Brown was a simple man but although nervous at facing so many senior officers he obviously knew that this was no ordinary trial. And since Brown was a simple man, he told his story simply. He had just said he had heard some of the men say they'd been told several of the officers were killed, when Cap­tain Blackman, sitting next to Captain Croucher, interrupted: 'What you heard other people say is not evidence: speak to facts.'

'Them's the facts!' said Brown, taking little trouble to hide his contempt for anyone so stupid as not to understand. 'The orficers were killed. Couldn't see it with me own glims 'cos I couldn't be everywhere at once. But they was dead all right.'

 'Carry on,' said Croucher, 'but try and remember that what someone said to you is evidence, but what you were told someone said to someone else isn't - that's just hearsay.'

Clearly Brown neither understood nor cared, but launched off again on his narrative, bringing it up to the time that all the officers appeared to have been killed and the Master had taken command. The Master had just given orders for knotting some torn rigging when he was himself cut in two by a shot.

'I thought to meself, "Allo, won't be long afore I'm drag­ging me anchors fer the next world too", and I didn't fancy taking command of that lot.'

'What "lot"?' asked Croucher icily.

 'Well, sir, the ship as she was. A complete wreck by then. Anyway, sir, since I was apparently the senior man alive I sends men to make a tally of 'ow many was dead and 'ow many was winged. They came back and reports there aren't no more'n a third of us left on our pins.'

 'Exactly how many were killed and how many wounded?' asked Captain Ferris, indicating to Captain Croucher that he wished to see the ship's muster book.

 'Forty-eight dead, sir, and sixty-three wounded - a dozen or so o' them mortually.'

'Mortally,' corrected the Deputy Judge Advocate.

'That's what I said. Mortually. Means they died later.'

 'Out of a ship's company of one hundred and sixty-four,' commented Ferris, closing the muster book.

'Wouldn't be knowing, sir.'

 'That was the total at the last muster,' Ferris said. 'Note it in the minutes, Barrow. Carry on with your evidence, Brown.'

 'Well,' said Brown, 'I was just wishing I could lash up me 'ammick, stow me bag and go 'ome when the bleeding Master-at-Arms mentions, ever so casual, that he thought one of the orficers on the main deck wasn't dead, sir, only wounded. I sent a lad down to make sure and I heard he found Mr Ramage unconcherous—'

‘Unconscious,’ said Barrow.

‘Hearsay evidence,' Captain Blackman interrupted triumphantly.

'Nor it wasn't!' retorted Brown. 'In a minute the boy came back and told me with 'is own lips as 'e'd found Mr Ramage breathin' but wounded and unconcherous—'

'Unconscious,' said Barrow.

 'Unconchirous, then,' said Brown, determined to ram home the point. 'I sent 'im down again to tell Mr Ramage he was in command, and the lad came back and said—'

‘Wait a moment,' said Barrow, 'you're talking much too fast.'

 Brown could not resist a chance of a dig at a purser — for he had recognized Barrow's trade — and sniffed, 'First time I met a pusser slow with 'is pen!'

'Steady there!' warned Captain Croucher. 'Confine your remarks to the case on hand.'

 'Well, as soon as Mr Ramage came on deck I reported the state of the ship and the butcher's bill and told 'im that 'e was in command.'

 Captain Ferris asked, 'What condition was Mr Ramage in?'

‘He looked as though 'e'd tripped over the standing part o' the fore sheet and bin hauled back on board just in time!' said Brown, and Ramage almost laughed at the simile, since 'Going over the standing part of the fore sheet’ was slang for dying, or being killed.

'Be more specific,' said Ferris.

'Well, 'e was groggy on 'is pins: he'd 'ad a terrible bash on the 'ead.'

 Why, thought Ramage, can the man tackle one aitch and miss the next? He was just making a mental note to ask Brown a question when it was his turn to cross-examine as Ferris asked:

'Did he appear dazed?'

'Looked like a grampus that'd been luffed into a brick wall, sir.'

 Several people in the court laughed, including Ramage: it was an apt description, since, like a grampus, he'd been soaking wet after ducking his head in the water tub; and the picture of a grampus swimming head first into a brick wall seemed to describe how he'd felt at that moment. Ferris seemed satisfied, but Croucher said to Barrow:

 'With the witness's consent, you'd better put that down as "Yes, he appeared dazed." Is that correct, Brown?'

'Better make it "very dazed", sir.'

'Carry on, then.'

 ‘Well, there aren't much more to it. Mr Ramage got a round turn on 'iself in a moment or two and took command.'

 Brown obviously thought that was all the evidence he needed to give, but Croucher said, 'Well, go on to describe the surren­der of the ship.'

Briefly Brown told how by cleverly wearing round the Sibella at the last moment so that her foremast collapsed over the side and acted as an anchor, Mr Ramage had given the unwounded men a chance to get into the boats and escape in the darkness, and left the wounded to surrender the ship.

 'Thus the wounded were abandoned to the French?' asked Captain Blackman.

 'You could put it like that, sir,' said Brown, making it clear that anyone who did would be a fool or a rogue. 'But we was mustered in three divisions: the dead - and they didn't care; the wounded, who couldn't get a mite o' medical attention 'cos our surgeon and his mate was already dead; and them of us who weren't wounded and didn't want to be prisoners of the Frenchies.

'Apart from that,' he added, 'there's the Harticles of War. Number Ten, last bit, about "if any Person in the Fleet shall treacherously or cowardly yield or cry for quarter", so it wouldn't 'ave been right for us who wasn't wounded to let ourselves be taken prisoner. And it stands to reason our chaps'd get properly treated by the Frenchies, who mightn't be much in a scrap but at least they don't murder the wounded. But even if we'd been able to get the wounded away in the boats - and we couldn't, mind you - we'd 'ave as good as murdered 'em. Christ!' he exclaimed at the thought of it, 'it nearly did for us that trip to Bastia in the boiling 'ot sun, and we wasn't even scratched.'

 'Quite,' said Captain Blackman, who had been trying to stop the Bosun's excited speech, partly because he realized the reason behind his question was now blatantly obvious, and partly because the Deputy Judge Advocate was waving desperately with one hand and scribbling away with the other.

 'Quite!' he repeated. 'Please pause after each sentence - the Judge Advocate simply cannot write at that speed.'

 Clearly Brown thought that at last he had completed his part in the trial, but Captain Croucher said:

 'Continue your narrative until the time you arrived in Bastia.'

The look of surprise on Brown's face could hardly be lost on the members of the court, Ramage thought, but if it was, Brown's next remark drew attention to it.

 'I hope as 'ow I'm not incrimuanatiug meself - or anyone else - by going on like this, 'cos that's got nothin' to do with surrendering the ship.'

 'You are not charged with anything so you cannot incrimi­nate yourself,' said the Deputy Judge Advocate.

'No, I'm not charged with anything yet,' he retorted, 'but that's not to say the trip to Bastia's got anything to do with sinking the Sibella or why Mr Ramage is on trial. Nor's it to say I won't be charged later on.'

'Get on with your evidence, man,' said Captain Croucher impatiently, 'you've nothing to fear if you tell the truth.'

After Brown had described the voyage to Bastia, he declared: 'Well, that's all I've got to say.'