By now Aitken had the Calypso lying-to, and Ramage told him: "Get the boats away and start picking up survivors. Two Marines in every boat as guards."

Within five minutes the Calypso's four boats were rowing round, through the wreckage, dragging men out of the water and, with little ceremony, tossing them into the bottom of the boats.

The first boat came back to the Calypso with more than twenty survivors. The two Marine guards looked almost sheepish because the rescued Frenchmen were coughing or vomiting; there was no fight left in even one of them.

Rennick was waiting with Ramage by the entryport and as soon as the survivors arrived on deck they were escorted, five at a time, onto the fo'c'sle.

"We've nothing to worry about from those fellows for an hour or so," Rennick remarked.

"No, it's the old story of only a few of them being able to swim."

"I don't think many have escaped from the ship, sir," Rennick said.

Ramage shook his head. "No. I did a very rough count and saw about a hundred. Looks as though more than half of them went down with the ship."

"Yes, even though she was rolling heavily, she went very suddenly in the end."

When the third boat came alongside the cox'n shouted up: "We've got a couple of officers here, sir!"

When the two men were helped up the ship's side, clothes torn and hair soaking, Ramage walked over to them and said in French: "Perhaps you would introduce yourselves."

The elder of the two bowed, coughing at the same time: "Jean-Louis Peyrafitte, lieutenant de vaisseau, and captain of Le Jason, frigate. This," he indicated the other man, "is the second lieutenant. He was with me on the quarterdeck."

"M. Peyrafitte," Ramage said, "I am afraid you have lost at least half your ship's company."

"I know. It was my fault. I did not realize she was so near capsizing. I should have cleared the decks."

Ramage shrugged his shoulders. "It was easier to see from over here," he said quietly. "You fought until the last moment."

The Frenchman looked up for the first time. "You think so?"

Ramage nodded. "You were rolling so much that I don't know how your men aimed their guns."

Now it was the turn of the Frenchman to shrug. He gestured round the Calypso's decks and then up at the masts. "They were not very successful," he said sadly.

"They were earlier," Ramage said grimly. "I lost some good men."

He turned to Rennick. "Put a Marine guard on these two and then take them down to my cabin: they can dry off there."

Rennick was about to protest that the wardroom would be more suitable when he realized that Ramage was paying a small tribute to the French captain's bravery. "Very well, sir," he said.

Ramage saw Orsini and told him: "Go down and tell my steward to give these two men towels and dry clothes."

For more than three quarters of an hour the boats combed the wreckage for survivors, but when they were finally recalled they had found only one hundred and sixty-three men. The only officers to survive were still the two found by the third boat, the captain and second lieutenant. Most of the others, Ramage guessed, had stayed with their divisions of guns.

Finally, the four boats were hoisted on board, the foretopsail and maintopsail were hoisted, and Ramage gave orders for the Calypso to wear round and set a course for Capraia.

"I wonder what we'll find with the other frigate," Southwick said.

Ramage laughed. "You want two frigates in one day, eh?"

"I don't see why not," the master said.

"Pass the word for Bowen - providing he's not in the middle of operating. I want to know what the butcher's bill comes to."

Bowen came up on deck, his clothes still bloodstained, and reported to Ramage.

"Twelve dead from gunshot wounds and splinters, five badly wounded from splinters, and seven slightly wounded, gunshot and splinters, plus one man completely dazed when the gun was dismounted. It's only the second time I've seen such a case, but he is speechless and although he's not deaf, he doesn't understand what is said to him."

"We've been lucky," Ramage said grimly. "If Le Jason had not had that leak, we could have lost half a hundred men."

Bowen looked up at the ragged group of men up on the fo'c'sle. "At least. Are those the French survivors?"

"A hundred and sixty-three, and two officers."

"How many men did she have on board?"

"I haven't asked the captain yet, but probably about two hundred and fifty."

CHAPTER SIX

The trip back to Capraia was a run of less than two hours, and Ramage steered for a position on the coast about three miles north of the little port. Retook the Calypso in to three quarters of a mile from the beach and then, wary of the kind of outlying rocks that had holed Le Jason, brought the frigate head to wind and anchored.

"Hoist out the boats, Mr Aitken," he said after Southwick assured him the anchor was well dug in. "Let's get rid of our passengers."

During the run back to the island he had a long talk with Peyrafitte. Le Jason had had a complement of two hundred and seventy-seven when she began the action, so that one hundred and twelve men had been lost, either from the Calypso's gunfire or by drowning.

The French captain confirmed that the ship had hit a rock off Capraia and the impact had started several planks. At first the pump had kept up with the leak but after that Le Jason's speed through the water while engaging the Calypso had made it worse, and towards the end he was having to take men away from the guns to replace those exhausted at the pump.

Peyrafitte, a stocky and black-haired man with deep brown eyes, said ruefully: "But for the leak, we may have taken you!" "You had fifty more men and we had the same number of guns," Ramage said. "We should both have lost a great number of men."

"I did anyway," Peyrafitte commented.

Ramage shrugged his shoulders. "There could have been more. Considering everything, you are fortunate that you have more than half your men up on the fo'c'sle."

"I know," the Frenchman said, "but I will have to account to my admiral for my navigation."

"Your navigation?" asked a puzzled Ramage.

"That rock," Peyrafitte explained. "It was shown on my chart. I thought we were farther offshore."

"Your chart is better than mine: I had no indication that there were any rocks there."

It was the Frenchman's turn to shrug. "Your chart showed no rock and mine did. You didn't hit it and I did. My admiral will want to know why. He will order a court of inquiry ..."

"But a court of inquiry is routine anyway," Ramage protested.

"Yes," the Frenchman agreed, "but what can I answer when they ask me that question? They won't even know that your chart did not show a rock: it will be enough that mine did and I hit it."

Ramage wanted to console the man: he had fought bravely and he had been beaten by a leak. But from what Ramage had heard the French Navy dealt harshly with anyone who made mistakes, even if they involved misjudging the position of a rock by a few score yards in the midst of an action.

It took an hour to ferry the prisoners ashore. The two hours spent up on the fo'c'sle had done much to revive their spirits; so much so that Ramage told Rennick to put four Marines in each boat, just in case a wild spirit decided to try to rouse his comrades into making an attempt to get control.

The first frigate, Le Tigre, was out of sight round the bend in the coast, and after the boats had returned and men had weighed anchor, Ramage ordered the ship to general quarters.

"She probably won't be there," he said sourly to Aitken.

"They've certainly had time to send up the yards, but we damaged the mainyard."