"Pope, Dudley - Ramage - Ramage and the Freebooters" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pope Dudley)

'A particular leader?'

'One man--the rest follow him.'

'If he wasn't on board?'

'Don't know, sir, to be honest. Someone else might take his place.'

'Any likely candidates?'

'No, I don't think so. But I've only been on board a short while, sir: it's hard to be sure.'

'The Kathleens?'

Jackson looked embarrassed.

'Come on, speak out, Jackson. The whole damned Fleet's mutinied, so nothing else can surprise me!'

'It's difficult to explain, sir, because the men's claims __________'

'We're not discussing conditions in the Navy, Jackson, because I can't change them. Now, how do the Kathleens stand?'

'Well, sir...'

He understood only too well Jackson's dilemma: those twenty-five men were among the finest in the Navy: cheerful, loyal and well-disciplined. After the Kathleen had been sunk he'd hand-picked those sent to the Lively and it had been difficult to choose them.

And how ironical--here's Jackson, an American and in law neutral, explaining away the disloyalty of Britons to the Royal Navy!

'It's like this, sir,' Jackson finally began, running a hand through his thinning hair, then pinching his nose. 'The delegates from all the sail of the line have told the smaller ships to stay out of the mutiny, but they're being ignored, because all the men think the Fleet's claims are reasonable. So the Kathleens--well, in the Lively we were just a small group and with everyone else in favour--well, we agreed.

'Everything's being organized by the delegates in the big ships: they're doing all the running around, shouting and cheering, sending the officers on shore, and hoisting the "bloody flag". In the frigates it's different; it just means no one doing any work. Just playing cards and so on------'

Ramage interrupted: 'Stop backing and rilling! Get to the point!'

'Well, you couldn't have done anything with the Kathleens in the Lively because whatever they thought they were outnumbered five to one. In the Triton there's thirty-six originals and twenty-five Kathleens. It's a question of whether the Tritons threaten to stop the Kathleens doing anything.'

'You think they will.'

'Yes. At least, this fellow I was telling you about will.'

'And the Kathleens would obey him?'

'I'm not sure.' Jackson said frankly. 'Stafford, Fuller, Rossi, Maxton--all of them would do anything for you personally, sir. But--well, this mutiny's the only chance the Fleet has of getting an improvement.'

'What you mean is,' Ramage said bluntly, 'they think they've got to be loyal to the mutineers, and it'd be unfair to ask 'em to be loyal to me as well.'

'That's more or less it, sir,' Jackson admitted.

'I wonder if the mutineers realize that if the French Navy mutinied Bonaparte'd shoot every third man.'