Ramage's Signal

'According to Orsini's list', Southwick said, 'there are about one hundred men on board them.'

Ramage shook his head crossly. 'You know, it's my own fault. There's Aitken setting off for Gibraltar with his convoy of ships, and I've had to use my first, acting second and acting third lieutenants, midshipman, bosun and lieutenant of Marines to command them, just because we carry only one midshipman, instead of half a dozen.'

Southwick gave one of his particularly disapproving sniffs. 'Orsini's an exception, but midshipmen can be a mixed blessing, sir. What's more trouble in a ship than a thirty-year-old midshipman who's spent ten years trying and failing his lieutenant's examination? He's bitter and usually a troublemaker and drinker, and if you send him off in command of a prize, then you'd best use it as an opportunity of getting rid of all your bad men and search 'em all for liquor.'

'Well, we're lucky in that respect.'

'Aye, sir, not a man I'd want to get rid of - except that damned gunner.'

The gunner, a warrant officer, should have been in command of one of the prizes; instead he was the only person in the Calypso to whom Ramage found it hard to be civil, because he was incompetent and sly. The man dodged any responsibility, did not know his job - Ramage often wondered how he obtained his warrant from the Board of Ordnance in the first place - and was more than content to leave everything to his mate. Fortunately for the Calypso the young gunner's mate was both enthusiastic and competent. Ramage usually managed to get rid of incompetent men or anyone who had an abrasive character, but the gunner was appointed by the Ordnance Board and, as Southwick had once bitterly complained: 'It takes an Act of Parliament to get rid of any of their people.'

The gunner treated powder as though it was his own personal property and he had paid for it, and when he first joined the Calypso he had tried to avoid allowing powder or shot for the men to exercise muskets and the upperdeck guns. Finally Ramage had the man brought down to his cabin and, with Aitken and Southwick present, had read him number eleven in the Admiralty's Printed Instructions for the Gunner:

By direction of the captain, he is to allow a proper quantity of powder and shot for exercise, viz. once a week for the first two months, and once a month afterwards, six charges of powder to each man for exercise of small arms, and once a fortnight four pounds of musket shot for them all, and once a month five charges of powder and five of shot for the exercise of the upperdeck guns.

Faced with the Admiralty instructions, the wretched fellow had, within a fortnight, then claimed that 'each man' did not include idlers, such as the cook and his mate, the captain's clerk, sailmaker and others whose name came from the fact that they did not stand a watch.

Once again Ramage had taken him down to his cabin and pointed out there was nothing in anyone's instructions that said the cook had to cook food for him, that the purser had to provide him with water, or the clerk with quills, ink orpaper. In the meantime there were precisely forty individual instructions covering the gunner's duty, and it was up to the captain to make sure, with suitable strictness, that they were obeyed. Number twenty, for example, which in its entirety said of the gunner: 'He is to observe upon the guns, the notches or sights on the base, or muzzle rings, for the better guiding the aim.'

Ramage had asked the gunner what he thought that meant and, getting an evasive answer, had asked Aitken to give his opinion as the ship's first lieutenant. The Scotsman, who detested the gunner, said flatly: 'It means he is to stand and observe the notches. "Observe" means "to keep a watch on", the dictionary tells us that, so obviously the gunner must stand and watch the notches on all the guns every day during the hours of daylight.'

By now the gunner was becoming very nervous, his fear of authority overcoming his meanness with the Board of Ordnance's powder and shot, and before dismissing him Ramage said: 'You will report to the first lieutenant every Monday, in the forenoon, with a copy of your Instructions, and he will check with you that you have done your duty the preceding week. In the meantime every man in this ship, watchkeeper, idler or waister, must be proficient with a musket. That is one of your responsibilities.'

Ramage cursed to himself for wasting his time now thinking black thoughts about the gunner, and concentrated on Southwick's chart. The Calypso still had her six boats, a dozen Marines under a corporal, and plenty of seamen. All she lacked, Ramage thought crossly, were commission and petty officers.

Eight merchant ships left, and about a hundred men in them who had to be captured and dumped on shore to follow their fellow countrymen along the dusty road to Cagliari. Should he wait for nightfall, in case one of the ships became suspicious? He almost laughed aloud at the idea: the Calypso could sail through the anchorage sinking a ship with each broadside; likewise any two of her boats with boarding parties could seize a ship. The whole need for secrecy was now gone because, as he looked westward, the Sarazine was leading her convoy out to sea: six fine and undamaged prizes taken without the expenditure of a single musket shot or a human life - unless one counted the Algerines.

No, two boats could go to each ship and remove the crew. If they went to a ship at one side of the anchorage first, and after the French seamen were landed went to a vessel at the opposite side of the gulf, the chances were that no one would notice anything and the task could be accomplished quickly.

Ramage wrote a number against each of the ships on Southwick's chart.

'Jackson, six Marines and six seamen as boarders and eight men to row the gig; Stafford, the corporal and the other six Marines, six seamen and eight to row the launch...'

He thought a moment, and then added: 'We'll have eighty men standing by, armed: they can go off in the cutters, pinnace and jolly boat, if there's an emergency.'

'Don't forget our men in the Passe Partout, sir.'

'No, we're keeping her as our tender. She's one of the few in the convoy that could keep up with us going to windward!'

'Pity we couldn't have kept young Orsini in command of her.'

'I thought about that, but he'll learn a great deal more by going to Gibraltar.'

Southwick stumped from one side of the quarterdeck to the other, after putting his telescope on the chart to hold it down, and then said bitterly: 'It's enough to make a saintly man swear.'

He was talking to himself but a curious Ramage asked: 'Has your rheumatism started again?'

'No, sir, it's just painful to look at eight prizes without being able to do anything about them.'

'Well, our lads will only be losing the value of the hulls; most of them are laden with powder and shot. If they weren't bound for so many different ports, I'd think the French are planning a new campaign somewhere, but they're obviously just re-equipping garrisons.'

'Aye, but it's a pity the Admiralty pay so poorly for French powder.'

'Be fair! It's such poor quality you remember we changed it when we captured the Calypso.'

'Oh, I know all that, sir', Southwick said. 'And it's not the money either - thanks to you most of us have plenty of prize money in the Funds now. It just seems a waste of ships.'

'You would have sunk them all if you'd found the convoy at sea', Ramage pointed out, 'and been very pleased with yourself.'

'I suppose so, but we didn't find them at sea', Southwick said morosely, 'we sent for them, using the Frogs' own semaphore!'

By nightfall Ramage was bored. Perhaps bored was the wrong word, because he was rarely bored. Unsettled would be more accurate, the jumpy feeling which always came when he had to stay on board while some of his men went off to meet the enemy. This time it really was 'meeting', almost a social occasion, because with the Frenchmen from seven of the ships already taken on shore, there had been no shooting.