Ramage’s Mutiny

 The sentry at the door called: "Mr Aitken, sir, and Mr Southwick."

 The two men came into the cabin, Southwick carrying a roll of charts. Ramage stood up and went to the desk, throwing his hat across to the settee. "Let's have the American chart here."

 "It's a good chart, " Southwick said gloomily and shaking his head, "and all it tells us is -" he broke off and shrugged his shoulders. "I can't see how we can do anything without losing both ships."

 Aitken was watching Ramage and clearly expected his Captain to smile and contradict Southwick. Instead Ramage looked down at the chart and said: "I can't either. How about you?" he asked the Scot.

 “I - er, well, sir, we'll probably lose one ship."

 "Ah, there you are, all you Scots are the same, " Southwick said with a sniff. "Too damned mean to lose two! "

 "We mustn't be too generous with the King's property, " Ramage chided, and once again Aitken remembered the meeting in Captain Ramage's cabin on board the Juno before the battle off Martinique, when the Captain was facing the prospect of fighting a French squadron with only two frigates. He still had not got used to Captain Ramage's ma

 At that moment Aitken realized that it was not play-acting: he saw Ramage looking down at the chart and guessed that he had long ago weighed up all the prospects. If the Captain could still laugh and joke after that, then he had every right to expect his First Lieutenant to be cheerful as well. Southwick must have been born with a grin on that chubby red face of his, and with an irreverent attitude towards just about anything that other men took seriously - including going into battle and getting killed.

 Southwick jabbed at the chart, ru

 "If they didn't break their necks falling over precipices on the way. These are mountains, you know, not hills - they'd be in fine shape after they'd swum out to the Jocasta. They could paddle round her and hurl abuse - their powder would be wet, so abuse would be their only weapon."

 "But, sir, " Southwick protested, "there are bound to be boats - fishermen tie 'em up to piers and that sort of thing."

 "At night they'd probably be out fishing, but anyway they're small boats. Would you gamble on finding enough little fishing boats - with oars left in them - for two hundred men? Forty boats at least?"

 "Well, no, sir, " said Southwick. "Some, though. But you're right about oars: they're all thieves and they certainly wouldn't trust each other enough to leave oars on board."

 "You don't think our men could get on board from our own boats, sir?" Aitken asked.

 "I'm sure they might, but if they had to tow her out - two knots? More than half a mile to the entrance? Three forts with fifty, thirty-six and twenty-eight guns - a total of a hundred and fourteen with the range barely above two hundred yards?"

 "They might sail her out, " Aitken said hopefully.

 "Indeed they might. Those would be my orders if there was any guarantee that she's properly rigged and that we could tell from seaward when there's a fair wind in the cha

 "So without being reasonably certain of a fair wind and without being certain she can be sailed, I'm not risking two hundred Calypsos. It wouldn't even be risking, it would sending them to death or captivity."

 "But at least you'd have tried, sir, " Aitken protested.

 "Yes, but . . ." Now Ramage was smiling. "The 'but' is simple yet important. A dead hero who succeeds is one thing; a dead hero who fails is another. And a dead hero who u

 "Quite, sir, " Aitken said quietly, suddenly recalling the almost incredible loyalty that Captain Ramage seemed to inspire in men who had served with him, ranging from Southwick to that flock of seamen led by Jackson. "But we don't have much time, sir. The minute anyone on the coast spots us, they'll pass the word to Santa Cruz."

 "Yes, indeed, " Ramage agreed, "and a neutral ship coming into Santa Cruz might sight us: why, we might even be seen by a guarda costa."

 "Then, sir . . ."

 "This is where the conversation began, " Ramage said, still smiling. "Southwick had just said it was hopeless, and I'd agreed."

 "But, sir -" but then Aitken found he had nothing more to say. Southwick slapped him on the back and gave a hearty laugh. "Cheer up - we've all stayed alive up to now and we've a deal of prize money due soon! "

 Ramage turned to Southwick. "How does this American chart compare with the others?"

 "More soundings, and I suspect the Jocasta's position is more accurately marked. Aitken said the Jonathan skipper showed where he usually anchored if there was no room at the quay - where he's drawn in an anchor. That's only a hundred yards from the Jocasta's stern, and she's secured to buoys and doesn't swing."

 "The distances compare well? I mean the scale of this chart is likely to be correct?"

 "Yes, sir. See here, now, the cha

 Southwick took the dividers from a rack on Ramage's desk and used them to point at the fort on the inland side of the lagoon. "I reckon this is the one that could cause the most trouble: Santa Fe. It stands three hundred feet up and can cover the cha

 "Now, these two at the entrance, they've been sited badly. I don't reckon they can fire down the cha

 Ramage looked closely at the drawing. "What makes you think that?"

 "Well, you see how that Jonathan fellow sketched in the run of the hills here. Look, this is Castillo San Antonio, on the eastern side of the entrance. Well, that's how it is on Summers's drawing. I reckon the slope of the hill hides the cha

 Aitken said suddenly: "It would make sense, sir: they site Santa Fe to sweep the cha

 "How much of the cha

 "Maybe half of it: a quarter of a mile."