'There's another ledge on the north side, two thirds of the way up,' Southwick said. 'It looks as though something took a big bite out of the rock. I think there's a cave at the back of it. It'd make another fine battery to cover the Fours Channel. A 12-pounder could probably reach the Grande Anse du Diamant. No ship could sneak through the channel without a gun there giving it a hot time. With a pair of guns right at the top - goodness me, nearly six hundred feet high: just think of the extra range - and plunging fire!' Even in the darkness Ramage sensed the old man's increasing excitement as he went on: 'That would give us three guns to cover the channel, and two of those, the pair at the top, can probably fire all round - north, west, south and east. And the lookouts could see all the way down to the southern tip of Martinique! Rig up a mast and they could hoist flag signals which the Juno would see while she was up to the north-west. Have to keep out to the west so the Diamond is clear of the land, but just think, a frigate off Fort Royal Bay would know what's going on right down at Pointe des Salines, twenty miles away! Why -'
'Easy now,' Ramage said mildly, 'you don't have to convince me: I've had something like this in mind ever since we first sailed past the place. But don't get too carried away; swaying a pair of 12-pounders nearly six hundred feet up to the top of this Rock will be more than a morning's work, if it can be done at all.'
They walked out of the cave and stood blinking in the bright sunlight, and then walked along looking into the smaller caves. Southwick kicked at the broad-bladed grass. The men will like this for making sennet hats.' He pointed to the caves. 'The whole place looks like that cheese with holes in it.'
'Gruyère,' Ramage said. 'And the big cave is where a mouse had a feast'
'More likely a rat,' Southwick said. 'It's the biggest cave I've ever seen, let alone walked into. Those spiky things hanging down from the roof make it look like a portcullis, I hope none of them drop off!'
They looked into the cave aad Ramage turned to seaward and waved to the boat. 'Come on, these caves remind me of witches' cauldrons and bats and vampires . . .'
Back on board the Juno Ramage silenced all Southwick's attempts to discuss the Diamond Rock; instead he took him down to his cabin, tossed his hat on to the settee and sat down at the desk. Taking out the pen and ink, he added a single paragraph to the draft of his letter to Admiral Davis.
After calling to the sentry to pass the word for his clerk, he began a letter addressed to 'The Agent for Transport and Prisoners of War'. The clerk arrived and was told to take the draft of the letter to Admiral Davis and make a fair copy, and bring it back when it was ready. 'Don't waste time copying it into the Captain's Letter Book,' Ramage told him. 'Make the entry afterwards from my draft.'
Ramage then finished a brief letter to the Agent, describing how he had landed the prisoners because he was unable to guard them, and saying that he was enclosing a list of their names and the signature of the surviving French commanding officer agreeing that the men should not serve against the British again until the exchange had been regularized. Ramage knew there would be a fuss, but he had covered the point in his letter to the Admiral. The letter to the Agent was a formality to cover the list he was sending.
As he wrote at the desk, Southwick sat back in a chair with ill-concealed impatience. The clerk returned with the fair copy of the dispatch and took the draft of the letter to the Agent.
Ramage turned to Southwick. 'You remind me of an impatient bridegroom. Baker is probably in his cabin packing his sea chest. Find him and bring him here. Once he's on his way to Barbados we can start making plans.'
The clerk arrived with the fair copy of the letter to the Agent, waited until Ramage had signed it and the dispatch, and then took away both letters and the list of prisoners to seal. After wiping the pen and screwing the cap on the ink bottle, Ramage sat back and stared down at the polished grain of the desk top. In the past two days he had not had a moment for real thought. He snatched at ideas as they raced through his mind, rejecting some and adopting others; decisions seemed to arrive already made but without proper consideration. He felt like a clucking hen startled to find it had laid an egg. So far his decisions had been the correct ones, but this was due to good luck rather than judgement. It was only a matter of time, he thought gloomily, before one of the eggs turned out to be bad.
Yes, the present difficulty is Admiral Davis, not the French. Should he have mentioned his plan in the dispatch? He sighed and tapped his fingers on the desk top. Should he, shouldn't he, should he ... and so it went on. Indecision, indecision . . . Well, not exactly indecision because he had already signed the dispatch without mentioning it, so at least he had decided that much. No, his bother was that, having made the decision, he was starting to question himself. It always happened, and he hated it.
Very well, what are you trying to do, Captain Ramage? You are carrying out Admiral Davis's orders which are simple enough: blockade Fort Royal, preventing any ships from entering or leaving. Splendid, my dear fellow; you have a firm grip on the situation. The new development is that by a stroke of good fortune you have discovered from that boastful French lieutenant that a convoy (he implied a large one) is due in Fort Royal within a week. A large convoy means a large escort, and 'a week' after an Atlantic crossing could mean today or two weeks' time; more, if the convoy met bad weather off Biscay followed by Trade winds.
Go on, Captain Ramage, he jeered at himself, so you had to make a decision: should you send the Surcouf to Barbados with a prize crew on board, with one of the schooners to bring the prize crew back, leaving yourself with only the Juno (minus the men needed to provide three prize crews) and a schooner to fight off the escorts and capture the convoy - or, at the very least, prevent it from entering Fort Royal Bay? That was the question, and it was a simple one.
The difficulty arises because there is more than one answer. You can hurriedly fit out the Surcouf, so that you have two frigates to tackle the convoy, keeping one schooner and sending the other to Barbados with the dispatch to raise the alarm, and hope Admiral Davis is still there with the Invincible and some frigates, so that he can get under way for Martinique immediately to help tackle the convoy. (Help, he thought to himself: the Invincible and a couple of frigates would be more than enough.)
That is one answer but it certainly is not the one that Admiral Davis will expect. It is the right answer, though - with due respect to you, Admiral - because it takes into account the time factor; that the convoy is just as likely to be early as late: one can be damned sure it will not be on time.
Another answer would be for the Juno to tow the Surcouf to Barbados, leaving the two schooners to maintain the blockade, That is the answer that the Admiral would expect: a bird in the hand (and so a share of the prize money in the pocket) was worth two in the bush. Admiral Davis would argue that only the Invincible and more frigates could deal with the convoy, and that the Juno's absence from Martinique for three or four days was an acceptable risk since the two schooners would be patrolling, and one could reach Barbados and raise the alarm.
If you were an admiral, Ramage asked himself, would you accept that the commanding officer of the Juno - ayoung man at the bottom of the post list - could in fact perform magic, doing something which is a compromise between the two answers? Instead of sending the Surcouf to Barbados, fit her out so that quite unexpectedly an extra frigate is available for the Martinique blockade, and send a schooner to Barbados with a warning of the convoy. In the meantime, he had a plan for the Diamond that no one had ever tried ...