The seas and winds were too violent for any boats to be deployed, but the frigate bade the catch to remain under her lee until matters improved. It was an unusual capture, one in which no damage was done in anger or a man injured. The frigate had been struggling in the gale, heeled right over, with every man on deck, not a man able to see past the ship in the blinding rain when suddenly the brig was right there.
The circumstances were made clearer when Phillips had the brig’s commander to dinner that evening. It seemed a consortium of Toulon businessmen had decided to purchase a vessel, secure a letter of marque, and take her to sea to prey on the British shipping now off the coast. The brig had been armed and loaded with unemployed men from the docks to serve as boarders. The brig had taken advantage of the violent storm to escape the close British blockade around Toulon, but the same storm had made most of the men taken aboard in Toulon so sick, they were unable to function.
After interviewing the brigs commander, Phillips listened to Mister Jervis’ report. Aside from the unspeakable conditions caused by the sea-sick crew, the brig was in sound condition. She was armed with ten eight pounders and well provisioned. Consulting with his first officer, Phillips sent over Mister Wilcox to command the prize and ordered her to follow him. He would take her to the rendezvous with Admiral Pellew for further disposition.
There was the problem of what to do with the men aboard the prize. Most of her crew were mere landsmen, recruited to swarm aboard and overpower prizes. No seamen, many were prostrate with sea-sickness now and of little danger to their captors. This could change however, and at present, they were an infernal nuisance, befouling every inch of the brig’s deck they could access.
Not having space on Active to stow them, he simply took the ship to a nearby fishing port on the coast, and took the men ashore in the ship’s boats, just as soon as the seas moderated. Among the men were some Italians and a few Spaniards who took exception to their new freedom. As it was explained to Phillips by one of the prisoners who could speak a little English, many feared they would be conscripted into Napoleon’s army if they were set on shore. That is why they had initially signed on the privateer.
They wondered if they could sign onto Active instead. Thinking the men were probably jumping from the frying pan into the fire, he accepted them into Active. There would be space for them now, since he was sending thirty of his hands to the prize, ‘Jeanne d’Arc’, to man her.
After the otherwise uneventful cruise along the French coastline, Active and her consort stretched over to Malta. Entering the harbor at Valletta, they saw the gigantic hull of HMS Ocean flying the flag of Admiral Pellew.
After the salute, Phillips was ordered over to the flag to report. Gathering all of his documents, he stepped down into his gig and was pulled over to the large second-rate.
Pellew was gracious, inviting him to wine and little cakes prepared by his Maltese chef. Phillips had his case of papers at his side, but Pellew bade him to give them to his clerk. He himself wished to know what Active had been up to.
Phillips told him of the summons by the Admiralty and the precipitous haste that had been made getting him to sea. He reported meeting with the Jeanne d’Arc off the French coast and her capture without losing a man or a single scratch of the paint. “And that brings me up to date, sir.”
“Well Captain, I am certainly most happy to have you under my command, although truth to tell, there was not all that much hurry getting you here.”
“Tell me, how are you for stores?”
“Sir, I was well supplied when we left home, and we have been at sea for only a month. We are well enough now, although water and firewood are always welcome.”
“Good enough, Captain. I am being troubled by French privateers, and indeed downright pirates, in Italian waters and around into the Greek islands. What about this prize you took. I wonder if I can find use for her?”
Phillips explained the condition of the brig. “She is perfectly seaworthy with good equipment. She was supplied with stores for a massive number of boarders. With only the thirty men she has on board right now, she could stay at sea for months, saving the necessity for watering once in a while.”
“Captain Phillips, I will send over Captain Harkins to look her over. With his concurrence, we will set a value on her and I will purchase her into the fleet, if he decides she will be of use. I am considering sending you out to search out pirates and privateers that have been troubling shipping to the east. I may man her and send her with you on your cruise if she suits.”
A boatload of officers from Ocean rummaged Jeanne d’Arc for the rest of the day and the next. Finally, Captain Harkins was pulled over to Active to explain matters to Phillips.
An officer Phillips was to recommend would be promoted commander into the prize, although her name had been changed to ‘Achilles’. One of Admiral Pellew’s relatives, a midshipman aboard Ocean was handed his commission and appointed as Achilles’ first (and only) lieutenant. A hundred seamen had been drafted from the rest of the fleet and with the thirty from Active would constitute her crew.
Phillips relearned one of the difficulties of command. He had sent his second lieutenant Wilcox over to command the prize, thinking it would be a temporary command until the brig was turned over to the prize court. Now, of course, a permanent commander was needed. Should he leave Wilcox in command, there might be hard feeling with his own first officer, Mister Jervis, who might rightfully expect the plum.
Reluctantly, Phillips dispatched the duty midshipman in the jolly boat to Achilles with an order for Wilcox to report on board Active for further instructions.
Calling both Jervis and Wilcox into his quarters later, he informed the pair of his decision. Jervis would take over Achilles with the consequent promotion to commander and Wilcox would become first lieutenant in Active.
The brig would accompany Active on her patrol and serve as her tender. The pair would patrol around the Italian and Greek islands with a view to suppressing piracy and rooting out what privateers might be present.
Captain Harkins presented the new Commander Jervis with his commission and the brig’s commissioning pennant on the quarterdeck of the vessel, then the officers saluted each other and Phillips and Harkins went to their own ships.
After a decent interval, HMS Active hoisted the signal requesting permission to depart. Both brig and frigate pulled up their anchors and edged their way from the busy harbor cautiously. Once away from Valletta, the pair set sail for southern Italy.
By prearrangement, Achilles took up her position to port of Active, just within signaling range. At night or periods of low visibility, she would close the frigate. With this separation one or another ship might discover a sighting the other would be too far away to see. The first sighting was by Achilles, who spotted sails hull down off her port bow. It turned out to be a pair of cattle transports returning from the African coast escorted by the brig-sloop Ajax. The brig made her number to Active, but had nothing useful to impart.
Continuing on, Phillips decided to investigate Corsica. While British troops had formerly occupied the island on the invitation of Corsican resistance fighters, they had left after Spain joined the war against Britain some years before. With Achilles taking the inshore position because of her shallower draft, the pair made their sweep. Neither wore the national ensign initially. Sailing along the coast, Achilles flushed a tartane coming out of an inlet. At first paying the brig no mind, when the brig raised her ensign and fired a gun, the little coaster braced her big lateen main to the wind and tried to make a race of it. When Active came around the headland though and showed her teeth, it was all over.
The little ship carried a full load of grain and wine, making her a worthwhile prize. Calling Mister McCain to the quarterdeck, Phillips asked him if he thought he could handle the strange rig. With his assurance, Phillips gave told him to take some men and assume command of the coaster. He should send over any men of the crew that appeared problematic.
&
nbsp; Later, McCain sent word back that three of the hands would voluntarily sign on with the Royal Navy. These hands were brought over to Active to take the place of some of the men sent to the prize. In view of the half dozen former crewmen of the tartane secured below decks up forward in the prize, the frigate’s corporal of Marines and a file of men were sent over to insure no mischief could succeed on their part.
When Phillips was satisfied that McCain had the tartane under control, he gave him permission to depart and resumed his hunt. Suitable targets evaporated then. For a month the two vessels searched, finding nothing but small craft. Phillips made a point of releasing all of the fishing boats, often purchasing some of their catch for his table. He felt this improved relations with the fishermen who might repay him with possible sightings of profitable prizes.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
It was difficult to decide what to do with the myriad of small coasting craft among the islands. The owners were typically Italian or occasionally, Greek merchants. He hated to burn their possessions, their coasters often being the total accumulation of a life’s work. Generally, he let the vessel go free, sometimes with a warning to the owner. However, if the craft was carrying military supplies to a French destination, he would burn the craft without mercy.
With little recent success in Italian waters, they went around the boot of Italy and reached over to Cyprus. Plenty of shipping was sighted there but they were now in Ottoman waters, and Phillips knew it would be wise to avoid unnecessary confrontation. His orders regarding these waters was to suppress piracy, and he was determined not to get himself in hot water.
Giving up on the idea of suppressing piracy and perhaps freeing the odd Christian slave, they went back toward Italy. Both ships were becoming low on water so it would be necessary to locate a water source on an out-of-the-way island. Just such an island came in view. Just off the eastern coastline of Calabrian Italy, the island seemed ideal for their purpose. Circumnavigating the island, only one small fishing village was sighted. Achilles came upon a fishing boat pulling her nets and purchased its entire catch, paying probably twice the actual value for the fish.
Phillips invited the fishermen aboard Active, and using an Italian speaking crewman as interpreter discussed the current news, The French, in the person of Murat, one of Napoleon’s henchmen, controlled the mainland and believed they owned the island also. Few of these French officials ever visited the island and the fishermen had never seen a French warship visit. The fishermen were told the British ships needed wood and water and were asked where a good location might be found to obtain such.
For a consideration, the boat’s captain offered to guide them to just such a spot, where they would not be interrupted by inquisitive officials. They were steered to a narrow inlet, mountainous and wooded, where they could cut all the firewood needed as well as fill their barrels with water from the stream that fell from the rocky hill. Both Active and Achilles could anchor in the protection of the inlet, but it was necessary to use the ship’s boats to approach the watering point at the very neck.
Empty water barrels were floated ashore where they were opened and the insides scrubbed out with sand and seawater. A boat pump was used to pump water from the pool at the foot of the falls into the individual barrels. The filled barrels were connected with a line and pulled by the boats back to the ship. Fresh water being lighter than seawater, the barrels floated, after a fashion.
The wooding party found windrows of driftwood on a beach, much of it seasoned and fairly dry. Two days after arriving, both ships were watered and wooded and ready to go back to sea. As they were sailing out, the lookout spotted an interesting sight.
A pair of oar-driven galleys were pursuing a fore-and-aft rigged vessel of considerable size, perhaps two hundred tons or larger. The ship was sailing close to the wind to take advantage of its particular sailing qualities in that regard. Unfortunately for the schooner-like vessel, the oar-powered galleys could pull right into the wind and they were rapidly overtaking the ship.
At first, Phillips thought the schooner might reach land before being overtaken, but one of the galleys double-banked its oarsmen and increased its speed. The schooner fired a pair of guns as the galley came alongside, but the boarders were over in a flash, and the schooner came into the wind.
In an instant, those crewmen resisting were stretched out lifeless on the deck in pools of blood and gore. The other galley, seeing there were observers, turned toward the British ships, probably not realizing they were warships.
Both went to quarters and were ready before the galley reached them. The schooner having been secured, the raiders left a few pirates on its deck, and followed the first galley, angling toward Active. Phillips could not imagine what these pirates were thinking of. While the brig might be mistaken for a merchantman, certainly even a fool would not think that of Active. Perhaps they thought a sudden surprise attack could allow them to take the frigate as well.
At any rate, as soon as Active’s guns emerged from their ports, the galley heading for her backed water with her starboard oars and tried to flee. There was just not enough time as Active’s broadside roared out, smashing the lightly built hull of the raider. Achilles was a bit slower in getting her gun ports open and her attacker had the chance to fire the twelve-pounder gun in her bow into the brig’s beam. At this time, Achilles fired in its own turn and this corsair was also served a bitter medicine.
Since the brig’s guns were smaller that Active’s and fewer at that, this galley was not injured nearly as badly as the first one, and she was able to finish her turn and escape, hoisting her square sail as she came out of the shadow of the land. Phillips decided to let her go and see what they had caught.
Their broadside had devastated the galley and its crew, both slave and pirate, but there were still some living examples of both species. One of the slave survivors, although injured by a terrible splinter wound, after suffering in silence the surgeon’s attentions, volunteered to act as interpreter. This man, in Turkish hands for years, had originally hailed from Kent. A crewman on a fishing boat, John Sawyer and his mates were taken by a pirate that had made its way up the Channel.
Sawyer was weak from loss of blood and suffering from pain but was able to recount what he knew of the pirate’s recent activities. Furthermore, he was familiar with the lingua franca the slaves used to communicate with each other, many of whom did not speak the other’s native languages. With a dozen dangerous pirates aboard as well as many injured, Phillips took the ships back into the inlet, where there was little extra room after the former French schooner was anchored. All of her crew was dead, save for a badly injured boy whom the pirates had allowed to live.
The pirates were taken ashore under the guard of the Royal Marines. Phillips was not quite sure what was to be done with them. He well knew he would likely be called to account by some official if he just hung them out of hand. He did not want to finish his cruise with a dozen dangerous and desperate men in his ship, but neither could he free them. If he did so, they would simply seize another ship and soon be back to their bloodthirsty trade.
At any rate, he had other matters to occupy him. The schooner must be looked over to see what should be done with her, and there was a big shot hole in Achilles’ beam to repair. The schooner was soon evaluated. Her crew was mostly dead, but her papers were found undisturbed and she proved to be the Caroline out of Brindisi bound for Toulon with a cargo of wine in barrels. This would bring a good price in the prize auction and would be worth sending back to Gibraltar.
The shot hole in the brig could be patched, the ruined galley furnishing the necessary timber. During these activities the fisherman guide who had led the British to this place was showing his anxiety to leave.
With the important matters being taken care of, Phillips ordered the launch crew to deliver him to his village, a good five miles away. The repairs to Achilles were soon made, and the caulkers were sealing the patch when the launch came into the inlet, followe
d by one of the village fishing boats crammed with people. More boats followed, and soon there were several hundred villagers ready to take the pirates from Phillip’s hands.
Pirates had been a curse to the locals, having taken dozens of their fishermen as slaves over the years. A few years earlier, several galleys had come ashore at their village, taking many women and children, as well as killing those men who got in their way. Now was their opportunity for revenge.
When he learned that revenge was to consist of burning the prisoners to death, Phillips had to put a stop to the proceedings. To delay matters a bit, he had a barrel of wine removed from the hold of the schooner and brought ashore and opened. Phillips and his interpreter got up on a log and announced everyone should bring his or her container and get a ration of wine.
After the villagers had taken aboard a cargo of the rough red vino, he initiated a discussion of what was to be done with the prisoners. With the option of burning at the stake off the table, it was finally decided hanging the pirates would be the proper thing to do, since that was the way the British administered their own punishment on criminals. The British could hardly complain if their own example was followed.
Phillips told them he would allow that so long as they had a court proceeding he could report to his superiors. The leader of the villagers summoned his people together and they spent a good quarter of an hour discussing the evil deeds of the pirates before pronouncing them guilty and sentenced to hang. The pirates, not understanding the language of the islanders, sat impassively on the beach while this was going on. It was only after wreckage from the destroyed galley was taken on shore and the beginnings of a gallows started that some of the pirates seemed to become worried. Soon, it was discovered that necessary tools were not available to finish the gallows and there was a noisy dispute over how to proceed.
Ships of Oak, Men of Iron: A Tim Phillips Novel (War at Sea Book 10) Page 13
