"Once we've got the wounded taken out to the ship, take these Italians across and give them a good meal. As soon as Bowen has finished with our wounded, he can have a look at these fellows."
The funeral of the dead Calypsos was held next day, with all the people of Licata, right down to crippled old women and stumbling little children, there to pay their last respects. Ramage translated much of the service for the Calypso's commission and warrant officers who attended the service, and then made a brief speech in Italian thanking the people of Licata.
Once he was back on board the frigate, Ramage settled down with his clerk to interview all the former slaves freed from the galleys. Bowen had treated the gangrene cases as best he could, and many of the men had bandages round ankles and shins.
Ramage had some trouble with the accents which, apart from being thick Sicilian, varied from village to village, a variation explained by the fact that very few of the men had ever visited other villages. , Slowly Ramage and the clerk progressed along the line of hammocks and benches, noting each man's name and the port he came from .All told the same story of being seized in daylight raids; some added the tragic postscript that their wives and daughters had been taken away too. They had first been taken to a town on the African mainland, and then transferred to the galleys and made to row back to Sicily. And as the clerk wrote down the names and home ports, Ramage realized that they came from every port from Empedocle to Marsala.
After saying goodbye to the mayor of Licata and the people, who lined the quay to cheer and wave, Ramage took the Calypso westward, to call in at all the ports and deliver the men who had long since given up hope of ever seeing their homes again. At Marsala - from where the majority of the slaves came - the mayor was so overcome that he wanted to give a banquet for all the Calypso's officers, but knowing the town was almost starving Ramage got out of it by inviting the mayor and many of the senior citizens to dinner on board the Calypso, lucky to have Orsini help him as translator.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Naples Bay looked as splendid as ever, guarded by Mount Vesuvius standing four-square to the eastward. The flagship, three 74s, a frigate and various sloops represented the King's ships, but there were dozens of local craft tacking, running and reaching as they went about their business of fishing, carrying vegetables, or taking passengers from one of the little ports to another round the perimeter of the Bay.
The weather was perfect: an almost clear sky, a fresh breeze from the west to raise a few small white caps, and the sun glaring down, warm and threatening to be hot by noon. A small white cloud lurked over the top of Vesuvius like a cap, making it seem that smoke was streaming out. Ramage saw it and thought momentarily of Pompeii and Herculaneum, still buried under the lava.
As the Calypso glided in there was no signal from the flagship telling him where to anchor, so he picked a spot half a mile to windward and Aitken patiently conned the ship while Southwick went forward to the fo'c'sle to prepare for anchoring. The frigate, under fore and maintopsails only, seemed in no hurry; she crossed the Bay with an elegance that Ramage found pleasing.
On the desk in his cabin was a report addressed to Rear-Admiral Rudd. Ramage had worked hard on it, careful not to omit anything without making it too verbose. And without giving Rudd any grounds for making trouble. After the head money episode, which had revealed the Admiral's preoccupation with money, Ramage had been careful to explain why none of the Saracen ships had been brought in as prizes; all had been sunk in action, except for the two galleys, which were very poor sailers but were due in Naples within the next day or two under the command of Lieutenant George Hill and Midshipman Paolo Orsini. Ramage had been careful to explain that without slaves at the oars and relying only on their sails, it was almost impossible to get the galleys to go to windward, but when last seen - off Licata - both of them were reaching along at three or four knots.
Would the Admiral buy them in? Ramage doubted it; galleys were no use to the Royal Navy, and it was unlikely that anyone in Naples would want to buy them, since without oars to assist them they sailed like floating haystacks. He had brought them in, Ramage admitted to himself, just to please the Admiral. No, that was not quite true. Not to please him exactly, but to show that the Licata operation had been completed successfully, right down to bringing in two prizes. Not to give the fellow any room for criticism, Ramage admitted to himself.
Aitken gave a brief order to the quartermaster and, picking up the speaking trumpet, sent the topmen aloft to the maintopsail. As soon as the men were up the rigging he gave the order to furl the sail and the men spread out along the yard like starlings on a bough. Within moments they were hauling in the heavy canvas in great folds, then they had it against the yard and were passing gaskets to hold it there. As soon as the sail was secured, Aitken barked out the order: "Down from aloft!"
Soon the Calypso was gliding the last few hundred yards before anchoring. The sheets and braces of the foretopsail were hauled so that slowly the sail was backed and the Calypso came to a stop as the wind blew on the forward side of the sail. Ramage signalled to Southwick to let go the anchor and, after a splash, Ramage noticed the familiar smell of rope scorching as it raced out through the hawse. There was something pleasantly final about the smell; as though it signalled the end of another successful voyage.
By now the backed foretopsail had thrust the Calypso enough to give her sternway, pulling out the cable and putting just enough weight on it to help the anchor dig in on the sea bed. Southwick was calling out the length of the cable that had been let out, and as soon as it reached five times the depth called out by the leadsman in the chains, he stopped and the cable was made up. Ramage left the topsail backed for a few minutes, just to make sure the anchor had dug in, and then told Aitken to carry on, which was another way of saying furl the sail and put over a boat for the master.
Southwick now had himself rowed round the ship "squaring the yards", making sure that the yards were hanging absolutely horizontally. Neatly furled sails and perfectly horizontal yards were the sign of a well run ship, and the phrase "I soon squared his yards" was part of the Navy's language, another way of saying "I soon put him in his place!"
With the ship anchored and the yards squared, it was time for Ramage to have himself rowed over to the flagship so that he could report to the Admiral. First he had to change into his second-best uniform, put on clean silk stockings and a fresh stock, and buckle on a sword. He decided to wear the sword recently presented to him by Lloyd's - not to show it off to the Admiral but because he had promised Sarah that he would use it on formal occasions. She had been very proud of it - so proud when it was presented to him at a dinner at Lloyd's that she was very near to tears. The memory of that moment stopped Ramage as he tied his stock: he could picture her so clearly, as though she was in the cabin with him. It was strange how a sudden memory could make you go weak. "I went weak at the knees" was a commonplace saying, but there were times when it was true, and now was one of them. He felt an overpowering desire to be holding her in his arms, with her tawny hair tickling his face so that he had to blow it away.
He shook his head to clear the memories and stood up, checking that his stockings were straight, feeling that his stock was square, and hitching at his sword. He picked up the leather case in which he was carrying his despatch to the Admiral, and his hat, and then made his way up on deck, where the cutter waited for him, manned by Jackson, as the captain's cox'n, and with Stafford, Rossi and the Frenchmen among the crew.