Jackson said: 'Staff's main memory of the place is that he didn't get his regular tot. As you know, he's partial to a drop of rum.'

'I dunno about a tot,' Stafford grumbled. 'All I can remember was wishing for a pint of cold water. That's all I could think about. I even dreamed about it.'

'It was just off Diamond Rock that we captured the Calypso,'Jackson told the Frenchmen. 'Mr Ramage was given command of her as a sort of recognition of what he had done in capturing the Rock. By the way, did you notice that frigate in Port Royal?'

'Yes,' Rossi said. 'Is like the Calypso. A sister, I think.'

'I think so, too: she has the same sheer, from what I could see of her.'

'I wonder what's happened to our Calypso,'Stafford said. 'Probably commissioned again and flogging up and down the Channel. Chasing French privateers. I'm glad we left her: all that cold and wet. That's what I like about the West Indies - it's nice and warm. Even the rain is warm.'

'Wait until we get a hurricane: then you'll change your tune.'

'You forget we've already been through one hurricane here. I can still hear those masts going by the board in the Triton brig. You must admit, Jacko,' Stafford said, 'that it was a wet and windy few hours.'

'I can remember how we drifted afterwards - what was the name o' that island? Oh yes, Culebra. Sad to think of the wreck of the Triton still on that reef.'

'You can say one thing about serving with Mr Ramage,' Stafford said. 'At least there's plenty o' variety. Too much, some might say. Not me,' he added hastily. 'I enjoy it.'

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Ramage sat at his desk and swung the chair round so that he was facing the gathered men, 'We've been patrolling off Diamond Rock for three days now,' he said, 'and the French in Fort Royal will have got over their surprise at seeing us off the port. They'll have been reassured to see the Scourge resume her patrol. So I think it's time to give them another shock.'

He crossed his legs and said quietly: 'I don't know how many of you had a good look at that frigate in Fort Royal. Those that did probably noticed that she was a sister ship of the Calypso. This would not be important but for the fact that it means all the former Calypsos know their way around her with their eyes shut. That would not be very important either except that I propose cutting her out in two nights' time, a no-moon period.'

The frigate, he explained, could slip out any night and overwhelm the Scourge, but the brig would almost certainly notice if the seventy-four was preparing to sail. 'As I see it,' Ramage said, 'the frigate is the seventy-four's eyes: her job is to go out and scout for the convoy - probably four or five days before they guess it is due. Then it reports to the seventy-four, which sails and escorts the convoy in the last fifty or a hundred miles - through the area where the British might try to interfere.

'If we capture the frigate, then the seventy-four has to sail to look for the convoy - in other words we get her out of Fort Royal and have a chance of capturing or sinking her.'

'Most of my Marines never served in the Calypso, but I hope that doesn't mean you'll be leaving them out, sir?' Rennick asked anxiously.

Ramage laughed and reassured the Marine captain. 'No, it just means that the former Calypsos will form a good nucleus. I don't know how many former Calypsos you sent off in the prizes, but with a bit of luck nearly a quarter of your men should have served in the Calypso.'

'I don't know how many are left, sir,' Rennick admitted, 'but there are enough that I can make them section leaders.'

'Good. Now listen, everyone, this is roughly my plan.'

Ramage's plan revolved round the Dido's six boats: the number of men they could carry governed his attack on the frigate. The launch was reckoned to carry twenty-four men for cutting out, while the two pinnaces and three cutters took sixteen men each, a total of 104 seamen and Marines. But they were attacking on a moonless night, so the Dido could approach closely, and he could put another five men in each boat, without the danger of exhausting the men at the oars. That brought his force up to 134. Well, the frigate would have a ship's company of at least two hundred, although all but a few would be asleep at the time of the attack. Surprise and darkness should double the effectiveness of his force.

Captains of ships of the line perhaps should not lead cutting out expeditions, but he was determined not to be left out of this one. He would command the launch, Aitken the 32-foot pinnace, Kenton the 28-foot pinnace, Martin and Hill the two 25-foot cutters, and Rennick the 18-foot cutter. Southwick would be left in command of the Dido - Ramage anticipated, correctly, protests from the older master, who could not bear the thought of being left out of a fight - and Ramage decided to take the gunner along in the launch, to help control twenty-nine eager sailors and Marines. He was also curious to see how Higgins would behave in a boat action. So far, in the two actions in which the Dido had so far fought, Higgins had been shut up in the magazine. There was, Ramage knew only too well, nothing like a night boat action for testing a man: was he nervous, was he indecisive, did he panic - all would be revealed, and by taking Higgins with him, any failure on the part of the gunner would not affect the handling of a boat.

He had eighty-eight Marines remaining, after losing men to prizes. He needed at least thirty seamen. He scribbled a sum on a piece of paper. Yes, he could take all the Marines and still have room for the seamen. Well, that would please Rennick, who would be able to bring along his two lieutenants, four sergeants and four corporals and try them out. Not that there was any need to try out Sergeant Ferris and the two corporals who had come from the Calypso: they had already been in action several times.

Ramage found he was enjoying planning the details of the raid. For a start the Marines would all carry pistols, not the clumsy muskets which would be cumbersome when boarding the enemy. Pistols and cutlasses. The same for the seamen, who would also have boarding pikes, half pikes or tomahawks - they would be allowed the choice.

He did not like the idea of risking all the Dido's topmen, although the men who went aloft in the darkness to let fall the sails would be the most important in the raid, because they might well end up sailing the frigate out of Fort Royal with fighting still going on. Providing, Ramage told himself, that there was an offshore wind. If there was, the frigate would just about sail herself out to sea: it only needed a couple of hands at the wheel.

And that was the next part of his plan: twenty Marines had to be told off to secure the quarterdeck, and particularly the wheel, and hold it whatever happened.

Prisoners? Those Frenchmen who could swim would probably jump over the side as soon as they realized their ship had been captured and was being sailed out of Fort Royal, but that would still leave a large number on board who would have to be secured. They could be sent ashore later under a flag of truce - Ramage decided he was unwilling to sacrifice too many more men in a prize. Returning French seamen did not mean very much, since they could not have the ships to put them in - unless they packed them into the seventy-four.

Muffling the oars - Aitken would have to pay special attention to that. A gun to each boat, in case the alarm was given and they had to fight their way on board - and plenty of case shot, not roundshot, because they would be trying to kill men, not damage the ship. Water - they should have enough water breakers in each boat to refresh the oarsmen.

But what if the whole attack failed, and the French were lying in wait for them and drove them off? A rocket to signal the Dido to sail in as close as possible to take them off, assuming they would be badly mauled.