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Tyger

Page 31

by Julian Stockwin


  Trade ventures there in Kydd’s day were mainly locally subscribed from England’s north. One of these was merchant broker John Bellingham, whom Kydd meets in a Russian gaol. He’d gone to sea as a midshipman in an East Indiaman and been caught up in a mutiny that sent the ship ashore. On return home he set up as a factor and businessman and was signally unsuccessful, ending up in Archangel, where he got on the wrong side of the Dutch, who probably framed him. Languishing for years in prison, he conceived a violent hatred of the British government, which he believed had failed him, and in 1812 sought revenge by killing Spencer Perceval in the lobby of the House of Commons, the only prime minister in British history to be assassinated. His friends’ attempts to have him declared insane failed and Bellingham was publicly hanged.

  In this stage of Kydd’s career the greatest military drama was undoubtedly Napoleon Bonaparte’s campaign to the east of the continent, caused by Trafalgar and its consequences, which prevented his breaking out of Europe. A truly astonishing canvas of millions of men clashing under arms, spread over nearly a dozen countries, it was vastly bigger than the Peninsular War that was to follow and only ended with Bonaparte’s disastrous retreat from Moscow. The part Kydd plays in the fevered times before Friedland is based on contemporary events, the little-known heroism of the Royal Navy in the defence of Danzig and that of Kolberg at the time. England does not remember them but their part is certainly revered in Germany—Danzig eventually fell but the navy’s desperate help, including the night spent navigating under fire of a powder barge to the besieged, is cherished, while with their help Kolberg held out to the end.

  The Prussian hero of Kolberg, Gneisenau, has a grand statue still venerated in the now Polish city of Kołobrzeg. The brooding but talented Gerhard von Scharnhorst, whom we see as chief of general staff to Blücher, afterwards joined with him and a brilliant pupil, Carl von Clausewitz, to transform Prussian military culture into the most feared in Europe, going on to defeat France and enter Paris as a prelude to taking all of Germany under one flag.

  Ironically, in the Second World War these men and their epics of resistance were commemorated by the German Navy in their famous battleships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, and were held out by Hitler as an example to follow in the most expensive Nazi film ever made, in the calamitous final year of the Third Reich—the Royal Navy, of course, held to a humble walk-on part.

  The Vistula Spit, the Polish Mierzeja Wiślana, as it is now known, is a noted vacation spot, but Pillau and Königsberg have had a different fate. The port is now within the Kaliningrad Oblast, a peculiar piece of cut-off Russian territory carved out of southern Lithuania for the sole purpose of securing Pillau—now Baltiysk—as an ice-free port for Russia’s Baltic Fleet. Most of the town and its red star-shaped fort are therefore now forbidden to foreigners. Königsberg, with its rich heritage, now Kaliningrad, saw grievous tragedy in the Second World War but many relics of this past remain, despite strenuous efforts at Russification.

  All in all I stand amazed at the range and breadth of what happened after Trafalgar in eastern Europe, with Napoleon at the height of his powers and astride these antique untouched lands, like a colossus. I can promise even more in the next tale, as Kydd and the navy are called upon to stand alone before the conqueror …

  To all those who assisted me in the research for this book I am deeply grateful. My appreciation also goes to my editors at Hodder & Stoughton, Oliver Johnson and Anne Perry, and their creative art/design team; and copy editor Hazel Orme, who has brought her meticulous blue pencil to bear on the Kydd series right from the debut title. And, as always, heartfelt thanks to my wife and literary partner, Kathy—and my literary agent Carole Blake.

  GLOSSARY

  a cable distant

  a tenth of a sea mile, conventionally one hundred fathoms

  adze

  two-handed horizontally bladed axe used for shaping flat and curving timberwork

  athwart

  crosswise, such as intersecting a ship’s course, across one’s bows

  auger

  long-shanked boring tool

  barky

  pet term for one’s ship

  bashaw

  grandee, from Turkish paşa

  blow out his gaff

  have a riotous time ashore, sparing nothing

  bulwarks

  vertical planking above the deck forming the side of the ship

  butcher’s bill

  euphemism for list of casualties after an action

  Channel Groper

  rueful term for the Channel station after the number of fogs to be expected

  chouse

  tease

  clerk of the cheque

  dockyard representative of commissioners of the Admiralty with authority to disburse funds, e.g. payment to seamen

  compree

  seize or grasp meaning, French comprendre

  corvette

  French equivalent to ship-sloop, larger and with more guns

  cuirassier

  mounted soldier with armoured torso

  dirndl

  colourful full-skirted dress with close-fitted bodice

  dragoman

  professional interpreter and cultural adviser

  driver sail

  fore and aft sail at the after end of a ship equivalent to merchant-service spanker

  druxy

  timber in advanced decay, soft and spongy with white spots and veins

  élève

  one put forward by interested sponsor, French élève, pupil

  euphroe

  piece of wood with holes to take lacing of awning or similar

  Feldwebel

  Sergeant

  flank

  the side of a military deployment contrasted with the front

  fluyt

  Dutch cargo vessel, full-bodied with shallow draught

  garboard

  range of strakes that abuts the keel

  great repair

  requires the ship to be taken out of commission

  guardo

  shabby trick, after reprehensible guardship practices on new-pressed men

  gun-room

  mess-room of warrant officers and midshipmen in larger ships; the wardroom of a frigate

  Hamoaze

  straight stretch of water at the estuary of the Tamar before it enters Plymouth Sound

  hance

  break in the line of deck at the quarterdeck, often decorated

  hauptfach

  army major

  Hohenzollern

  ruling house of Prussia since 1701

  hugger-mugger

  in confidence one with the other

  kellner

  officer’s mess waiter

  klafter

  fathom (German)

  landwehr

  locally raised army, militia (German)

  larb’d

  larboard, left side of ship looking forward

  liberty-ticket

  issued to seamen going ashore as protection against press-gangs

  liebfahne

  banner of highest expression of love of country

  lighters

  open craft with flat bottom for carrying goods to or from ships at anchor

  middling repair

  requires docking

  mort

  a significantly large amount; from mortal

  naught

  nothing

  Navy Board warrant

  writ of authority from commissioners of the Admiralty necessary to officers under the rank of lieutenant; boatswain, carpenter, etc.

  nösel

  quart of liquid (German)

  pettifogging

  quibbler; from petty and voger (German “arranger”)

  pfund

  pound (German)

  points (of sailing)

  all the angles the ship can take with respect to the wind

  popinjay

  person of vain and pretentious character; like a gr
een woodpecker

  private signal

  ship’s identifying code known only to members of a given squadron or fleet, requiring secret reply

  prize

  vessel captured from an enemy state either by a man-o’-war or licensed privateer

  puncheon

  cask of 72-gallon capacity; can be filled with liquid or bulk

  quarters

  after a warship has cleared for action it closes up at quarters: men go to the guns

  quoin

  inclined wedge placed under breech of a gun to effect elevation

  ran-tan

  all out joyous run ashore; French ran-tan, knocking, banging

  reefer

  midshipman

  row-guard

  manning a boat and circling a ship slowly to discourage deserting

  royster

  general merriment at a tavern

  rum do

  strange happening

  running rigging

  the operating ropes of a ship as compared to standing rigging, which supports masts

  rutter

  old term for written sailing directions

  sabretache

  flat bag or pouch suspended below the sabre of mounted horseman

  Sami

  peoples indigenous to Lapland, Finland, the Kola peninsula

  sennit

  woven yarn or straw worked by sailors

  ship-rigged

  fully rigged; three masts with square sail on all

  skiddy cock

  smaller friend

  strut-noddy

  swaggering promenader who doesn’t know he looks foolish

  tertian

  type of barrel traditionally used in the southwest of England

  the ton

  those adhering to high fashion, stylish; Latin tonus, tone

  trots, the

  piles sunk out in a river or waterway to allow a vessel to moor alongside without taking the ground at low water

  yeoman of the powder room

  an experienced hand in charge of powder stowage; keeps accounts on behalf of the gunner

  TIMELINE

  1773

  Thomas Paine Kydd is born 20 June, in Guildford, Surrey, son of Walter and Fanny Kydd

  1789

  The Storming of the Bastille, 14 July

  1793

  Louis XVI executed, 21 January

  France declares war on England; Kydd, a wig-maker by trade, is press-ganged into the 98-gun ship of the line Duke William

  Kydd

  The Reign of Terror begins, 5 September

  Artemis

  1794

  Transferred aboard the crack frigate Artemis, Kydd is now a true Jack Tar who comes to love the sea-going life

  1795

  The Netherlands is invaded by France, 19 January, and becomes the Batavian Republic

  Seaflower

  In the Caribbean, Kydd continues to grow as a prime seaman

  1797

  Battle of Cape St Vincent, 14 February

  Mutiny at the Nore, 17 April

  Kydd is promoted to acting lieutenant at Battle of Camperdown, 11 October

  Mutiny

  1798

  Kydd passes exam for lieutenancy; now he must become a gentleman

  Quarterdeck

  From the Halifax station, Kydd and his ship are summoned to join Nelson on an urgent mission

  The Battle of the Nile, 1 August

  Tenacious

  Britain takes Minorca as a naval base from Spain, 16 November

  1799

  Siege of Acre, March-May

  1801

  Prime Minister Pitt resigns, 16 February

  Battle of Copenhagen, 2 April

  Kydd is made commander of brig-sloop Teazer but his jubilation is cut short when peace is declared and he finds himself unemployed

  1802

  Temporary peace at Treaty of Amiens, 25 March

  Command

  1803

  War resumes 18 May, with Britain declaring war on the French

  Unexpectedly, Kydd finds himself back in command of his beloved Teazer

  The Admiral’s Daughter

  Kydd is dismissed his ship in the Channel Islands station

  1804

  Napoleon’s invasion plans are to the fore

  May, Pitt becomes Prime Minister again

  1804

  Napoleon is crowned Emperor, 2 December

  Invasion

  1805

  Kydd is made post-captain of L’Aurore

  The Battle of Trafalgar, 21 October

  Victory

  1806

  The race to empire begins in South Africa. British forces take Cape Town, 12 January

  A bold attack on Buenos Aires is successful, 2 July

  Conquest

  Effective end of The Fourth Coalition, 14 October

  Betrayal

  In the Caribbean, the French threat takes a new and menacing form

  Caribbee

  1807

  Napoleon tightens his Continental Blockade and moves on the Levant to break out of Europe

  Pasha

  Balked of empire by Trafalgar, Bonaparte strikes east and crushes proud Prussia

  Tyger

 

 

 


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