Ramage & the Saracens

Selected Historical Fiction Published by McBooks Press

BY A
LEXANDER
K
ENT

The Complete Midshipman Bolitho

Stand Into Danger

In Gallant Company

Sloop of War

To Glory We Steer

Command a King's Ship

Passage to Mutiny

With All Despatch

Form Line of Battle!

Enemy in Sight!

The Flag Captain

Signal–Close Action!

The Inshore Squadron

A Tradition of Victory

Success to the Brave

Colours Aloft!

Honour This Day

The Only Victor

Beyond the Reef

The Darkening Sea

For My Country's Freedom

Cross of St George

Sword of Honour

Second to None

Relentless Pursuit

Man of War

Heart of Oak

BY P
HILIP
M
CCUTCHAN

Halfhyde's Island

Halfhyde and the Guns of Arrest

Halfhyde to the Narrows

Halfhyde for the Queen

Halfhyde Ordered South

Halfhyde on Zanatu

BY J
AN
N
EEDLE

A Fine Boy for Killing

The Wicked Trade

The Spithead Nymph

BY J
AMES
L. N
ELSON

The Only Life That Mattered

BY J
AMES
D
UFFY

Sand of the Arena

The Fight for Rome

BY D
EWEY
L
AMBDIN

The French Admiral

The Gun Ketch

HMS Cockerel

A King's Commander

Jester's Fortune

BY D
UDLEY
P
OPE

Ramage

Ramage & The Drumbeat

Ramage & The Freebooters

Governor Ramage R.N.

Ramage's Prize

Ramage & The Guillotine

Ramage's Diamond

Ramage's Mutiny

Ramage & The Rebels

The Ramage Touch

Ramage's Signal

Ramage & The Renegades

Ramage's Devil

Ramage's Trial

Ramage's Challenge

Ramage at Trafalgar

Ramage & The Saracens

Ramage & The Dido

BY F
REDERICK
M
ARRYAT

Frank Mildmay or The Naval Officer

Mr Midshipman Easy

BY V.A. S
TUART

Victors and Lords

The Sepoy Mutiny

Massacre at Cawnpore

The Cannons of Lucknow

The Heroic Garrison

The Valiant Sailors

The Brave Captains

Hazard's Command

Hazard of Huntress

Hazard in Circassia

Victory at Sebastopol

Guns to the Far

East Escape from Hell

BY D
OUGLAS
W. J
ACOBSON

Night of Flames

BY S
ETH
H
UNTER

The Time of Terror

BY J
ULIAN
S
TOCKWIN

Kydd

Artemis

Seaflower

Mutiny

Quarterdeck

Tenacious

Command

The Admiral's Daughter

The Privateer's Revenge

Invasion

BY J
OHN
B
IGGINS

A Sailor of Austria

The Emperor's Coloured Coat

The Two-Headed Eagle

Tomorrow the World

BY A
LEXANDER
F
ULLERTON

Storm Force to Narvik

Last Lift from Crete

All the Drowning Seas

A Share of Honour

The Torch Bearers

The Gatecrashers

BY C.N. P
ARKINSON

The Guernseyman

Devil to Pay

The Fireship

Touch and Go

So Near So Far

Dead Reckoning

BY D
OUGLAS
R
EEMAN

Badge of Glory

First to Land

Dust on the Sea

Knife Edge

BY D
AVID
D
ONACHIE

The Devil's Own Luck

The Dying Trade

A Hanging Matter

The Scent of Betrayal

A Game of Bones

BY B
ROOS
C
AMPBELL

No Quarter

The War of Knives

Peter Wicked

Published by McBooks Press 2002

Copyright © 1988 by Dudley Pope

First published in the United Kingdom by The Alison Press/Martin Secker & Warburg Ltd., 1988

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, without the written permission of the publisher. Requests for such permissions should be addressed to McBooks Press, Inc., ID Booth Building, 520 North Meadow St., Ithaca, NY 14850.

Cover painting by Paul Wright.

The paperback edition of this title was cataloged as: Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Pope, Dudley.

[Ramage and the Saracens]

Ramage & the Saracens / by Dudley Pope.

p. cm.—(The Lord Ramage novels ; no. 17) Originally published as Ramage and the Saracens.

ISBN 1-59013-023-5 (alk. paper)

1. Ramage, Nicholas (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Great Britain—History, Naval—19th century—Fiction. 3. Great Britain. Royal Navy—Officers—Fiction. 4. Sicily (Italy)—Fiction. 5. Ship captains—Fiction. 6. Pirates—Fiction. I. Title.

PR6066.O5 R294 2002

823'.914—dc21

2002010208

The e-book versions of this title have the following ISBNs: Kindle 978-1-59013-534-1, ePub 978-1-59013-535-8, and PDF 978-1-59013-0536-5

www.mcbooks.com

For Kay Again with Love

With the exception of Sidi Rezegh, all the places mentioned in this narrative actually exist and are described as they would have been in 1806.

D
UDLEY
P
OPE

St Martin

French West Indies

S
OUTHWICK counted the pieces of salt beef as the cook's mate lifted them out of the cask, banging each piece before he removed it to shake off the encrusted salt. Each piece of meat was as dark as old varnish and the salt was stained like muddy sand.

It would take many hours of soaking in fresh water in the steep tub to dissolve that hardened salt, the master thought to himself, and a lot of boiling afterwards before the men could get their teeth into the meat.

This cask was full of old meat: from the look of it many months had passed—even a year or more—since the carcass had been cut up in the contractor's slaughterhouse and salted down in the cask. Still, it was not as bad as some he had seen in the old days, before the Great Mutiny had led to an improvement. Then it was not unusual to find meat so hard it could be carved, looking rather like mahogany.

He continued marking the slate and looked at the side of the cask on which was stencilled the legend “54 pieces.” Well, it might contain fifty-four pieces; it was not entirely unknown for the number of pieces to match what the contractor had painted on the outside, but it was rare, and the discrepancy was always on the side of the contractor.

Southwick, like every other master in the king's service doing this particular job, had to note the difference in his log, and as the cook's mate finally lifted out the last piece and Southwick looked at the tally on the slate, he could see they were fortunate: the log entry would simply say: “Opened cask of beef, marked 54 pieces, contained 52.”

In theory the Navy Board claimed back from the contractor the value of the difference, but Southwick wondered if they ever did.

The seamen were cheated by the dishonest contractors, not the Navy Board: the clerks at the Navy Board had their dinner whether or not a cask was missing several pieces of meat. It was only the seamen who went without: a ship was issued with so many casks of salt beef and salt pork for a commission or voyage, and that was that: the men just had to make it last.

With the last piece taken from the cask, Southwick said: “Very well, get all this into the steep tub,” gesturing at the pile of meat, most of which seemed to him to be fat or bone, and he turned to go below to make the entry in his log.

Captain Ramage, standing at the forward end of the quarterdeck, asked: “Short again?”

“Only two pieces, sir,” Southwick said, adding gloomily: “The Navy Board seems to have been getting rid of some old stock: looked more like off-cuts of mahogany from the carpenter's shop than salt beef.”