Ramage 05 - Ramage's prize by Dudley Pope

Author:Dudley Pope
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2011-04-26T23:00:00+00:00

"Save himself a hundred miles. Or Bordeaux."

"No," Ramage said, "from Lisbon he'll head for St Malo - once the Channel Fleet's back in Plymouth. Apart from pride, he'll make for his home port because he'll have rope and canvas in the hold. In St Malo he knows all the officials, and he and his brother probably have a proper base there for fitting out prizes."

"All the more reason why he won't agree to sell," Yorke said. "This packet's fast; she's just the right size for a privateer: easily handled, well-equipped-"

"And her whole stern so rotten we'll be lucky to make Lisbon, let alone St Malo," Much said lugubriously.

There was complete silence in the cabin for a full minute.

"The whole stern?" Ramage repeated incredulously.

"The whole stern^'Much said. "You can punch your fist through the archboard; the last dozen feet of the stringers and shelf are soggy like a bad potato. Don't even dare think about the deadwood; the rudder's hanging on by faith."

"How long have you known all this? The extent of the rot, I mean."

Much waited a minute or two before answering and Ramage wished he could see the man's face.

"I've known we had some rot for six months - I mentioned that was why Stevens wanted a new ship. But it's spreading very quickly, as I found out in Barbados, where I made a complete above-water examination and reported to the Captain. That was the first time I found out how bad it was."

Ramage guessed that by a bitter irony it was probably Much's report that made Stevens decide to break his promise to the Mate: knowledge of how fast the rot was spreading meant it would need only slight pressure from Farrell to make Stevens surrender the ship at the first opportunity.

"Supposing he hadn't known the stern was rotten," Ramage mused. "I wonder what he'd have done about the Rossignol."

"I'd only be guessing," Much admitted, "but I think he might have run. Farrell might have been able to persuade him not to fight if he couldn't get away, but I think he'd have made a more effective attempt to escape." The Mate thought for a few moments and then added wearily, "I'm not sure, though. I begin to wonder."

"Of course," Yorke said casually, "One mustn't forget Stevens does own the ship; up to a point, he can decide what he does."

"I'm not disputing that," Ramage said grimly, guessing Yorke was leading up to something else.

"He could own a bank or an abbey as well, but he doesn't own the bags of mail, and treason is still treason."

"Don't pick on him alone," Yorke advised. "Don't forget the other commanders. They surrendered simply because of insurance on the ventures, not because their ships had rotten sterns. Incidentally, Much my dear fellow, bearing in mind we'd all like to stay afloat, were you exaggerating a few minutes ago about the extent of the rot?"

"No, I wasn't. I told Captain Stevens we ought to get some precautionary work done before we left

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.