Ramage and the drum beat (r-2) by Dudley Pope

Author:Dudley Pope [Pope, Dudley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: adv_history, adv_maritime

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Christmas Day and New Year's Day passed with Ramage and his men celebrating at the inn. The surly innkeeper's liking for free wine finally overcame his disapproval of all seamen in general and foreign seamen in particular and he joined in their party at Christmas with wary reserve. By New Year's Eve he had obviously decided the foreigners were more skilled than most in roistering, and an hour before midnight was too drunk to know what they were celebrating.

To Stafford's disgust he never offered a drink in return, so the Cockney, finally nettled by the Spaniard's refusal to pay for even half a bottle of wine.mixed the man's drinks, explaining to Jackson that he wanted to make sure the fellow felt so ill next morning he'd 'think the drummer's using his head to beat to quarters!'

Twice each day Ramage strolled down to the Muralla del Mar to look at the ships, but there was no sign of any hurried preparation for sea. At least two dozen great yards from the three-deckers had been lowered into the sea and towed to the mast house quay, where they had been hoisted up for repairs. Yet there were so few men working on them he suspected the Navy was short of wood or money to pay the men - or both.

He was also puzzled by the convoy of seventy or more transports that arrived from Barcelona the day before Christmas. They were all heavily laden, and rumours spread through the town that they were carrying large quantities of powder and shot, provisions, a couple of battalions of troops and a regiment of Swiss mercenaries.

Not one cask of cargo nor one soldier had been sent on shore, so obviously the convoy was bound elsewhere. Since it had come from Barcelona to the eastward and was not unloading in Catagena, it must be bound westward, probably for an Atlantic port. Would the Spaniards dare sail such a convoy out through the Strait without the Fleet escorting it? Decidedly not. But where could the Spanish Government be sending troops and munitions? The West Indies? Perhaps round to Cadiz - it was easier to transport materials by sea than land - though risky. Somehow the convoy seemed more significant than the Fleet.

The daily walk along the Muralla del Mar became a pleasant habit: the old man fished by night and mended his net by day, and always greeted Ramage with the comment that the guns had not fired so there'd be a good night's fishing.

Then on Monday, 30th January, the first thing Ramage saw as he came past the sail loft and looked across the ropewalk was that at least twice the usual number of men were working on the yards, several of which had already been lowered into the sea ready to be towed back to the ships. A glance at the ships themselves warned him the admiral had received orders - almost every one of them had swarms of men working aloft in the rigging while others were painting the ships from stagings slung over the side.

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