Governor Ramage R. N. by Dudley Pope Read Free Book Online Page A

understand.
    â€œNo, not what you think, M’sieur; just the opposite. My family are Cornish, but we have kept out of politics since Cromwell’s time, or since the Restoration, anyway. We learned then not to put our trust in princes.”
    â€œThe Cornish—they are like we Bretons,” said the daughter, missing the significance of Ramage’s last remark.
    â€œYes—even the place-names are similar.”
    â€œWe keep interrupting,” St Brieuc said. “Do please continue.”
    â€œHalfway through the last war, word reached England that a French fleet had sailed from Brest for an attack on the West Indies. The government had been warned months earlier that it was being prepared, but did nothing about it.”
    â€œI remember,” St Brieuc murmured.
    â€œThe Admiralty could scrape up only a small squadron but they put my father in command and rushed it to sea. Even before sailing my father knew that, outnumbered three to one, his only chance of avoiding a disastrous defeat was to use new tactics.”
    â€œTo achieve surprise,” St Brieuc murmured, “not to use some routine tactic the French admiral would know and be able to counter.”
    â€œExactly,” Ramage said, “but it failed.”
    Both Yorke and the girl said, “Why?”
    Ramage shrugged his shoulders. “The manoeuvre was revolutionary, and halfway through it the wind dropped, so only a third of his ships got into action.”
    â€œI begin to remember,” Yorke said. “I was only a boy. The Earl of Blazey must be your father?” Ramage nodded, and Yorke continued, as if talking to himself. “Didn’t lose any ships, by a miracle, but naturally the French escaped. Great row in Parliament … The government shaky … Admiral blamed and court-martialled … The government saved … The row split the Navy … Something to do with the Fighting Instructions, wasn’t it?”
    Ramage nodded. “Your memory is good. The two main factors were the old story of sending too few ships too late, and the Fighting Instructions.”
    â€œFighting Instructions?” repeated St Cast. “Are they what they sound like? Orders about how to fight a particular battle?”
    â€œNot quite; not a particular battle, but a set of rules for fighting all battles.”
    â€œLike the rules of chess?” asked St Brieuc.
    Ramage thought for a moment and then nodded. “Almost, but they don’t set down the actual moves each individual ship—or chessman—can make: instead they give the admiral the sequence of moves
all
the pieces must make together in various circumstances.”
    â€œDo you mean, keeping to the chess analogy,” Yorke asked, “they set down the moves for the
whole
game? Once the admiral chooses a particular sequence, he’s committed to make every successive move?”
    â€œYes. Of course they give you various alternative sequences, allowing for differences in the wind, the relative positions of your ships and the enemy’s, and so on.”
    â€œBut,” protested Yorke, as if certain he had misunderstood Ramage, “it leaves the admiral no initiative! If the orchestra plays this tune, you dance these steps; if that tune, then those steps.”
    â€œExactly,” Ramage said.
    â€œBut surely there are dozens—if not scores and hundreds—of situations an admiral might meet. Surely they’re not all covered?”
    â€œThere are scores of situations, but the manoeuvres listed have to be used to cover them,” Ramage said in a deliberately neutral voice.
    â€œSo what happens …”
    â€œIf you’re my father, you ignore them, decide on your own tactics, trust to the limited vocabulary of the Signal Book, and attack …”
    â€œAnd if the wind drops, my lord?” St Brieuc asked quietly.
    â€œIf the wind drops and the government needs a scapegoat to save its own skin