“Finally” Timothy said, “Captain Harrison got the chance to be first officer on a third rate ship-of-the-line. We put the cutter in ordinary, and the men were all taken off, except Evans, the carpenter. Captain Harrison said the cutter will be back in service again as soon as the dockyard finds the time to give her a lick and a promise, and she gets a new crew.”
“Father, now that Dreadnaught is under repair, what ship will we have now?”
“Do you really want to go back to sea, Timothy?”
“Yes sir. There is nothing here for me. Mother is off somewhere with some stranger, and what else can I do. I think I can learn a lot more as a midshipman, and maybe I can make lieutenant someday and get my own cutter, like Captain Harrison.”
“Did you get along well with your captain, Timothy?”
“Oh yes sir. Sometimes he would sit beside me and help me with my geometry. He had a way of making it simpler than Mister Jensen of Dreadnaught did. He wanted to take me with him to his next ship, but said only the captain could appoint a mid, and he was not going to be captain, only first officer. He did say that if he ever did get his own ship again, he’d be glad to have me aboard. He told me my best plan now was to go home and wait for you. I did send you several letters.”
“Well, Timothy, I guess you know something of the difficulties I am having with your mother. We had better not get into those. Mrs. Norris says she is happy to care for Abigail, so if you wish, I will see what I can arrange with Admiralty about getting us another ship.
After spending a few weeks with his daughter, Timothy and his father took the coach back to London where they settled into the house there
The maid who had spoken to Captain Phillips earlier had told the housekeeper of his visit. She apologized to Phillips about her absence, and assured him it would not happen again.
“Well, how did the hanging go? Did ‘Gentleman Jack’ go out in style?”
“Lord no, Captain Phillips. He was crying and blubbering like a baby, he was! I hear tell they gave him a bottle of rum to buck him up, but it just made him maudlin!”
“Very well, Mrs. Dayton. I need to get cleaned up, then I will need the chaise to go to Admiralty to say hello to them. Could you get things going, please?”
Unusually, one of the Sea Lords, Sir Richard Bickerton, was waiting for him to appear, and saw him after only a few minutes wait.
“Captain Phillips, I understand you wish employment?”
“Yes, Milord, I had hoped to go back to sea soon.”
“Our problem, Captain, is as of this moment, we have not a single third rate ship needing a captain. I do not wish to insult you by offering you a lesser ship.”
“Milord, I wish it understood that I will accept almost any ship that floats.”
Bickerton thought over the situation. “We will have Illustrious coming in shortly, but she will undoubtedly need dockyard time to make necessary repairs. It could be months before she goes out again. Now HMS Resolve is expected daily. Captain Taylor is the Member for Barnstaple, and wishes to take up his seat in Parliament. The difficulty is, she is a thirty six gun eighteen pounder. Could you accept such a ship?”
“Without a single qualm, Milord.”
“Then, if you will tell my secretary where you are staying, we will notify you as soon as Resolve comes in.”
A few days later, a messenger brought word HMS Resolve was now in, anchored at the Nore, his orders were at the Admiralty, waiting to be picked up. Taking Timothy with him, they went to pick up the orders, then purchased passage down the Thames to the Nore. A shore boat delivered them out to the frigate where Phillips was piped aboard with full honors.
The first officer introduced himself; Lieutenant Land and the second officer was Mister Scott. Hastings was the third. Captain Phillips handed Mister Land his orders and asked him to read them to the crew. They were already drawn up facing the quarterdeck, their curiosity evident on their faces. Resolve had been on the Inshore Squadron of the Channel Fleet for months. Now the question was whether she was to go back to that, or was there now a different duty?
After the first officer read his orders to the crew, the Resolve’s new captain was introduced to the different department heads. Phillips then decided to look at his new quarters, and invited the trio of ship’s officers to join him there. “If someone will hoist aboard my chests, there may be some decent wine in the green one I can offer you.
The dining cabin as well as the sleeping one were complete but Spartan. The servant was standing by the dining table ready to open the new wine. There were no glasses in the cabin, so Phillips told the man where to find his. The servant also told him there were no cabin stores. The previous captain had landed all of his personal belongings, and the space was rather bare.
Phillips took the servant aside and gave him some money, asking him to go ashore and purchase what he needed. Bedding, crockery as well as victuals. Taking him to the first officer, he asked Mister Land to allow the steward a boat and a couple of crew members to go ashore and get supplies.
“Have we any people we can trust with a mission of that sort, without them running?”
“Yes, Captain. I think we may have a very few on the ship we can trust, as long as we do not put too much temptation in their way.”
Phillips had them sit at the bare table decorated with three bottles of claret and their glasses. There was no food available to serve.
“Gentlemen, I picked up our orders earlier today. Mister Land has already read aloud the one appointing me to this ship. As it happens, I do have another set, which I have not yet opened. I was told they should be opened in the presence of my ship’s officers. This we will do now. Mister Land, will you examine this and witness the seal has not been broken?”
That attested to, Phillips opened the sealed document, and read through it hurriedly. He then passed it on to Land, telling him to give it to the others when he finished.
When all were done, and looking at him, he said, “Just so we are all on the same page of the hymnal gentlemen, I will sum up.”
“It appears we are to go to the Portsmouth dockyard, and have a reinforced strong room constructed in the ship. While the work is in progress, the crew will be sent ashore and housed in barracks. The crew doing the work on the ship will be told it is for the storage of rum being delivered to the fleet in the Mediterranean.”
Upon completion, a guarded military convoy will deliver chests of a heavy substance will be put on board ship in the strong-room. This material will be gold and silver coin that will be the payroll for our troops in Sicily. I assume there will be a few tons of the coin.”
“The strong-room will be sealed, and the crew brought back aboard. At that point, we will leave. It is considered necessary by Admiralty that no inkling of the real contents of the strong-room become known to the crew at large. The ship will proceed out into the channel and down to Gibraltar. We will make our manners to the governor there, then proceed through the Gut into the Med.”
“Now Gentlemen, you and I know the secret is bound to get out. Some guard on the convoy will talk, and everyone will know. Our crew will not believe for a second the contents of our strong-room is rum!”
“However, if and when the truth does get out, none of us will be to blame. Am I understood?”
Resolve made its way down the coast to Portsmouth where they entered the dockyard. The crew was unloaded and marched off to barracks by a company of Royal Marines making sure no one wandered. The warrants were allowed to seek quarters in town, as were the officers.
Phillips and Timothy went over to visit Dreadnaught. She was up on stocks in dry-dock, her forward planking removed and her ribs showing. She was a sad sight. His servant aboard Resolve had purchased some supplies, but not nearly enough for a long voyage. They found a chandler that undertook to deliver everything ordered the minute security on the ship was lifted.
One afternoon, a visitor came to their rented quarters. A Captain of Royal Marines he was. He presented
his orders to Phillips, and stated he would be commanding the Royal Marines on board. He also stated he had double the number of Marines for the first officer to find room to house on board. Normally, a ship would carry about as many Marines as she did guns. In this case, however, she had many more.
“I am wondering, Captain Basel, if you know the purpose for the extra Marines?”
“Sir, officially I understand they are to replenish men lost throughout the fleet from illness and injury. Actually, it is rumored there will be a big payroll for them to guard.”
“So much for secrecy”, Phillips thought.
“Just for the record Captain Basel, while under my command, you will not comment or speculate to others, whether on the ship or off, about the potential duties of your men, or the possible cargo we will carry.”
After completing the necessary construction, a wagon train guarded by dragoons came to the dockyard, and workers unloaded the chests and casks of coin. The only member of the crew present was the captain. Laborers hauled the heavy containers aboard on barrows. As the soldiers left, on completion of their mission, the Royal Marines under the command of Captain Basel came aboard and assumed their guard duties.
At that time, the crew, released from their confinement, and standing by observing, came aboard and manned the capstan. A cable already attached to a heavy anchor on the harbor bottom was connected to the messenger running from the capstan to a heavy block up forward. Men breasted the capstan bars to crank the ship out into the harbor. The fore staysail was shown to the wind, and the ship was slowly propelled away from shore.
As Mister Land ordered the rest of the plain sails set, many of the men wondered about the strange mission they were embarking upon.
HMS DREADNAUGHT: A John Phillips Novel Page 13
