By nightfall the survivors from the two French frigates had been landed at the beach and the Juno's and Surcouf’s boats retrieved. The two frigates had then run down to the Diamond, where La Comète's boats were taken over to her. Ramage ordered Aitken on board the Juno for a quick conference. After hearing the story of how the two French frigates had collided, he outlined his plans for getting the merchant ships to Barbados and then sent the Surcouf off with orders to keep a patrol close in with the entrance of Fort Royal Bay for the rest of the night, watching particularly for any privateers that might try to sneak out to recapture the merchantmen.
The Juno's jolly boat had been sent to the Marchesa battery with written orders for the men on the Rock: they were to rig the signal mast on top of the peak again and be ready to repeat signals they sighted any of Ramage's ships making, while the original instructions concerning the sighting of other ships still stood. Ramage ended his orders by expressing his satisfaction at their accurate fire, and telling them that their victim had been the 36-gun frigate La Prudente, while their other target, now anchored below them, was La Comète which had been hit by eleven shot, of which two had caused leaks below the waterline. One of the hits, he added, knowing the men were in awe of the peppery little old man, had given the Juno's carpenter a great deal of work before it was plugged satisfactorily.
While the jolly boat was away at the Marchesa battery, the Juno's remaining boats were hoisted in again and Ramage had Wagstaffe come on board to receive his orders. They were simple enough - La Créole was to patrol the Fours Channel, covering the anchored merchant ships. As soon as the jolly boat returned it was hoisted on board and the Juno got under way, to spend the rest of the night patrolling between Cap Salomon and the Diamond.
While the frigate was stretching north, making slow progress in a light offshore breeze, Ramage went below to his cabin and began drafting a report to the Admiral. He was so weary that he had difficulty keeping his eyes in focus, and his left cheek was twitching slightly with an irritating monotony. He felt no urgency in sending the report to the Admiral but knew that unless he managed to get the details written down he would forget them; two hours' sleep would leave his memory like a muddy pool.
He described the sighting of the convoy and his plan to attack it, giving credit to Wagstaffe's sense of timing. Aitken's tactics in causing two of the French frigates to collide took up several paragraphs, the problem being to translate Aitken's droll description onto the more prosaic phraseology of an official report. The young Scot had been steering the Surcouf for the centre of the convoy when the French frigate on its quarter bore away to run down to attack him on the starboard bow. A few moments later the frigate abreast the leading ships of the convoy hauled her wind and came down to attack him on his larboard bow. To begin with, Aitken thought that each would pass down either side, firing a broadside as she went by. This would have been such a bad mistake by the French - it would have left nothing between Aitken and the convoy - that he then decided they were laying a trap for him, and that each at the last moment would cross his bow in succession and rake him. If one then tacked and the other wore, they would stay between Aitken and the convoy. As he held on, waiting to see what was going to happen next, Aitken noted that the wind had veered slightly, but told the quartermaster to steer the same course, realizing that he could steer straight for the frigate on his starboard bow.
That decided him. He told Ramage he remembered the previous night's warning that achieving surprise was half the way to victory, and he bided his time, watching the two frigates racing down towards him. Then he warned his guns' crews to stand by and, with the frigate to starboard a bare quarter of a mile away, hauled his wind and steered straight for her, as though intending to ram her, bow to bow.
The French captain panicked: of that Aitken was sure, because he turned to starboard; bearing up suddenly without firing a shot. Aitken's gunners fired a well-aimed broadside and while the smoke was clearing Aitken saw her continue turning as though intending to wear right round and follow the Surcouf, but in the excitement she had forgotten her consort which, still steering a course which would have taken her across the Surcouf’s bow if she had not altered course slightly, then rammed her. It had been 'awfu' gude value', Aitken had said, two frigates for the price of one broadside.
Ramage then went on to describe the accurate fire opened by the Juno and Ramage batteries - how La Comète had been disabled and the gunners, under the command of a petty officer, had promptly shifted target to La Prudente and caused her to blow up.
The rest of the report took up only a few lines. The abandoned merchant ships had been collected and anchored off the Diamond, joining La Comète, whose main leak had been plugged by the Juno's carpenter. The remaining two French frigates soon sank after the Juno and Surcouf reached them and their survivors were taken to the beach and released because there were insufficient men to guard them.
He read it through again and saw that he had not given credit to Southwick and Lacey. He wrote in two sentences and then remembered the name of the petty officer in command on the Diamond and inserted that as well. In the left-hand margin, opposite the description of anchoring the merchant ships, he copied their names from the list given him by Wagstaffe.
Writing the report had cleared his mind a little and he put the draft in a drawer to be read through again at first light before the clerk made a fair copy. As he shut the drawer he sat back in the chair. The fighting is over, he told himself, and you've been lucky. Lucky, and well served by Aitken and Wagstaffe and the men on the Diamond. But there are still a French frigate and seven merchant ships to be disposed of without much more delay. By dawn, as the Juno returned to the Diamond after her night's patrol, everyone would be waiting for orders ...
He wondered for a moment about the fate of Baker and La Mutine. When she left for Barbados he remembered thinking that Baker and his men would probably be the only Junos left alive if the convoy arrived before Admiral Davis. La Mutine must have sunk. Had she been captured her captor would probably have brought her into Fort Royal. In time he would have to write to Baker's parents. It was the kind of letter he hated writing, but he could praise him without feeling a hypocrite, and tell them that their son died performing a valuable service. He seemed to remember that his father was a deacon.
He was putting off the moment when he had to decide what to do with the prizes. Picking up the pen, he began writing out the alternatives. He could take ten men from each of the two frigates, put them in two merchant ships, and send them off to Barbados with La Créole as an escort. The schooner could then bring them back, probably with more provided by Admiral Davis ...
The thought hit him like a cold shower that the Admiral must have sailed from Barbados, perhaps up to Antigua. He might have left a single frigate behind in Bridgetown which would account for . . . but no, it would not account for Baker, because La Mutine would have returned at once, even if for some reason the frigate captain was unable to leave Bridgetown.
Anyway, like that he could start two merchant ships on their way to Barbados. The second choice was to send the Surcouf with two merchant ships. It seemed the obvious thing to do, but he knew the Service too well. He would never see the Junos now on board the Surcouf again. The Admiral would want to commission the Surcouf at once, and taking twenty or so men from each frigate commanded by his favourites would not weaken them. Ramage off Fort Royal was managing with the men he had in the Juno, and he had La Créole as well. If he found himself undermanned he could always take the men off the Diamond, This would be the Admiral's argument.