Ramage's Signal

'Seems so from this chart, sir.'

'Then as you trend south there's a headland with - yes, a tower on top. Too far off to see shape and colour; in fact it looks like a tree stump!'

'That'll be the tower on the north side of Cala Piombo, sir, 633 feet high. If we get strong nor'easters or sou'easters, that's the anchorage for us. Good holding in six to ten fathoms, the chart says; I've a special note on it.'

'Well', Ramage said, shutting the telescope, 'let's hope we get fine weather so we can stay out of the Cala Piombo.'

'It's an odd sort of name', Southwick said. He paused and then gave a sniff. 'Still, I can't think why we'd ever want to be down that end of the gulf.'

'Piombo is Italian for lead', Ramage said. 'I wonder who built the tower ...'

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The moment the Calypso was anchored in the lee of Sant' Antioco, Rennick had his men drawn up in the waist with the sergeant checking their pistols and cutlasses while Aitken attended to hoisting out the boats. Fortunately the frigate was lying with her head to the northwest, so that her starboard side was for the time being hidden from any ships entering the bay. Which, the first lieutenant thought to himself, was just as well.

A frigate carried six boats, two (usually the cutters) secured in quarter davits and the other four stowed on deck amidships with the spare yards and booms. When she anchored, normally the two quarterboats were lowered - the first one away traditionally carrying the master or bosun in a circle round the ship making sure all the yards were square.

So a frigate might have her two cutters in the water and no onlooker would be surprised; but for a frigate, or any ship of war, to have six boats in the water - that could mean one of two things: that they were all being sent off wooding and watering, and would be stowed with casks, or they were going to attack something, in which case they would be full of men.

First Aitken had the larboard cutter, the red one, lowered and brought round to the starboard side, when the other cutter was lowered. Each one was designed to carry sixteen men for cutting-out expeditions and was rowed by six oars. The launch was then hoisted out on the stay tackle, the biggest and heaviest of the Calypso's boats, carrying twenty-four armed men and rowed by eight oars. The pinnace was the next to go over the side, and like the cutters carried sixteen armed men but rowed eight oars. With the launch, the pinnace was intended for more distant expeditions. The gig, long and narrow-beamed and the fastest of them all, was hoisted out next. She could carry sixteen armed men and rowed eight oars. Finally the little jolly boat was hoisted out - rowing four oars, she carried eight armed men.

All the boats had been secured by painters and sternfasts by the time Ramage came up to the entryport and said to Aitken: 'The first of the merchant ships is just passing the end of Sant' Antioco and Isolotto la Vacca, that rock south of it. She'll be anchoring in half an hour. She's the Sarazine, with a dozen men. You'd better take the launch, your party and a section of Marines under the sergeant.'

'Aye aye, sir.'

'Damn - there's another ship just nosing round the headland. Ah, the Golondrina. I think I'll go in the gig with Kenton to deal with her; it's a long time since I heard Spanish spoken.'

Aitken shouted: 'Launch crew and boarders fall in beside number five gun, starboard side; green cutter's crew and boarders to number nine gun.'

Ramage watched Aitken and his men leave, looked round for Martin, saw him eyeing the two approaching merchant ships and called over: 'You'll recognize your ship and go off to her at the right moment. Don't forget the signal to Southwick, otherwise you might find some roundshot whistling round your ears.'

Martin was excited and nodded his head. 'Aye aye, sir. Will Orsini bring in the Passe Partout and anchor her?'

'Yes, all being well. Don't forget, he's already several jumps ahead of us!'

Martin nodded again, clearly preoccupied. Not frightened, Ramage realized, but on the verge of being overwhelmed with the apparent importance of his orders and what he thought would be the consequences of failure.

'You and Orsini are a lucky pair', Ramage said conversationally. 'You went off comfortably to your first commands. Mine was different. I was knocked out by a splinter and woke up to find that I, the fifth lieutenant, was the sole surviving officer and therefore in command - of a sinking frigate being battered to pieces by a French ship of the line.'

'I heard about that from Jackson, sir: he was with you. He said you treated it as - well, as a great joke, sir.'

'I assure you I didn't', Ramage said laughing. 'My head was ringing like a church bell from being knocked out.'

'That's one of those scars ...?'

'The upper one', Ramage said, automatically rubbing the scar above his right eyebrow. 'Now, I think that's your bird coming into sight, isn't it?'

'Yes, sir: if you'll excuse me!' He gave a shout: 'Red cutter party fall in here! Red cutter party to me!'

By the time Martin had cast off with the red cutter, Kenton was calling for the gig's crew and boarding party and Rennick, who would be commanding the pinnace and sixteen boarders, apart from the eight oarsmen, was still inspecting his men.

Aitken's launch was already half a mile from the Calypso, the men rowing leisurely and not heading directly for any particular ship. Then, if anyone was watching the frigate, they would have seen the red cutter leave and row round the ship a couple of times before heading seaward. A few minutes later the pinnace came from under the Calypso's stern and suddenly she picked up speed, Rennick calling for a fast pace, and then after a mile she slowed down to a more normal speed. Again, there was nothing very odd about that; the gig would soon be doing the same. She was a long, narrow and fast boat, and was often the private property of the captain of a ship. The gig usually had gold leaf picking out the ship's name, and the sternsheets were either scrubbed teak, or varnished so that they and the thwarts shone like a dining-room table, and when not in use were protected from the sun's rays by canvas covers.

Now more merchant ships were coming into the gulf, the more careful of them with leadsmen in the chains calling out depths, though the majority of the masters obviously looked at ships like the Sarazine and Golondrina, which they knew drew much more water than they did, and steered straight for them, assuming they had kept on a straight course after rounding Sant' Antioco.

The Calypso's pinnace was now rowing between the merchant ships. The Marine lieutenant had been on enough cutting-out expeditions to be perfectly at home in the eight-oared boat, and to him the only thing that seemed at all strange was that all the men in her were dressed either in French uniform or ragged clothes.

Jackson, usually Captain Ramage's coxswain in the gig, was commanding the green cutter for the time being, and threatening the sixteen boarders and six oarsmen with dire punishment if they did not stop talking: he did not mind the teasing but he was afraid they might be overheard by someone on board one of the French ships.

Clearly the captain of the frigate had decided to exercise all his boats' crews - that was the opinion of the Sarazine's master, who had just noticed three or four of them, and he was wondering how he could use the French Navy to help him with watering - there was bound to be water available somewhere in the gulf. His casks had leaked, thanks to the pounding the ship had received in the seas left over from the mistral, and he could never force his men to make do with only their daily ration of water: abetted by the mate, they simply drew more at night, when he was asleep.