Ramage's Diamond

By now the axemen were chopping at the Surcouf's own anchor cable, and Ramage hoped they remembered his strict instructions to leave one strand of the rope until they could see that the cable from the Juno had been secured to the bitts.

More men arrived on the fo'c'sle from La Créole and seized the heavy cable and dragged it to the bitts. One turn round the bitts and then another; a third and then a fourth. The cable was stiff and heavy; it took two or three men to bend each turn.

The fighting aft was dying down now, and Aitken and Wagstaffe were securing the prisoners. Ramage ran to the fo'c'sle, checked that the cable was made fast and gestured to the men with cutlasses to return on board La Créole. After shouting to the men on the Juno's fo'c'sle to cut the lashings holding the cable along the ship's side, he ran back to find Southwick standing at the Juno's gangway, anxiously looking across at the Surcouf.

'All secure here,' Ramage shouted. ‘Onlyone strand of their cable left to cut.'

‘For Heaven's sake come on board, sir,' Southwick bawled. The ships will drift apart at any moment. We're just about to cut the grapnels!'

Ramage paused long enough to shout at Wagstaffe, who signalled that the prisoners were under control, and then bellowed at the axemen on the Surcouf’s fo'c'sle to cut the last strand of the French frigate's anchor cable. With that he leapt on board the Juno.

One danger remained, that the Surcouf 's yards would lock with the Juno's rigging, but already Aitken was obeying his orders and hardening in the sheets of La Créole's mainsail and foresail and backing his headsails. This would haul the Surcouf to starboard, to leeward and away from the Juno.

'Our grapnels, Southwick?' Ramage asked hurriedly,

'Already cut adrift, sir.'

Ramage glanced up and saw that the Surcouf’s yards, bare of sail, were gradually drawing clear as La Créole pulled her away. He jumped up into the hammock nettings and looked along the Juno's side. The cable was now hanging from the Surcouf’s bow in a big bight that went down into the water and reappeared by the Juno's stern, snaking round and up through the sternchase port.

Everything was going as pla

The Surcouf was dropping away to starboard as La Créole hauled her bow round and drawing astern as the Juno began to forge ahead. Ramage looked across at the French frigate's quarterdeck and saw Wagstaffe standing by the bi

Southwick was now facing aft on the quarterdeck, his eyes glued to the heavy cable. The Juno's transom was abreast the Surcouf's jibboom end and already the cable was begi

Ramage was torn between watching ahead to make sure the Juno cleared the shoal ru

The cable was ru

He dare look aft no longer: the water ahead was showing a light green, marking the begi

'A hundred and fifty feet o' cable to run, sir,' Southwick called.

Ramage turned to the quartermaster. 'Watch for the last of the cable. The moment the strain comes on there'll be an almighty kick on the wheel.' The quartermaster nodded and Ramage noticed that there were already four men at the spokes and the quartermaster was positioning himself to give a hand if necessary.

'A hundred feet to go, sir, and it's ru

The Juno was slowly turning to starboard now and would clear the shoal by a hundred feet, and once the strain came on the cable she would be able to run out to the west.

'Fifty feet, twenty-five, ten . . . there it goes!' Southwick shouted jubilantly.

There was no sudden shock but the Juno slowed perceptibly and Ramage looked aft to see the five men fighting the wheel. Astern the Surcouf was slowly gathering way as the cable tautened and Ramage saw the hint of a bow wave. Then, in a direct line from the Juno's stern chase port to the French frigate's bow, the cable suddenly straightened and shot out of the water, and then splashed back, like a whip. The Surcouf began yawing, her bow swinging to starboard and then back to larboard. Each yaw increased the dead weight on the end of the cable so that the Juno was like a dog with a heavy weight tied to its tail. The five men fought the wheel, cursing and grunting, but then managed to keep the ship under control.

‘Give Jackson a few minutes to get used to handling the Frenchman,' Ramage called encouragingly.

Gradually the Surcouf’s yawing eased, like a dog settling down on a leash, and in the clear water Ramage could see the shallow curve of the cable. Beyond the Surcouf Aitken's schooner was tacking back and forth: La Créole's task now was to cover the two frigates against any schooners that might come out of the Salée River.

He looked round for La Mutine and saw her just off the town, coming head to wind with sails flapping and an enormous white flag flying from the peak of her main gaff. Suddenly Ramage realized that in the excitement he had forgotten all about Fort St Louis. There were no tell-tale puffs of smoke. Surely the Juno's sudden attack on the Surcouf had not taken them completely by surprise? But he had no idea whether five minutes or an hour had passed since he had waved to Jackson to drop the Tricolour so perhaps they had had too little time to do anything.

Their progress was painfully slow, but at least the men were not having to fight the wheel now. He walked aft to join Southwick and crouched down to look through the sternchase port. The cable was making a perfect catenary curve and the Surcouf's yawing had almost stopped. 'I think we can carry more canvas now,' he commented. 'I wish those damned Frenchmen had finished fitting out the ship,' Southwick grumbled. 'It'd have been a sight easier to sail her out!'

'We'd have had a couple of hundred Frenchmen to argue with though, instead of just a handful,' Ramage pointed out.