Hands reached down to haul him unceremoniously to the deck where Meheux and the master’s mate were waiting to meet him, their faces showing their surprise at his sudden and undignified arrival.

Allday clambered after him, and Bolitho saw that somehow he had managed to retrieve his hat from the sea, although it was unlikely it would ever be the same again.

He took it from the coxswain’s hands, examining it critically as he gave his breathing time to return to normal, his eyes giving the swaying deck a brief glance as the extent of the damage became more apparent.

The severed mizzen mast, the tangle of fallen rigging and charred canvas, while on the deck nearby lay several gaping corpses, their blood paling in the blown spray and seeping away like life itself.

He said, “Well, Mr Meheux, I would be obliged if you will give me your observations and conclusions.” He turned as a block fell from somewhere overhead and crashed amongst a pile of shattered planks, which had once been some of the ship’s boats. “But be brief.”

The Euryalus’s second lieutenant glanced around the disordered deck and said, “She is badly holed, sir. There are several rents close to the waterline also. If this gets any worse she will take in more than the pumps can manage.” He paused as if to allow Bolitho to hear the measured clank of pumps. “The real problem is the great mass of people below, sir. Quite apart from her ship’s company, this ship is carrying about one hundred passengers. Women, even children, are jammed down there. If they get out of hand there will be too great a panic to control.” He gestured to the shattered boat tier. “And there’s no hope for them there either, sir.”

Bolitho rubbed his chin. All those passengers. So why did her captain risk their lives by trying to fight a three-decker? It did not make sense. Nor did it match a Spaniard’s normal attitude when it came to self-preservation.

“You have thirty seamen in your party, Mr Meheux.” He tried not to think of those terrified people battened down below. “Send some to put extra members of the Navarra’s crew on the pumps. By working in relays we can keep it in check. Then the rudder. Have you done anything there?”

“My petty officer, McEwen, is attending to the lines, sir.” Meheux shook his head, obviously thinking it all a waste of time. “But the tiller head is damaged too, and will come adrift in anything like a heavy sea.”

Midshipman Ashton had climbed in through the entry port and was shaking himself like a half-drowned terrier.

Bolitho took a hasty glance at the sky. The fading light made the scudding clouds appear faster and lower. Either way they were in for a bad night, he thought grimly.

He saw Meheux watching him worriedly, no doubt wondering how he was going to cope with an impossible task. He slapped the lieutenant on the shoulder and said with a confidence he certainly did not feel, “Come, Mr Meheux, your face is like a thunderstorm to a bowl of fresh milk! Now get our people to work, and I will let Mr Ashton show me the passengers.”