The Threat in the East (The Merriman Chronicles Book 3)

by Roger Burnage

  Now Sir, if you have no further questions I must tell you about the native quarter of the town.”

  “Oh, is there a problem with the people here?” asked Merriman.

  “Only with some of them Sir. You should keep a good watch out for thieves, they can move about in the dark like shadows. We post sentries, Sepoys, on the wharves but somehow the thieves manage to avoid them. Quite a lot of stuff disappears in the night. When you have finished loading it would be better if you anchored out in the bay. Another thing Sir, your men. I saw many of them eyeing the native women as they walked past and it was obvious what the men were thinking. I know that they have been at sea for months but if they must have a woman they should go to one of two particular brothels in the port. On no account must they wander about in the native quarter at night unless they want to be robbed and have a knife in the ribs for good measure.”

  “Thank you Mr. Morgan, I will issue orders to that effect and try to ensure that all my men are told what may happen to them if they disobey. One last thing, can you give me more details of this monsoon?”

  “Indeed I can Sir. It is a regular seasonal feature that usually gets here in mid-June, coming up from the south. Gale force winds, heavy, almost torrential rain and when it really gets going, thunder and lightning. It usually arrives in the afternoon so regularly that one could almost set a timepiece by it. You will probably see children and even adults playing about in the rain in the streets, it is so welcome.”

  “Thank you, I think we encountered the beginnings of it before we arrived here. So thank you again, I must look to my ship to see that everything is in order and the new stores are being stowed correctly. I am sure that my officers will be overseeing everything but it is my ship and I must be certain. So, I hope to see you tonight at the governor’s dinner.”

  By late afternoon most of the loading was done, the sailors working with a will in the strange situation and as sailors always do, making friends with the coolies, giving them nicknames and treating them as though they were ignorant children. The only incident to mar the whole day was the disappearance of the man Greely, reported by the Purser’s mate in charge of the butchering of the animals. “He’s run Sir. We couldn’t find him and with dark coming on I thought I should get the men back on board.”

  “Thank you, you did right, that will be all.” Merriman turned to Lieutenant Andrews saying “That man has been trouble since he came aboard and I am minded to let him go and mark him down as ’run’. He’ll probably turn up dead, floating in the harbour with all the other rubbish, dead dogs and such like. He brought it on himself and I am not going to risk sending men out in the dark to find him.”

  As the light faded Morgan arrived in the Governor’s coach and Merriman and three of his officers all dressed in their best uniforms, with Mr. Grahame, prepared to leave. The third officer, Lieutenant Merryweather, was left in charge of the ship and the loading party who continued to work by the light of lanterns. A marine guard was posted on the quay.

  Chapter 9 – Trouble with a trader

  At the Governor’s residence the entrance and the hall into which the party was ushered were ablaze with the light and heat of countless candles and lanterns and all looked around them with curiosity. But there was no time for chattering as Governor Duncan surrounded by elegantly dressed ladies and gentlemen advanced to meet them. After the endless bowings, curtseying and introductions had been done, Merriman introducing his lieutenants Andrews and Weston, the Marine Captain Edward St. James and Mr. Grahame. St. James as usual caused quite a stir amongst the ladies. There was a busy fluttering of fans by the ladies in the excitement of having the rare presence of new faces amongst them and the men were soon surrounded by ladies eager to hear the news from home.

  The officers of the Bombay Marine ships were keeping themselves somewhat detached from the rest of the visitors and Merriman began to wonder what effect his arrival would have on the captains of those ships. He knew that even though he was at the bottom of the Admiralty’s list of Post-Captains, with less than three years seniority, as the captain of a frigate of the British navy he would take precedence over the officers of country ships even over the captain of the Company frigate who was otherwise the senior officer. Merriman knew that he was an outsider and probably only tolerated because they needed his help.

  His thoughts were interrupted on the one side by a lovely young lady with an ample bosom fluttering her eyes at him and on his other side by an older lady that Merriman realised was the governor’s wife. “Come come Captain,” she said, “I see that you are deep in thought but as you are the guest of honour I claim the right to ask you to be my escort into dinner. Our Khansamah has indicated that it is ready. Oh dear Captain, don’t look so confused, a Khansamah is a butler. You will soon get accustomed to the words we use here in India.” So saying she took his arm and the younger lady attached herself to St. James and they proceeded into another magnificent room followed by the rest of the company.

  The meal passed in a whirl. So many different dishes were placed in front of them by a host of servants that he couldn’t really say which was best. He took a large mouthful from a particularly attractive looking dish and immediately his mouth felt as if it was on fire. He gasped for breath, his eyes watered and he grabbed his wine glass and drained it at a gulp. The Governor’s wife roared with laughter as did some of the other guests near enough to see. “Oh my goodness Captain Merriman, I should have warned you about that one, it is the strongest flavoured curry one can have, too strong for me but many people love it,” she said, motioning to a khitmagar who was hovering behind them ready to fill Merriman’s glass with more wine.

  “I confess it is not to my taste Lady. In the navy we rarely have the opportunity to indulge in such dishes.” He gestured lower down the table to where his lieutenants Weston and Andrews were sitting, both red in the face gasping and coughing, “I think my officers also have been too quick to taste that dish.” Conscious that he must keep a clear head for the discussions to follow later, he asked if they could have something long and cold to drink. Seconds later a tall glass of orange juice was placed in front of him which he drained in one long draught and the glass was immediately refilled. The meal progressed but Merriman made sure to ask advice before trying any of the other local dishes.

  Finally after the Loyal Toast to the health of King George, and many other toasts had been proposed, one by Merriman to the assembled company and especially to the Bombay Marine with whom he would be working, the ladies retired and left the men to their brandy and cigars. He realised that he had said the right thing as pleased glances and smiles came his way from the Marine officers. The captain of the frigate Bombay, an elderly man by the name of Egerton unbent enough to offer Merriman a rather wintery smile but the other officers seemed to be quite friendly.

  Brandy and cigars were served by the khitmagars who were immediately dismissed afterwards. After the men had taken a few appreciative puffs at their cigars and tasted the brandy the Governor rapped on the table for silence.

  “Gentlemen, you all know the reason for this gathering is to welcome Captain Merriman and his officers. Now his ship is here, what we must do is to try and devise some kind of plan to avoid any more of our ships being attacked by these damned pirates.”

  “It’s not talk we need, it is action,” shouted a portly red faced man. We ask for help from England but what do we get after months of waiting? One solitary frigate and that’s all. What can we do with that? We all have ships waiting for a convoy to be assembled for safety. The bigger Indiamen are fairly well armed and many have managed to sail and take the risk but they won’t wait for a slow convoy. All we have are two solitary frigates and one of those has gone gallivanting to Madras. The rest are small brigs and sloops which have been proved useless, so what more can another frigate do? ----------------------”

  His voice was drowned out by the crash of Captain Egerton’s chair going over as he leapt to his feet. “Useless, useless are w
e? Damn it man, I resent your tone, we do the best we can with our limited means. The Company is mean with its money and we are short-handed and short of many of the items needed to keep our ships in fighting trim.” There were murmurings of agreement and support from the Marine officers.

  The Governor shouted for calm and said “ Mr. Goldberg, I know that you and the rest of you Gentlemen have your problems and are in desperate need of getting your goods to England and other goods back to here but recriminations will not help any of us so please keep silent. Perhaps Captain Merriman has something to say?

  Merriman rose to his feet, looked round the table at the well fleshed men, most of whom had consumed a goodly amount of alcohol and were red faced and sweating freely. He said “Gentlemen, I do understand your problems but as you know I have only just arrived. I have no detailed information about these pirates and their depredations but until I do there can be no plans made. This must be a naval business and therefore I would like to invite all you senior officers of the Marine to come to my ship midmorning tomorrow for a conference.”

  “Very good Captain, I look forward to that, I hope you have some fine wines aboard for us all?” said Mr. Goldberg.

  “I do Sir, but you will not be there. As I said, this is a naval matter and only naval men will be there……………….” He was interrupted by a rude and red faced Goldberg shouting, “Not there, not there, damn it Captain we are all involved.”

  Merriman raised his hand, “Very well Mr. Goldberg, if you are so insistent on being involved, I think I can find a place for you on the gun-deck, there is always a place for a willing volunteer.” There was silence for a moment then a great roar of laughter from the assembled company followed Goldberg as he hastily left the room.

  Captain Egerton raised his glass and said with a broad smile on his face “A toast to your health Captain Merriman, that man has been a perfect nuisance to us all and it was a delight to see him put in his place so deftly.”

  “Well Sir” replied Merriman, “There is an old saying which may be apt at the moment and is ‘Every ass likes to hear himself bray.” More gales of laughter followed with Egerton and his men leading the noise with broad grins on their faces.

  After the toast had been drunk and the excitement had died down Merriman said “Gentlemen of the Marine, I look forward to greeting you on board my ship.”

  Chapter 10 – Conference with Bombay Marine Officers

  The following morning, loading having been completed, the Lord Stevenage was moved to ride to her anchor in the wide bay. Awnings were rigged to provide shade for all on deck and all the crew fell to working on the hundreds of jobs needed to keep the ship up to fighting trim. Men were high aloft checking every rope and stay. The sail maker and is mates were stitching a suspect sail and others were cleaning the guns. Shortly afterwards several boats were seen carrying the Bombay Marine officers to the meeting. Merriman met them all as they came aboard, with all the usual ceremony due to captains the world over, all of them wide eyed as they took in the sight of the immaculately holystoned decks, the gleam of brass work, the marine honour guard in their red coats and glaringly white cross belts. Not a rope was out of place, the hammock nettings full with not a single hammock badly stowed. The leathern fire buckets well-polished and every detail of the ship exactly as it should be.

  Merriman was pleased by the reaction from the visitors as he shook hands and ushered them below, past the marine sentry and into his cabin. Once they were all settled as comfortably as the space allowed and the excited chatter had died down Captain Egerton spoke, “Captain Merriman, Sir, may I congratulate you on the condition of your ship, I know the King’s navy is keen on its cleaning and polishing but I have never seen better anywhere even in my short time as an officer in your navy. I only wish we could keep the Marine’s ships as smart but at least the crews are as well trained as we can make them, although I don‘t think our sail handling could match yours which was impeccable.”

  “Thank you Captain, we do our best.” replied Merriman. Egerton continued “I should like to introduce these officers to you Sir”. Of my ship the Bombay there are Lieutenants Wilde and Groom, of the sloops Clive and Villain Lieutenants Anderson and Johnson and of the brigs Lieutenants Little and Oliver. We also have the bomb ketch you have seen, the Little Thunder, with Lieutenant Barton in command. We do have another Frigate, the Madras, but it has been dispatched to Calcutta with the officer commanding our army. It was thought safer for him than going overland with all the troubles there.”

  “Very good, you are all welcome Gentlemen; I think you know my First and Second Lieutenants Andrews and Weston and the other gentleman is Mr. Grahame representing Mr. Pitt, the Prime Minister.” The officers looked at Grahame with interest.

  Merriman called his hovering servant Peters to serve tea to all, aided by Merriman’s clerk Tomkins. “I am serving tea for now Gentlemen, something stronger will come later.” When the two men had finished and disappeared he continued, “Now then, I must know as much as possible about these pirates, their methods, the places from where they operate and when. In short, everything you can tell me. Have you had the good fortune to fight any out at sea and how did your crews behave in a fight? Are your crews a mixture of European men and Indians? I cannot begin to make plans until I know as much as you can tell me.”

  “To answer your last question first Captain, most of the crew are Indian, with a stiffening of English and Dutchmen. The officers and petty officers are all English. Regrettably we have not had much luck at fighting the pirates; they generally have faster ships than ours and can slip into shallow waters where I cannot go with my ship. Our smaller ships can stand closer in but are usually outgunned by two or three pirate ships together. They use fast Arab ships we call dhows, although they have different native names, together with a few captured European merchant brigs and they usually work in groups of anything from three or four up to six or seven but most of them have only a few cannon. They depend on boarding their prey. Our men have done well in the few skirmishes we have had, but most of them have never been in a real battle. In fact when the pirates see my frigate they keep well clear and being faster and of shallower draught than me I cannot close with them,” said Egerton regretfully.

  “Thank you Captain, all clear so far. Where do they sail from and what are their crews like?”

  “It seems as though there are three areas where they raid from Sir. First is the Gulf of Oman, east of the Arabian Peninsula. The coast of that area is shallow and sandy with many small islands where we are at a disadvantage. They lie in wait at the entrance to the gulf where it is narrow and where they can attack and capture trading ships. Another area is on the western tip of the Arabian Peninsula leading up to the Red Sea from where they can lie in wait for ships filled with pilgrims for Jeddah and Mecca, and loaded with silver and gold. That area is important to the Company as trading ships from here and many other ports in India and further east trade all along the Red Sea and up to Suez. They have taken some of our Company ships, Portuguese ships from Goa and many independent traders, but they don’t seem to come too close to here.

  I believe some have lairs also on some of the bigger islands off Arabia, the Kuria Muria islands and Socotra to name but two, and many other small ports from where they attack ships far out in the Arabian Sea bound from India to Cape Town. Those pirates are mostly Arabs although we know that some French and other Europeans are involved”

  Egerton paused for a moment and asked if he might have another drink, then he continued, “Then there are The Seychelles islands which gave aid and trading facilities to the French navy when it was here. We believe that some European pirates sail from there, French and Dutch mostly with a mixture of European, Arab and African crews. We rarely have much trouble with them. But the worst pirates and those we have the most trouble with are based somewhere south along the Malabar Coast, and the Maldive Islands. Most of the ones we have seen all fly a red flag. We do know that they are controlled by a Du
tchman based somewhere in that area, a fellow by the name of Den Bosch I believe, but he moves around. The Company is gathering merchant ships together to form a convoy which is why all the available ships we have are here to guard them on the voyage south, so you see Captain we are totally outnumbered with the few ships we have.

  “I had no idea it is as bad as that Captain, but I can confirm that at least one Frenchman is involved.” Merriman told them about the small force that had intercepted his ship but which was quickly disposed of. “There was a man in the remains of a French Lieutenant’s uniform aboard the biggest of them. I have him captive below and I hope that he will give us more information. If he can’t or won’t, he will be hanged. Have any of you other Gentlemen anything further to add? No? Then from what you have told me it is obvious that we cannot hope to cover all that vast area and we must concentrate on the nearest to here to begin with. Do you have any charts of the seas round this coast that may be more detailed than mine? If so my Sailing Master would appreciate seeing them.”

  He paused then bellowed “Peters, I’m sure our guests would appreciate a glass of wine. Have we still got any of that French wine that you found aboard The Fat Frog?”

  “No Sir, it’s all gone but we have your own Sir, well chilled in the bilge it is Sir,” he fled to fetch it whilst one of the Captains said “I’m sorry Sir but what is The Fat Frog? The others leaned forward expectantly so Merriman had perforce to tell them about the affair in southern Ireland and the discovery of the wine.