Orsini, signal book in hand, was standing waiting. 'The Créole's pendant,' Ramage said, 'and the signal to pass within hail. Number eighty-four, I believe.'
He was teasing the boy but Paolo was still taking his work very seriously. 'Number eighty-four, it is, sir!'
The wind eased as the Juno closed with the coast and as she approached the wallowing merchantmen the Surcouf turned to run back to La Comète, her long tail of boats towing astern. Ramage swept his telescope along the beach and could see a long column of men walking towards the western end. He steadied the telescope and saw that a much smaller group of men was waiting there for them, probably the masters and men from the merchantmen. He swung the telescope back along the beach and saw piles of wood gathered every twenty yards or so along the water's edge. Much of the wood was shaped into curves so he realized that they were a dozen or more smashed-up boats from the merchant ships. Wagstaffe must have taken La Créole in close and given his men some target practice, or sent a party on shore with axes. Anyway, there was no risk of the French getting back on board again from this beach unless they wanted to swim . . .
Southwick finished grumbling at the quartermaster for letting the maintopsail luff flutter and then came over to Ramage.
‘I don't think many of them waited long enough to cut the sheets and braces, sir,' he said, pointing towards the merchantmen. 'I think they just let 'em run. The ropes may have flogged themselves into rare old tangles, but ten men apiece should be enough to get them under way. I'm a bit doubtful about them anchoring in the right places, though . . .'
'As long as they get an anchor down on the five-fathom ledge by the Diamond,' Rarnage said, ‘I’ll be content. They'll have La Comète for company, but the rest of us will be under way all night'
'And the two frigates, sir?'
'I want to go down and look at them as soon as we have these merchantmen safely anchored. I've been watching them, and there's no risk of them cutting themselves adrift. Seems to me the one hit amidships is settling.'
Southwick took the proffered telescope. 'You're right, sir! Well, we'll soon see. I can't wait to hear from Aitken how it all happened.'
The Juno now had fewer than forty-five men on board. Apart from the carpenter and his mates, there were fifteen seamen on board La Comète guarding the French pumpers. Twenty-five men could keep the Juno under way under topsails.
'Pick twenty men,' Ramage said. 'They can handle two merchantmen. Who do I put in charge of each party . . .?' He paused, trying to think of men.
'Jackson and Stafford, sir?' Southwick suggested. 'They're your best men.'
Ramage laughed and agreed. The idea of an American seaman belonging to a British ship of war going off in command of a crew to bring a French prize to anchor had a truly cosmopolitan ring about it. 'That takes care of two ships. Wagstaffe will have to spare ten men, so three ships can come down at the same time,' he said, 'and then he can take the twenty Junos back and with his ten collect three more. His ten men can bring the last one in. That will save time, because the Créole gets up to windward better than we do.'
The schooner came down the Juno's larboard side, swept under her stern and, hardening in sheets, came close under the frigate's quarter. Ramage shouted across Wagstaffe's orders and the schooner bore up towards the convoy, men running aft to the falls of the quarter boat, ready to lower it. Southwick already had his twenty men mustered and was giving instructions to Jackson and Stafford. Both told their men to collect arms, and Ramage noticed they all chose pistols and cutlasses.
A quarter of an hour later the Juno was lying hove-to to windward of the merchantmen and her two cutters were pulling for the two nearest while La Créole's small boat was already alongside another.
Ramage looked across at La Comète and saw that she now had all the Surcouf’s boats astern of her. Aitken obviously wanted them out of the way of the cable, and it was a quick way of transferring more men to work on the French frigate's fo'c'sle. Then he saw a single boat leave La Comète and pull towards the headland. The Juno's carpenter had been better than his word and the Freach seamen had already been freed after their long spell at the pump. Ramage did not envy them their long row: their backs would already be aching ... That would leave one boat on the Grande Anse beach. The French were unlikely to make use of it, but if there was time La Créole could go over and destroy it.
'Jackson's done it!' Southwick shouted gleefully. 'Just look at him,' he added, eye glued to his telescope, 'standing there with a cutlass slung over his shoulder and a couple of pistols in his belt! Looks more like a pirate than the Captain's coxswain!'
The ship's yards were being braced round and the sails filled as the men sheeted them home. Slowly she gathered way, slab-sided and bulky, and Ramage saw her Tricolour being hauled down. A minute or two later it was hoisted again, with a Red Ensign above it.
'And there goes Stafford,' Southwick called. Ramage saw another Tricolour come down and the Master commented: 'Jackson's beaten him there - though where he found that ensign I don't know!'
It took nearly two hours to get the seven merchant ships anchored off the Diamond, and by the time the last two arrived the Surcouf had towed La Comète into position, anchored her, and retrieved the seamen, leaving fifteen Junos on board under Rossi's command.
On an impulse, Ramage had sent word to Aitken to keep two of La Comète's boats in tow, as well as her own, and had taken the third in tow of the Juno, giving instructions to Wagstaffe to return to the beach with La Créole and destroy La Comète's fourth boat, which the French seamen had tried to haul up.
Then the Juno led the way round the south side of the Diamond Rock to the remaining two frigates, which were out of sight behind it. The sun was beginning to dip down now and it would be dark within two hours. The men of the Juno and the Surcouf were at quarters as they rounded the Rock, Ramage cursing to himself yet again because he was so short of men, but a sudden hail from Southwick on the fo'c'sle warned him that the French ships were in sight. One glance told him that all fighting was over for the day.
The decks of one frigate were almost awash and, as far as he could make out, she was being kept afloat only by the bows of the second, which was now heeled over by her weight and likely to capsize at any moment. The men had cut her masts away, presumably trying to right her, but three boats were rowing round the two ships. As he looked through the telescope he saw black specks in the water round the two ships. There were also white blobs with black specks on them: men holding on to hammocks to keep afloat.
As he watched he felt a chill which had nothing to do with the fact that the heat was going out of the sun and they were getting a stronger breeze as the Juno came clear of the land. It was the realization that the three boats circling the two ships probably represented all that could be launched. The rest had presumably been smashed by falling masts and yards.
There must be five or six hundred Frenchmen out there, some swimming, some clinging to hammocks, others to bits of wreckage. Many were still on board one or other of the ships: men who could not swim or who feared the sharks. Five or six hundred Frenchmen to be rescued by the Juno and the Surcouf. Once again there was the risk of rescued becoming captors ...
Southwick came hurrying up the quarterdeck ladder, a look of alarm on his face. ‘It'd be suicide, sir,' he exclaimed, obviously not caring that the men at the wheel and the quartermaster heard him. 'Let those devils on board and they'll seize both ships! Aye, and recapture the merchantmen and La Comète too!'