Ramage’s Mutiny

CHAPTER SEVEN

When the court sat again next morning Weaver was back at the end of the line of prisoners while Gowers read aloud the minutes of the previous day's hearing. Although all five captains had avoided discussing the trial, either when the previous day's session ended or before today's begun, they knew that the pile of papers covered with Gowers's spidery writing formed the worst condemnation of a captain in the history of the Navy.

"Breadfruit Bligh" had been sent off the Bounty by her mutineers, but he was still alive - indeed, the last Ramage heard of him he was commanding a seventy-four, as unpopular with the Admiralty as with his ship's company. Bligh had been too free with the cat-o'-nine-tails in the Bounty but compared with Wallis - Ramage did not doubt Weaver's story and knew that his fellow captains agreed - Bligh was no more violent than one of Mr Wesley's preachers.

Gowers's voice droned on, but he had made a good job of the minutes: it must be hard to concentrate for hours on end. Finally he finished and told Weaver: "You are still on oath: take up your position again as a witness."

Captain Edwards had several slips of paper in front of him, and Ramage realized that on each was written a question. It made it easier for the deputy judge advocate if he was given a written question immediately it was asked: he simply numbered it and wrote down the number and corresponding reply in his rough copy of the minutes.

"You described yesterday how the Jocasta arrived at La Guaira. Relate what happened to you after the ship came to an anchor."

"We prisoners was kept on board two days and then taken on shore under guard and lodged in the town jail. Five days later we were told we would have to work for our keep, and if we didn't we'd starve."

"What work was this?"

"Helping build fortifications at La Guaira, sir. Breaking up rocks and carrying them to the masons."

"For how long did you do this work?"

"Until the fortresses was completed. Fourteen months, sir."

Breaking up rocks under a scorching tropical sun: for weeks the sun would be directly overhead at noon. It said much for Weaver that he had survived.

"You received pay?"

"They called it subsistence money, sir, and we never actually received it. They used to set up a table every Saturday evening, at the end of the week's work, count out the money due to each man and call out 'is name and tell 'im 'ow much it was. Then they tipped all the money back in the bag and said it was being taken to buy our food. I s'pose the paymaster took it; they're a sticky-fingered lot, those Dons."

"When the fortifications were finished, at the end of the fourteen months, what happened to you then?"

"They freed us all. Them that survived, anyway: eight had died. They said we could live in La Guaira or we could leave if we wished."

"What did you do?"

"I 'ad to go into the 'ospital for four months. I 'ad such sores on me 'ands from 'andling the rocks, and they spread over me back where the sun burned cracks into the skin. After that I tried to find work but there weren't none. I tried to find some of the others what was in the prison with me, but by then they'd all gorn to other places to look for work."

"What about the mutineers?"

"Some of them was still in La Guaira with jobs. A few of the committee was still there, and these three, " he pointed to the prisoners. "The Spanish had paid them a reward so they didn't have to work, but by the time I saw them they'd just about spent all their money."

"Did you stay in La Guaira?"

"No, sir. I signed on in a Spanish coasting vessel what was going to Barcelona, down the coast. Just that one voyage. I was still there in Barcelona when the Sarasota Pride came in, and I met one of her men who got me signed on. Then I found out that Summers, Perry and Harris was on board. They'd joined at La Guaira. But I was desperate to get away, so I just swallowed all their insults."

"What happened to the Jocasta?”

"They kept her at La Guaira for several weeks - I don't recall exactly how long, sir. Then they took her along the coast to a place called Santa Cruz, leastways that's what Summers told me. They gave her some Spanish name."

"Is there anything else concerning this affair that you should tell the court?"

"I don't believe so, sir."

"Very well, " Edwards said. He looked across at Summers.

"Do you have any questions to ask the witness?"

Summers shook his head but Edwards snapped: "Say 'Yes' or 'No'; it has to be recorded in the minutes."

"No, sir."

"Did you have any questions to ask the previous witness, Lieutenant Aitken?"

"No, sir."

Edwards asked the other two men the same questions, but neither had anything to say.

"You may stand down, Weaver. The court has some questions to ask the other prisoners."

He pointed to Summers: "Do you deny you were a ringleader in the mutiny, and later elected captain of the ship?"

"No, sir, " Summers mumbled. He had his hands clasped tightly and he lifted them from time to time, as if in an obeisance, to wipe away the perspiration streaming down his forehead and into his eyes, making him blink as though surprised by a bright light.

"You were the man who suggested it and planned it, " Edwards said. "Do you deny that?"

"No, sir." He suddenly straightened himself up and said simply: "T'was my idea and my plan, sir."

The confession - though Ramage sensed that the man was in fact making a claim - took Edwards by surprise. "You alone?"

"At first, sir. Then I persuaded some of the others. Soon there was forty or fifty - more than Weaver knew about."

"Why did you want to murder all the officers and run away with one of the King's ships and hand her over to the enemy?" Edwards asked the question quietly, speaking slowly and distinctly. "Now, think carefully before you answer."

"I did all the thinking two years ago, sir. You see, sir, he had us trapped, the Captain did. He weren't quite right in the head. He reckoned every man's hand was against him, officers and seamen and Marines, all in a big conspiracy. Conspiracy, that's what he always called it. If a tiny bit of grease dripped out of the sheave of a block - it's bound to 'appen in the 'eat of the sun - and made a spot on the deck, he reckoned someone did it a'purpose to upset him."

Summers was speaking slowly, watching Gowers to make sure be wrote down his words. Ramage saw the man was changing as he told his story; he was like a wilting plant recovering after a refreshing shower of rain. The shifty look was going; the narrow face was flushed and Ramage wondered if in fact the man was normally plumper, reduced now to a skinny wreck by two years of living in the shadow of a noose.

"He was doing us all in, one after the other: we was livin' like animals in a trap, sir. Nothing pleased 'im; he attended all sail handling with a watch in 'is 'and. Officers were punished, too. Many a time one of the lieutenants was put on eight-hour watches - eight on and four off, so half the time there'd be two of ‘em on watch, 'cos the rest stood their normal watches. They was like ghosts from being so short of sleep."

Edwards held up his hand: clearly he regarded this as having nothing to do with Summers's guilt - that had already been established by Weaver's evidence - and despite his earlier determination that no one, captain or admiral, would be whitewashed, he was alarmed by Summers's revelations. But the seaman would not be silenced; he was reliving those months - Ramage realized it might have been years - on board the Jocasta, and this was the first time he could tell the story to someone he regarded as "authority".

“He had us trapped, sir - you've got to understand that. We was always ready an' willing to fight the French and the Dons - he knew that. But when the last man fell and was killed because the captain always said he'd flog the last man down, we knew we had to kill him or he'd kill us. T'wasn't the first time a man had died like that, sir; he'd been doin' it for six months and three men had already fallen. We dreaded seeing a squall come up, sir: putting in a reef, letting fall or furling sail - every time it meant a flogging for someone. You know how many times a day there's sailhandling of some sort.

"In Port Royal we daren't do nothing about protesting in case he charged us with 'mutinous assembly' - if he saw more'n a couple of men talking together he'd flog 'em because he reckoned they was plotting. We couldn't think of no way of escaping from him without taking the ship, sir."

"But you killed all the officers! " Edwards interrupted harshly.

"As God's my witness, sir, we didn't intend to. We was going to release the twenty-three seamen in irons and lock the Captain in his cabin, but someone raised the alarm and the officers came out with swords and pistols an' started fighting, even though we told them we'd spare 'em."

"The Captain, " Edwards said coldly. "You murdered him."

"Yes, sir. An' it happened like this. I led the party what was going to secure him - we had a pair of irons all ready - but by the time we got to the door of his cabin there was so much shoutin' and yellin' all over the ship that he was roused out and waitin' for us, a sword in 'is hand. A long thin sword, like you use for duelling."

"So you murdered him."

"He wouldn't listen to us, " Summers said stubbornly. "The minute I opened the door I told him to submit and his life would be safe, but 'e just rushed at me with 'is sword. I was holding a lantern - lit me up but not 'im o' course - and he nearly spitted me. I struck at him in self-defence, sir."

Ramage leaned forward and turned to the president. "Could we recall Weaver and ask him about the mutineers' intentions, sir?"

"Good idea. Weaver, step forward. You are still on oath, remember. Carry on, Ramage."

"Weaver, you have just heard Summers say they did not intend to kill the Captain and officers. What do you have to say about that?"

"I can only speak of what I heard and saw, sir. The talk I heard was just to take the ship and lock up the Captain. When they went and killed everyone I thought they'd changed their minds."

"Do you know that they did change their minds?"

"No, sir. Now I come to think of it, maybe that was why they was angry with Harris for killing the wounded officers after it was all over."

"But when they broke into the Captain's cabin, didn't you hear what was said?"

"I was unconcherous at the time, sir."

"You think Summers's story that they intended to take the ship without killing anyone might be true?"

"I do, sir. Summers is right that Captain Wallis thought everyone's 'and was plotting against him. The First Lieutenant was so frightened he never dared answer the Captain but with an 'aye aye, sir'. None of the officers ever had enough sleep from having to stand extra watches."

"Why didn't you mention all this when you first gave evidence?"

"I never thought you gentlemen would believe me, sir, " he said simply. "I never 'eard tell of any captain like the Jocasta's. He was a tyrant, sir, an' that's a fact, and I thank you for hearing us out."

Us. Weaver was not a mutineer, that was clear enough, and he obviously hated Summers and his cronies, but at that moment, as he described life on board the Jocasta under Wallis, ii was "us". The officers, warrant and petty officers, seamen and Marines; they had all been in the trap, all fighting to stay alive. Eight hours on and four off for the lieutenants; sixteen hours on watch out of the twenty-four, and even the total of eight off interrupted by the need to be on deck to witness the floggings. Us - yes, Ramage thought, Weaver's evidence is true; he's an honest man.

Weaver stepped back into the line and Edwards pointed at Perry.

"Do you deny taking part in murdering Captain Wallis?"

"No, sir." Perry was not defiant nor, as far as Ramage could see, was he frightened. If anything he now seemed relieved that the whole story was out; as if Summers's evidence had been a confession for the three of them.

"Evidence has been given that you argued with Summers as to which of you gave Captain Wallis his death wound."

"That's what Weaver said, sir, and he's part right. Only he was recovering from the bang on the head, and he didn't understand the meaning behind what I said. What we was arguing about, rather. Not that it matters now, " he added with a shrug.

"What were you arguing about?"

"Well, sir, I'd just told Summers I'd saved his life, and he wouldn't admit it. You see, sir, I was carrying the irons we was going to use to secure the Captain: irons in one hand and cutlass in the other. Summers had the lantern and went in first and shouted to the Captain, but he came straight at us with a sword. He'd have done for Summers but I knocked the sword away and that gave Summers a chance to 'ave a chop at 'im. Caught his left shoulder, and 'e staggered, but 'e came back at us, an' that's 'ow 'e got killed."

Perry had ended up in a rush of words, the aitches dropping in the excitement, and again the cabin was silent but for the squeaking of Gowers's pen, hurrying to catch up.

Then Captain Edwards said: "Summers, does that agree with your recollection?"

"Yes, sir, except that I gave the Captain his death wound. Perry was trying to save me."

The man was obviously hoping to take all the blame; there was no question of taking credit now.

"Perry, do you question any of Weaver's evidence?"

"No, sir, not now. Not after Summers put you right about not planning to kill the Captain an' officers in cold blood. We was just trying to save our backs - aye, an' our lives, too."

In a sudden movement he pulled up his shirt and turned his back to the seated officers. "Look! " he said loudly. "More'n two hundred lashes - an' not one of 'em for a real offence." He turned again before the sentries had time to move. "I never committed a real offence in all me days at sea. Four ships I served in a'fore the Jocasta, an' never a lash. More'n two hundred lashes Cap'n Wallis give me."

Edwards nodded and pointed to Harris.

"Evidence has been given that you ran below after the ship was taken and murdered the wounded officers. Do you deny that?"

"No, sir. I was beastly drunk at the time. I was mortal ashamed of meself afterwards."

"Of being drunk or murdering wounded men?" Edwards exclaimed angrily.

"Of the murdering, sir. But by the time I was sober again, t'was too late . . ."

"Do you disagree with any of the evidence against you?"

"Only that bit about me fetchin' an' carryin' for Summers, sir. I never did none of that. I was 'is aidy-dee-camp."

For the next fifteen minutes Edwards questioned the three of them about their activities after the ship had been handed over to the Spanish, and their stories agreed. The Spaniards had given them rewards. Summers, Perry and the six members of the committee received the most, enough money to live on for eighteen months. The rest of the mutineers received enough to last for six months, providing they were careful. Summers estimated that seventy-five or more of the mutineers were trying to make a living at various ports along the Main: most were fishing or serving in coasting vessels. Others had learned some Spanish and managed to find jobs. The rest had signed on neutral ships. Perry had reckoned that he and Summers were the only two ringleaders to leave the Main.

"Why did you try to leave?" Edwards had asked.

"We couldn't stand the Dons no longer, " Perry had said contemptuously. "A lot o' 'eathens they are, what with all this burning incense and saints’ days an' 'Caramba this', and 'Caramba that'. Got so's we couldn't abide it no longer, an' all the streets like dungheaps. An' the priests always on at us, tryin' to make us into Catholics."

Finally Edwards had called on each man in turn to make his defence against the charges. None of them had anything more to say. Summers, the first to be asked, had said he was guilty as charged, and that he now realized that no matter how tyrannical Captain Wallis had been, it was no excuse for mutiny and murder, but it was done . . .

The court was cleared and as the provost marshal shut the door Edwards gave a deep sigh and pushed his chair back. "Well, that's goodbye to me ever getting my flag, but no one can say we haven't given the beggars a fair trial."

Marden stood up and Ramage watched him pace round the cabin, his hands clasped behind his back and small enough to be able to walk without bending his head to avoid hitting the beams. "How much do we believe?" Marden demanded and, gesturing at Gowers's pile of paper, added: "And how much do we record in the minutes?"

Edwards sighed and said: "I wish I knew. How much to record, that is. I'll have a word with the Admiral before Gowers writes his fair copy."

The cabin seemed enormous to Ramage now that the prisoners and their escort had left. Its size was exaggerated by the few men left at the table. Five captains, he reflected, who have been looking back two years in time, using the uncertain telescope of men's memories. The minutes should give a detailed picture of the mutiny in the Jocasta and its causes - as detailed and true as question and honest answer could make it.

The answers, particularly from Summers, had been honest; he was sure of that, although far from certain why he was so sure. He believed Weaver, too. That use of "us" was very significant: the Jocastas were united in their terror of Wallis even though they disagreed over how to do anything about it.

Now Edwards stood up and walked round to the front of the table, to where he could look at the other captains. He turned the witness's chair and sat down in it, crossing his legs and tapping his fingers on the hilt of his sword. He waited until Marden resumed his seat and then asked him flatly: "What do you make of it all ?"

Marden said violently: "I'll stand trial for saying it, but Sir Hyde Parker ought to be in the dock, not these men. As Commander-in-Chief he should have warned Wallis long ago. Sent him home, in fact."

"If he knew, " Edwards said.

"He knew all right." Marden's voice was harsh now and his face drawn by strong emotion. "Most of us who've been out here a few years had heard enough stories about Wallis. Now we know they were true. Not only true, but worse than we suspected. Far worse. And Sir Hyde knew; he's seen Wallis's journals with the figures for flogging. I only wish we had the latest one."

"Well, everything we say here is secret, " Edwards said, "and just as well. However, " he added quietly, "we should guard our tongues."

He looked across at Gowers. "We'll consider our verdicts in a moment, but don't write your fair copy of the minutes until I give you the word." Then he asked the captains: "Have you any questions? Do you want Gowers to read the minutes of today's evidence? How about you, Teal?"

"I wish I was away on a cruise, " Teal muttered, as though the words forced their way from his mouth. "I wish I'd never heard a word of all this. I'll never trust a ship's company again! "

"Steady now! " Marden said. "Do you flog your men like Wallis did?"

"Of course not. A dozen lashes a month at most, and that's the same man who always gets regularly drunk: hoards his tot, knows he'll get a dozen if he's discovered, and regularly swills it down and then sits on the fo'c'sle in the lee of the belfry and sings bawdy songs at the bosun."

"Nothing wrong with a man who sings bawdy songs at a bosun, " Edwards muttered. "Now, Banks, we haven't heard much from you. Any legal questions?"

Banks, junior of all the captains except for Ramage, shook his head. He was a shy man and not a little overawed by Edwards. "I'm like Teal: it's hard to believe what we've just been hearing."

"You, Ramage, " Edwards said. "If you'd had any you'd have spoken up, eh?"

"Yes, sir. Some of my questions were aimed at helping me with the next operation."

"I noticed that. You'll have a copy of the minutes, though, and the Admiral's going to let you see the minutes of the other trials. We thought it wiser not to let you see them until we've reached a verdict on this one. Now, gentlemen, are you all ready to deliver your votes?"

A naval court martial was like the trial of a peer before the House of Lords, or the decision of the Privy Council: the junior voted first, followed by the rest in order of seniority, so that Edwards's vote would come last. The court's verdict would represent the majority of votes, and the system, so long a tradition, was intended to avoid a junior officer being influenced by a senior.

The four captains agreed they were ready.

"Read the charges again, Gowers, " Edwards said.

As soon as the deputy judge advocate had finished, the president said: "I shall first name the accused man and then you give your vote. This will be on all the charges, unless you choose to divide them up. Now, Ramage, I'll start with you. Do you find George Weaver guilty or not guilty?"

"Not guilty, sir."

"Do you find Albert Summers guilty or not guilty?"

"Guilty on all the charges." Guilty, Ramage thought, but not entirely responsible. Wallis had murdered himself; he had baited the men beyond endurance. He had killed some; the survivors had killed him. Yet the verdict provided only two choices, guilty or not guilty . . .

"Henry Perry?"

"Guilty on all the charges."

"Henry Harris?"

"Guilty on all the charges."

Gowers noted down Ramage's vote, and the next to be asked was Captain Teal, who hesitated over the first name. "Weaver admits he was guilty of 'concealing a mutinous design'."

Edwards shrugged his shoulders. "You are one of the judges, " he said. "Vote as your conscience tells you."

Ramage had already given a lot of thought to that single charge, but Weaver had turned King's evidence anyway. In a strict court of law the man was guilty of concealment, but he had no choice; Ramage believed him when he said his throat would have been cut if he raised the alarm.

"Not guilty, sir, " Teal said.

"Not guilty on all the charges, you mean."

"Not guilty on all the charges, sir."

The other captains voted in the same way - Weaver not guilty and the other three guilty - and after Captain Edwards had cast his vote he said formally: "The sentences for the three guilty men are covered by the Articles of War. They are mandatory and we can't change them. We all know the wording but Gowers had better read them out." He glanced at a paper in front of him. "They are Articles number three, fifteen, sixteen, nineteen, twenty-eight and thirty-six."

Gowers picked up a slim volume containing the Articles and began reading: "Article number three. If any officer, Marine, soldier or other person of the Fleet shall give, hold, or entertain intelligence with any enemy or rebel without leave from the King's Majesty ... or his commanding officer, every such person . . . shall be punished with death.

"Article number fifteen. Every person . . . who shall desert to the enemy, pirate or rebel, or run away with any of His Majesty's ships ... or any ordnance, ammunition, stores or provisions ... or yield up the same cowardly or treacherously . . . shall suffer death . . .

"Sixteen. Every person . . . who shall desert or entice others so to do, shall suffer death or such other punishment as the circumstances . . . shall deserve. . . . Nineteen. If any person . . . shall make . . . any mutinous assembly . . . and being convicted . . . shall suffer death . . .

"Twenty-eight. All murders committed by any person in the Fleet shall be punished with death . . . Thirty-six. All other crimes not capital . . . which are not mentioned in this Act . . . shall be punished according to the laws and customs in such cases used at sea."

As Gowers had read the Articles, Ramage had been making some notes. Four of the six Articles gave the court no choice: anyone found guilty had to be sentenced to death. The fifth gave death "or such other punishment"; the sixth, the Captain's Cloak, left it to the court. The five captains had found three of the men guilty; the law said, four times, that the sole penalty was death. There was no alternative.

"Bring in the prisoners, " Edwards said. "We need not prolong things, although all of them, except Weaver, know what to expect."