More than twenty seamen had been put in irons ready for a flogging next day for - at best - some frivolous charge contrived by Wallis. Part of the mutiny had been to free those men. Part? It was probably the whole reason, but releasing the men meant disposing of the officers and the Captain. Would the men have spared Wallis and the officers if they could have freed the prisoners without bloodshed? Idle speculation: no one would ever know . . .
Beside him Captain Teal cleared his throat. "After the mutiny was over and the new captain had been elected, how did the men decide where to take the ship?"
"They argued almost the whole day, sir. Some was for taking her back to Jamaica, and some was for the Main."
"Jamaica?" Teal asked incredulously.
"Aye, sir. They wanted to draw up a document which everyone on board signed, a round robin, they said, and give it to the Commander-in-Chief when they arrived there."
Edwards lifted his hand to stop Teal. "This document, " he said brusquely, "what would it have said?"
"Well, sir, they all agreed what it would say; what they didn't agree about was whether it would do any good. Them as thought it wouldn't eventually won on a show of hands."
"But what would it have said! What did they want to tell the Commander-in-Chief?"
"Why, sir, " Weaver said, as though it should have been obvious to everyone, "to tell the Admiral that they meant no harm by what they'd done, that they was loyal to the King but was in mortal fear that Captain Wallis would flog 'em all to death. An' give the Admiral the figures, of course."
"What figures?" Edwards was obviously fascinated, but Ramage had already guessed what was coming.
"The figures for the floggings, sir: the Captain had flogged 109 men in seven weeks, a total of 2, 616 lashes . . ."
"That's your story! " Edwards exclaimed, clearly shocked.
"No, sir, " Weaver said firmly, "they was the figures taken from the Captain's journal. Summers showed it to the Spanish officers when they came on board at La Guaira. Captain's own figures, they was."
There was a complete silence for two or three minutes. Ramage did some hurried sums. That averaged fifteen floggings a week with each man getting two dozen lashes. Captain Marden then asked: "The mutineers finally voted to take the ship to the Main?"
"Yes, sir. Summers and a few of the others made speeches and said if they went to Jamaica they'd all be hanged, signed letter or not, because the Admiral wouldn't listen to them, Captain Wallis being his favourite, so they voted for La Guaira."
"Summers made such a speech, " said Captain Teal. "What of the other prisoners, Harris and Perry?"
"Perry followed Summers and spoke for La Guaira. Some of the others said the same thing, and then Harris made a long speech. He just repeated what Summers said and the men soon got tired of listening to him and called for a vote."
"What happened when the ship arrived off La Guaira?"
"The Spanish came out. One of the officers spoke English."
Ramage gave Teal a nudge to indicate he had some questions and asked: "Did you anchor off the entrance or what?"
"No, sir. Summers hoisted white flags - flags of truce, he called 'em - from the fore, main and mizen, and then hove-to off the anchorage. After about an hour a Spanish boat came out full of soldiers. And lots of officers, of course."
"Who did the negotiating?"
"Summers, sir, but there was a committee of six mutineers he had to report to. They had to agree to everything."
"Had the committee decided on the terms - on the price they were going to ask the Spanish for handing over the ship?"
"Price, sir?" Weaver was genuinely shocked. "Oh no, sir, they weren't a selling of her! No, all the terms they asked was to be allowed to live on the Main and start a new life."
"That was for the mutineers. What about those of you who did not mutiny?"
"That depended on Summers, sir. He had three lists. One was the men to be handed over to the Spanish as prisoners; the second was men who should be allowed to go free; the third them as should get rewards."
"Were those to be handed over to the Spanish, the men in the first list, those who had not taken part in the mutiny?"
"Not all of them, sir. There was about twenty-five. The cook, some seamen and myself."
"What about the second list? Were they men who had not been in the mutiny?"
"Yes, sir. You see some of us had upset Summers or Perry, and as a sort of punishment we were put on the first list. They used to go round threatening people. As bad as Captain Wallis, they was. Them as hadn't took part in the mutiny and hadn't fallen foul of Summers went on the second list."
"The Spanish authorities agreed to all this?"
"They did eventually, sir, but at first they thought it was some sort of trap. They insisted on taking nearly everyone on shore in the boat, twenty at a time. They brought out more Spanish seamen each time they came back. Then they tried to sail her into the anchorage."
"Tried?"
"Yes, sir; they got her in irons, and eventually Summers took the conn and brought her in."
"How do you know that - surely you had been taken off as prisoners?"
"No, sir, the prisoners were put in irons with a guard of Spaniards. We got worried once when the ship touched a rock and we was all trussed up, but she came off all right."
Edwards tapped with his gavel. "The court will adjourn until eight o'clock tomorrow." Only then did Ramage, glancing at his watch, realize they had been listening to evidence for more than five hours.
CHAPTER SEVEN
When the court sat again next morning Weaver was back at the end of the line of prisoners while Gowers read aloud the minutes of the previous day's hearing. Although all five captains had avoided discussing the trial, either when the previous day's session ended or before today's begun, they knew that the pile of papers covered with Gowers's spidery writing formed the worst condemnation of a captain in the history of the Navy.
"Breadfruit Bligh" had been sent off the Bounty by her mutineers, but he was still alive - indeed, the last Ramage heard of him he was commanding a seventy-four, as unpopular with the Admiralty as with his ship's company. Bligh had been too free with the cat-o'-nine-tails in the Bounty but compared with Wallis - Ramage did not doubt Weaver's story and knew that his fellow captains agreed - Bligh was no more violent than one of Mr Wesley's preachers.
Gowers's voice droned on, but he had made a good job of the minutes: it must be hard to concentrate for hours on end. Finally he finished and told Weaver: "You are still on oath: take up your position again as a witness."
Captain Edwards had several slips of paper in front of him, and Ramage realized that on each was written a question. It made it easier for the deputy judge advocate if he was given a written question immediately it was asked: he simply numbered it and wrote down the number and corresponding reply in his rough copy of the minutes.
"You described yesterday how the Jocasta arrived at La Guaira. Relate what happened to you after the ship came to an anchor."
"We prisoners was kept on board two days and then taken on shore under guard and lodged in the town jail. Five days later we were told we would have to work for our keep, and if we didn't we'd starve."
"What work was this?"
"Helping build fortifications at La Guaira, sir. Breaking up rocks and carrying them to the masons."
"For how long did you do this work?"
"Until the fortresses was completed. Fourteen months, sir."
Breaking up rocks under a scorching tropical sun: for weeks the sun would be directly overhead at noon. It said much for Weaver that he had survived.