Ramage's Diamond r-7

by Dudley Pope

  Captain Edwards had been watching Ramage closely and he deliberately interrupted the Admiral: 'Perhaps we might hear what Ramage had in mind, sir?'

  The Admiral had now put himself in such a difficult position that Ramage hardly knew how to begin. Davis glanced at Edwards and Ramage, his bloodshot eyes missing little. Although Ramage did not know it, Admiral Davis was a man who knew when to cut his losses.

  'Did you get a gun up to the top?'

  'Yes, sir,' Ramage said, and decided to get it over with at the rush. 'We swayed two up to the top, a third to a ledge half-way up, and a fourth covers the only cove where a boat can land.'

  'Bless my soul,' the Admiral said. 'You must have been mad even to try it. Carronades, eh? Men parbuckled 'em up the hill?'

  'Ramage said they swayed them up, sir,' Captain Edwards interposed.

  'Carronades, though. Didn't do much good, eh? No range, those things. Don't believe in 'em myself.'

  Edwards glanced at Ramage and said quietly: 'I noticed the Juno is missing some 12-pounders. Three, I believe, and a 6-pounder, too ...'

  Ramage nodded gratefully. 'Yes, sir. You see, I found that we ...’

  'Twelve-pounders?' the Admiral almost shouted. 'Do you mean to tell me you swayed a couple of 12-pounders up to the top of the Diamond?'

  ‘Well, yes sir, you see ...'

  The Admiral slapped the table with a thump that made Ramage blink and miss the old man's expression. 'Splendid! Splendid, m'boy! Dammit, Edwards, I knew I should never have let Eames . . .' he broke off. 'Well, go on, now you have the batteries on top of the Diamond and two half-manned frigates. Then you wait and wait for that damned old Admiral, who never comes, eh?'

  He was grinning now, and Ramage decided he could be completely frank. Admiral Davis was far shrewder than he seemed and had a sense of humour lurking beneath that almost purple complexion.

  'Well, sir, to be truthful, we waited for the convoy ...’

  'Damme, that's an honest enough answer, eh, Edwards? What's your seniority, Ramage?'

  'Last name in the List when I left England, sir.'

  'Ah yes, I remember. By jove, for the last few days you've been commanding a squadron of - how many ships?'

  'Eleven, sir: three frigates, a schooner and seven merchant ships.'

  'Ah yes, now let's hear about the convoy.’

  Ramage began by describing briefly how he hoped to lure the convoy and escorts into the Fours Channel, where he could make a surprise attack with the two frigates, using La Créole as a Trojan horse and, as soon as the French ships were within range, opening fire with the Diamond batteries.

  His attempt to keep his story brief failed completely: both the Admiral and Captain Edwards kept interrupting with questions. How did he time the arrival of the Juno and Surcouf so the French were squarely in the Channel? How did Ramage expect to break through two frigates with the half-manned Juno to attack from the unprotected landward side? How could he expect the Surcouf to dodge the two remaining frigates?

  Ramage hurried on, trying to hold back the questions. He described how Aitken had suddenly worn the Surcouf round so that the two frigates about to attack him on either bow collided with each other. Then he had to digress to answer the Admiral's question about what had happened to them. He related how the Diamond battery had disabled La Comète and blown up La Prudente so that they could take possession of the whole convoy. La Créole's change of role from a French privateer coming to meet the convoy to a British schooner brought the comment from Captain Edwards about a poacher turning gamekeeper.

  They were interrupted by a lieutenant reporting to Captain Edwards that the Invincible was now in the Fours Channel, with the Diamond Rock bearing south one mile. The Admiral waved him away impatiently. 'We'll go up and look into Fort Royal Bay. Scare those privateers, in case they're thinking of sneaking out.'

  As the lieutenant left the cabin the Admiral's brow creased. 'Who is in command of all these ships of yours?'

  'The Master is on board the Juno, sir; my former First Lieutenant, Aitken, the man I was telling you about, is commanding the Surcouf. My former Second, Wagstaffe, has La Créole. Baker was the Third, and Lacey, the Fourth, is with Aitken. I had to leave a petty officer in command of the Diamond, sir, and he did very well. Altogether I -'

  'One frigate goes into action with her commanding officer, the Master and less than a third of her complement; another has a first lieutenant and a fourth . . . Ramage, you are completely mad. If you stay alive long enough to give Their Lordships a chance to appreciate you, you'll go a long way in the Service. Your problem will be staying alive. Now we have to find enough men to get those prizes up to Antigua. The merchant ships, I mean. And I have two more frigates.'

  He stood up and walked round the cabin for two or three minutes, obviously trying to reach some sort of decision, and then came and sat down again opposite Ramage.

  'I need the Surcouf for a special service. You say she's fast. Her bottom clean? Good condition? Fine, fine. I'm transferring you to her. Wait a moment,' he said when Ramage's face fell, 'you'll have your own ship's company. For what I have in mind you'll need the extra guns and speed, since she's a thirty-six and the Juno is only a thirty-two - a twenty-eight at the moment, rather.'

  Ramage knew that if he did not put in a word for Aitken now the Admiral's plans would be completed beyond hope of change. 'Sir, I was hoping that perhaps you could find a place for Aitken ...'

  'Hold your tongue a moment, boy, I'm trying to arrange two things at once. You to the Surcouf, so that's settled. This fellow Aitken made post - the Admiralty will confirm it later, no question of that - and given the Juno. We have to find a ship's company for the Juno, but we'll manage that somehow. La Comète needs careening, which means English Harbour, Antigua ...'

  'I was hoping, sir, that Wagstaffe –‘

  The Admiral glared at him. 'Do you want him as your First in the Surcouf, or let him go off as First in La Comète and eat his heart out in the dockyard for a few weeks?'

  'I'd sooner have him with me, sir.'

  'Very well; so far you've only interrupted with suggestions that I've already dealt with in my mind. Be patient!'

  He tapped the table with the fingers of his right hand. 'There's La Créole. Who deserves her, Baker or your Fourth, Lacey?'

  'Baker, sir. Lacey behaved very well, but Baker's row to Barbados ...'

  'I'm glad to hear you say that. Lacey can go as Second in the Juno. Good training for him. So that leaves me La Comète, and I have a deserving young lieutenant to be made post into her. Very well, anything else?' he asked briskly.

  'No, sir. I will leave my report. Oh yes, sir, there is. We have all La Comète's secret papers. And sir, if you felt that you could make a signal to the Diamond, sir ... The Juno battery, that's the one at the top, they have a signal mast rigged and a copy of the signal book ...'

  'Damnation!' the Admiral exclaimed, 'I've forgotten all about the Rock. Four guns need thirty men or more, and we'll probably strengthen the place. It'll be a lieutenant's command. But how the devil do we arrange the paperwork, Edwards?'

  'They'll have to be attached to a ship for pay, mustering, victualling and so on, sir.' He thought a moment. That schooner, sir, La Créole. If you buy her into the Service, the garrison of the Rock would be on her books. She could keep them supplied, too, because she's fast enough to get over to Barbados for provisions, and she can slip over to St Lucia for water ...'

  Ramage said: 'Perhaps she could be renamed the Diamond, sir.'

  'Capital,' the Admiral boomed. 'His Majesty's schooner Diamond . . . Sounds well. By the way, Ramage, who named the top battery?'

  'The men, sir. They named all three batteries,' he added hurriedly. 'The middle one is named after my father, sir, not me,'

  'You both deserve it,' the Admiral said, standing up. 'Now, we'll go up and look into Fort Royal. You stay patrolling off the Diamond, and report on board here at ten o'clock tomorrow morning. Your orders will be ready by t
hen. Have Aitken report to me at half past nine.'

  Ramage stood up and as he was leaving the cabin he heard the Admiral saying angrily to Captain Edwards: 'I'm sick of that Jocasta business! Damnation take that fellow Eames. If only...'

  The voices faded as Ramage walked away. If only what? And earlier the Admiral had said something like: 'Dammit, Edwards, I knew I should never have let Eames . . .' Eames had been blockading Fort Royal for many weeks, then he had returned to Barbados. Ramage remembered that he was the man the Admiral seemed to have in mind for the special service that the First Lord had referred to in London; the special service for which the Juno had brought out the orders.

  Had Eames made a mess of them? He shrugged his shoulders. There was no point in speculating; it did not concern him, although he was unlikely to find Captain Eames becoming a friend. That his young successor, far below him in the List, had established batteries on the Diamond was unlikely to delight him. And what did the Admiral mean about the Jocasta?She was still in Spanish hands after her men mutinied.

  The officer of the deck came up to him and saluted. 'Are you ready for your boat, sir?’

  For a moment Ramage was too startled to answer and then he returned the salute with as much coolness as he could muster. 'Yes, when you are ready.'

  It was pleasant being a post captain, he thought to himself as the Invincible's great foretopsail was backed while the Juno's cutter, which had been towing astern, was brought up for him to climb down into it.

  When he arrived on board the Invincible next morning, with fifteen minutes in hand to make sure he was not late for the Admiral, Captain Edwards met him on deck and commented on the beauty of the anchorage. The Invincible and three frigates were anchored close in to the long Grande Anse du Diamant. Directly to seaward was the grey tooth of Diamond Rock; to the north-west Diamond Hill.

  The sun was getting hot now, and Captain Edwards nodded towards the awning. 'We'll take a turn or two until the Admiral is ready for you. Tell me, how the devil did you sway those guns up? I don't mind telling you that you spoiled the Admiral's regular game of chess last night. We had charts out, drew diagrams ...'

  As the two men walked up and down the quarterdeck, cool in the shade and with the offshore breeze just setting in to ripple the water, Ramage described how he had moored the Juno close against the sheer cliff on the south side, rigged the jackstay and used the capstan to hoist each gun with a gun tackle.

  'But a sudden swell,' Captain Edwards interrupted. 'We get them in Barbados - rollers, ten feet high with no warning ...’

  'But not here, sir,' Ramage said, 'They're peculiar to Barbados, so far as I know. I never heard of any of the other islands experiencing them.'

  'True, but it's frightening when it happens in Carlisle Bay. I once saw a frigate put up on the beach. The sea was calm with just the usual waves knocked up by the Trade winds and nothing strange about the weather. Then these rollers came up, one after the other. Lasted about an hour or more, and parted the frigate's cable ...'

  Ramage described how he had moored the Juno so that if the wind had backed or veered and knocked up a sea, he could have cut the cable of the stern anchor, cast off the jackstay, and swung clear.

  'You still took a frightful risk,' Edwards commented, looking at his watch.

  'I did, sir,' Ramage admitted frankly, 'but it seemed worth it.'

  Edwards gave a dry laugh. 'You've commanded ships before as a lieutenant, but you are very new to the post list. I'm a dozen or so names from the top, and I've learned one thing, which I pass on for what it's worth. If you succeed in something like that, Their Lordships will consider the risk was negligible. If you fail you can expect a court martial and you'll never be employed again.'

  'I've learned that already, sir,' Ramage said soberly.

  Edwards glanced at him sideways. 'Yes, the Admiral was telling me last night of some of the things he had heard about you.'

  The voice was neutral and told Ramage nothing of what the Admiral had actually said or any opinions he might have expressed. They reached the taffrail and turned inwards together to begin the walk back to the quarterdeck rail.

  ‘The Admiral is in a rather difficult position at the moment, Ramage,' Edwards said quietly. 'When you came out in the Juno, you carried orders for the Admiral from Lord St Vincent. You know that, of course.'

  'For some special service, yes, sir.’

  'Did His Lordship tell you what the special service was?'

  'No, sir,' Ramage said, realizing that this encounter with Captain Edwards had been far from accidental.

  ‘Nor did His Lordship hint that you might be entrusted with it?'

  'No, sir. You see, I had just completed some particular service for His Lordship - it was of a very secret nature,' he said apologetically. 'There had been other things, too, and His Lordship made me post after I had reported to him. He gave me the Juno and said I was to serve under Admiral Davis. He told me I was to get under way as soon as possible because of the urgency of the dispatches I was to carry. He also mentioned that I would be carrying orders to the Admiral concerning some special service, and I'm afraid I immediately showed interest, thinking it concerned me. His Lordship made it quite clear that the choice would be up to the Admiral.'

  Edwards nodded. 'Hmm, that was the impression the Admiral had and he entrusted the service to his senior frigate captain . . . Well, there have been, er, well, unexpected difficulties, with the result that the particular service has yet to be carried out.'

  Edwards paused, and Ramage said in a neutral voice: 'I understand, sir.'

  The Captain looked sideways at him and sighed. Clearly he was not enjoying the role the Admiral had given him. 'Good, I thought you would, and you can probably guess the rest.'

  'I hope so,' Ramage said cautiously.

  'I'm sure you do,' Edwards said, making no attempt to disguise the relief in his voice. 'One thing is important, though: do you have complete trust in your officers and ship's company?'

  It was an unexpected question, and Ramage hesitated as he remembered a similar one from Admiral Davis when he first arrived in Barbados. 'In the Master, petty officers and seamen, complete trust, sir: after all, I couldn't have ...'

  'Of course,' Edwards said hurriedly. 'But the officers?'

  'I'll only have the Master and one lieutenant left,' Ramage pointed out, 'The others will be new.'

  ‘Quite so,' Edwards said hurriedly. 'Well, wait here, I'll be back in a few minutes.'

  When he returned his face was completely expressionless. 'The Admiral is ready to see you now.'

  Admiral Davis was sitting in the same chair at the table, with several papers in front of him, and he waved Ramage to the chair opposite, while Edwards excused himself and was promptly told to sit down. The Admiral looked up to bid Ramage a gruff good morning and then continued reading. The Invincible was swinging slightly at anchor as the wind eddied off the land. Ramage saw the headland at the foot of Diamond Hill and a minute or two later, as the ship's stern swung, he saw the Diamond Rock. A sharp eye might detect the tiny signal mast, and Ramage realized that at this very moment French patrols along the coast would be looking at it through telescopes, trying to spot where the batteries were, counting ships, preparing a full report for the Governor. Not, he thought with satisfaction, that there is a damned thing the French can do.

  Suddenly the Admiral unfolded a paper and pushed it across to Ramage, who recognized the Admiralty seal. 'Read it,' he said abruptly.

  Three paragraphs, after the usual long-winded and stylized beginning, about the Jocasta. The reasons for Captain Edwards's questions about the officers and ship's company were now only too clear. Ramage folded the paper, and the Admiral slid a sealed envelope across the table. ‘They are your preliminary orders - based on what you've just read. The Surcouf will be bought into the King's service, and you will command her. You collect up your former ship's company, unless you want to leave the garrison on the Diamond, in which case Captain Edwards wil
l let you have an equivalent number of men from this ship.'

  'And my new officers, sir?'

  The Admiral shook his head. 'You get only one lieutenant.'

  Ramage looked puzzled and was trying to phrase a mild protest when the Admiral said: 'Aitken and Wagstaffe want to stay with you. I've never heard of a first lieutenant trying to avoid being made post, but that young Scot seems to have a very strong loyalty to you. Not related, are you?'

  When Ramage shook his head the Admiral added: 'I tried to persuade him - persuade him, if you please! - to allow me to promote him into the Juno, even though I have several other very deserving young officers. But he said he needed more experience, and he wants to stay with you. So he'll remain as your First Lieutenant in the Surcouf. I gave young Wagstaffe the chance of being La Comète's First Lieutenant, but he preferred to remain your Second rather than have a long stay in a hot dockyard. Lacey will be the only one to gain out of your action; I'm giving him the Créole - the Diamond, rather - because he seems full of initiative and knows Diamond Rock. Baker will be out of hospital by now and he'll be sent up to join you in Antigua.'

  'I'm most grateful, sir, and -'

  'I want you ready to get under way for English Harbour at dawn. Shift to the Surcouf and I'll send someone over to command the Juno. Leave the two ships' companies as they are - we can sort that out in Antigua. The Invincible will tow La Comète and I'll send prize crews over to the merchantmen. You'll stay in company with the Invincible - a taste of escorting a convoy will do you no harm. You have your final orders . . . No,' he said grimly, interrupting Ramage, 'if you've given any thought to the First Lord's letter you know you've nothing to thank me for.'

  AUTHOR'S POSTSCRIPT

  In 1804 Commodore Samuel Hood, who was responsible for blockading the French in Martinique, reported to the Admiralty that he had taken possession of Diamond Rock, writing: 'I think it will completely blockade the coast in the most perfect security . . . Thirty riflemen will keep the hill against ten thousand...'