watching the faces of the prisoners! I think a lot of it was religion - Diable, that means the Devil, doesn't it? Well he went on a lot about him, and they shuffled about a lot, as though they were scared of the Devil. There was another chap they were scared of, too, someone called More. What with him threatening 'em with the Devil and More, and us Marines, too, we had them French twittering like frightened starlings.'
'Until the two started fighting.'
'Yus, but I think they are so scared that they very easily get on each other's nerves. Anyway, a day or two in irons won't hurt 'em. Given half a chance, Gilbert and his chaps would have beaten the two of them. Yet they're French too - why do they hate the fellows in this ship so much, Jacko?'
'It's not just this ship: they hate all Frenchmen who support Bonaparte. I don't know much about it myself but of course Gilbert and Louis worked for the Count of Rennes, who Bonaparte is shipping to Cayenne in the frigate we're trying to catch.'
'Cayenne? That's a sort of pepper, isn't it?'
'Yes, it comes from French Guiana, which is near Brazil. It's a deadly sort of place - makes islands of the West Indies like Antigua seem as healthy as Bath. Die like flies there, according to the captain.'
Ferris nodded and flapped the front of his tunic back and forth like a fan. 'I can believe it. But what does the captain want with this frigate, La Robuste? Halves our strength in men, even if it doubles the number of ships. But doubling the number of guns and halving the number of men to fire them,' his voice assumed the monotonous drone of a drill sergeant, 'is militarily unsound, Jacko.'
'Tell the captain,' the American said. 'He may not have considered that. Or,' he added sarcastically, 'he might be considering it only from a naval point of view, not a military one.'
Sergeant Ferris patted his stomach. 'Yes, that could be so,' he agreed judicially, completely missing the tone of Jackson's voice. 'Yes, I agree, he might have some particular naval plan in mind.'
Wagstaffe looked at his makeshift journal. There was something very satisfying about the book, which had been made up by young Orsini stitching together the left-hand side of a dozen sheets of paper. How satisfying to write boldly across the top (normally it was only a matter of fitting names in the blank spaces of a printed form) 'Journal of the Proceedings of –', he paused a moment: this was an unusual situatio... He then continued, '- the former French national frigate La Robuste, presently prize to one of his Majesty's ships, Lieutenant Wagstaffe, commander.' He had added the date and then carefully ruled in nine columns, and today, as he glanced down them, the ship's progress was becoming more obvious.
The date occupied the first two columns, the third recorded the winds (which had stayed between southeast and northeast the whole time), then came the courses (which were unchanged) and the miles covered from noon to noon, which were usually around 175. The latitude and longitude occupied the next two columns and showed to a navigator's eye the progress they were making to the southwest.
The next column, bearing and distances at noon, had been left blank, and there was only one entry under 'Remarkable Observations and Accidents', which recorded putting all the prisoners in irons for twenty-four hours after two of them had started fighting.
Across in the Calypso, Ramage had just worked out the noon sight and compared his position with those of Aitken and Southwick. They tallied within three or four miles, and with the ship rolling and pitching with following wind and sea, so that taking a sight was like trying to shoot a hare from the back of a runaway horse, that was close enough.
He opened his journal and under the 'Latitude' column wrote 6 degrees, 45 minutes North; next to it was recorded the longitude, 52 degrees, 14 minutes West. The Îles du Salut, according to the French pilot book, were 5 degrees, 17 minutes North and 52 degrees, 36 minutes West, so... they were... yes, ninety miles on a course of south by west a quarter west. Which meant no change in the course, but because they were making eight knots and he wanted to bring the mountains in sight soon after dawn, both the Calypso and La Robuste were going to have to reduce canvas: a little under five knots would bring the mountains in sight at daybreak so that the ships' companies would be breakfasted by the time the three islands were sighted. Providing of course the visibility was reasonable. Often there was a haze along a lee shore, presumably caused by the sea air meeting the land air, and the mistiness thrown up by the waves breaking on rocks and sandy beaches.
He wiped the pen, put the top on the ink bottle, and replaced everything in the drawer. He found Southwick and Aitken on deck.
'If the chronometer is not playing games, and if there's not a radical change in the speed of the current as we close the coast...' Ramage said.
'Ninety miles, I make it,' Southwick said.
'Which means we might run up on the beach in the night,' Ramage commented. 'Mr Aitken, we'll try her under topsails, and then a cast of the log, if you please. Five knots will be quite enough, so we can furl the courses and get in the t'gallants and royals.'
Aitken picked up the speaking trumpet while Ramage went aft to the taffrail and looked astern at the Calypso's wake. Despite the speed she was making and the wild rolling, the wake was no more than the first wrinkles on a beautiful woman's face: the French designer had produced a fast and sea-kindly hull which slipped through the water without fuss.
La Robuste was a fine sight. He could imagine how often over the past days Wagstaffe, Kenton and Martin had been measuring the angle to the Calypso's mainmasthead, to maintain that magic distance of a cable. He smiled to himself because although Wagstaffe might not realize it, the next few minutes were something of a test. Wagstaffe was a fine seaman and steady, a good navigator and popular with the men. He had shown himself, in other words, to be an excellent lieutenant. He could and did carry out orders with precision. And, as Bowen had pointed out to Admiral Clinton, this is what Bullivant could do. Bullivant had only failed when he made the enormous jump from taking orders as a lieutenant to making decisions and giving orders as a captain.
How about Wagstaffe?
The Calypso's bosun's mates finished the shrill notes of their calls and bellowed orders: now came the thud of bare feet as the men ran to their stations. Sails would not be furled as fast as usual, since half the Calypso's men were now over in La Robuste, but - he took out his watch - with similar ships and similar sails set it would be interesting to compare times.
The squeal of ropes rendering through blocks, the shouts of bosun's mates, the grunts of men straining as they heaved on ropes ... And the great rectangle of the maincourse, which for days had been billowing in a graceful curve, suddenly crumpled and distorted as the wind spilled when the lower corner of each side began to be pulled diagonally towards the middle.
And damnation, La Robuste was beginning to clew up her maincourse, too! Wagstaffe had plotted his noon position against the latitude and longitude of the Îles du Salut: he must have realized that the two ships would have to slow down to avoid arriving in the night, and he had his men waiting out of sight, waiting for the first wrinkles to appear in the Calypso's maincourse ... Yes, Wagstaffe passed the test...