Matters came to a head one morning when Mrs. Cooper asked the bosun to provide them with a boat so the women could do some shopping on shore. They had become used to coming and going as they saw fit, and they assumed they could continue to do so.
Referred to Mister Hardinger, the ladies learned the captain had ordered the ship to leave harbor as soon as the wind served. With the wind now veering, now was the appropriate time and they would leave as soon as the anchor was won.
This resulted in a vehement conversation on the quarterdeck, where Mullins was occupied in ensuring the Aurora’s readiness for sea. The captain tried to defuse the matter by asking Doris to come into the cabin with him where they could discuss the problem in some privacy.
This did not go well. Mullins tried to explain the necessity for the ship to return home in light of the new political situation, but Doris countered by insisting it was time for him to stop playing at being a ship’s captain and resign his commission. After all, he had enough money to last them the rest of their days and Mister Hardinger could surely take Aurora back home. Certainly, Captain Mullins was not indispensable to the defense of the realm!
The volume of their discussion had raised to the level where it was audible all over the ship, and long-married hands were nodding their head. This was going about the way many of them expected.
The hands were at the capstan, ready to pull up the anchor, so in a pause while Doris caught her breath, the captain gave the order and the capstan began to turn. Mullins was thankful when no problems were encountered, and soon the bow was over the anchor. When Master’s Mate Harris raised his arm and shouted, ‘Up and down’, Hardinger ordered ‘Make sail’, and the topsails were shaken out. The anchor was pulled handily from its grip on the bottom and they were on their way.
The initial portion of the voyage home was a trial. Mrs. Cooper, originally attempting to remain distant from the conflict, now began to align herself more forcefully with Doris. By mutual consent, Mrs. Cooper moved into the main cabin with Doris, while Mullins took over the office with its smaller bed.
Unable to face the wrath of two women, often accompanied with the cries of the disturbed child, Mullins was relieved when Aurora began overhauling three Indiamen coming home from the Orient. With the political situation as it was, Mullins thought it his duty to offer his services as escort, just in case the French might come back into the war before they could make port.
Invited to come aboard the senior Indiaman, Mullins was pulled over in his gig, and spent the afternoon being entertained by the returning John Company officers. Upon returning to his own ship, he went to his office and called for the midshipman of the watch.
Asking Mister Whitbread to invite his wife and Mrs. Cooper into his domain, he waited. Both women were in his old cabin, separated from him by only a thin, deal partition. Every work spoken in the respective compartments was perfectly audible to someone in the adjoining compartment, so he was able to hear Doris question the midshipman concerning the reason they were being summoned.
He also heard the conversation between Doris and Mrs. Cooper as to whether they should comply with the request. Finally Mrs. Cooper, who was belatedly becoming concerned over her precarious position in the family dispute, voted to comply.
Doris entered the door, her face frozen, carrying the child as a bulwark against her evil husband. Mrs. Cooper, now wondering why she had become embroiled in this chaos, followed her.
Mullins began, “Doris, Mrs. Cooper, the situation on this ship is becoming intolerable with the animosity you have been displaying toward me. Of course, you have the right to your own feelings, but this tension is affecting the entire crew of the ship. Accordingly, I spent the afternoon aboard one of the Indiamen you see off our starboard quarter. I have purchased passage for you both as well as Alfred back to Portsmouth. Provisions will be furnished and I will give you a purse to purchase coach fare back to London.
Doris, since you are legally my wife, I will continue providing funds for your upkeep as well as for Alfred’s. In view of the tension between us though, I do not intend to return to the London house. In this purse, which I am giving you to defray any expenses you might meet, I have enclosed a note giving the name of my London club, where you may send any necessary messages. If, when you return home, you will send me a note, designating a day when you will not be home, I will drop by and remove any of my personal belongings.
Both women were silent for a moment. Then Mrs. Cooper interjected, “Master Charles, you cannot leave your wife like this. It would be inhuman. Doris deserves better than this. And, what about your son?”
“Mrs. Cooper, while I am grateful for your service to me all of my life, you have demonstrated to me that you no longer regard me as a friend and employer. As for Doris, she has forcefully expressed her animosity to me for weeks, in sight and hearing of the entire crew. As far as Alfred is concerned, I regard him as my son, and will take him with me if you no longer want him,”
Working parties began pulling out the women’s belongings from where they had been struck below. The launch was put in the water, and the kit lowered down. Since Mullins had delivered his ultimatum, he declined to speak to either of the women.
As the launch was filled with the women’s belongings, Mullins saw Mister Adolphus in earnest conversation with Doris. Soon, the embarrassed midshipman reported to the quarterdeck, gingerly bearing a folded note.
“Sir, Mrs. Mullins has requested I deliver this note to you. She says she is most heartily sorry for the trouble she has caused and asks that she may remain on the ship.”
“Mister Adolphus, I wish no further communications from my wife delivered to me. I see the launch is ready. You will assist the women to load into it and take them to the Indiaman “Lord Sandwich’. Passage has already been arranged. You will expedite the unloading of their kit and return here as soon as possible.
There were no incidents on the way home, except for the frequent summons by Captain Jones of Sandwich, who persisted in asking Mullins over for a meal. Suspected his wife was the cause of the invitations, Mullins sent his regrets. A week out of port however, the wind died during the afternoon and a boat from the other Company ship came over, bearing an invitation from its captain.
Thinking an afternoon with some different company might be just what he needed to cure him of his blue devils, Captain Mullins decided to accept the invitation. In his best coat and scraper, his boat crew pulled him over. He was greeted with Royal Navy quality courtesy, by Captain Revere of the East India Company ship, Calcutta. As he stood on the Indiaman’s quarterdeck, conversing with the officers, he noticed a boat pulling over from Sandwich. Beside Captain Jones in the sternsheets, sat Doris, dressed in one of her more impressive gowns, a heavy shawl protecting her from the sun. Mrs. Cooper sat with her.
Turning to express his dismay, he found the captain had already gone to inspect the great cabin. The first lieutenant was no help at all, answering Mullins request to be seated as far from his wife as possible with the statement that all the arrangements were complete and could not be changed. Deciding that he was not going to be a party to this, Mullins went to the side, where he had last seen his boat. There it was, halfway back to Aurora. Repeated hails failed to get the attention of his cox’n.
Mullins approached the officer of the deck, requesting they signal Aurora to send another boat. Lieutenant Harkins was desolated but he had orders that all guests were to be provided transportation by Calcuttas’ boats. Only the captain could amend those orders and he was currently occupied with arranging the cabin.
Resigned to a tedious afternoon, Mullins followed Harkins to the entry port and greeted Captain Jones. He greeted his wife with somewhat less enthusiasm as she was hoisted aboard in a bosun’s chair. Disregarding his lack of interest in the gown the other passengers were admiring, she took his arm and proceeded to babble on about the social activities aboard Sandwich and how she wished she could have him at her side at some of them.
Mullins knew well that Doris was trying her best to make amends, but he was reluctant. He had listened to the sharp side of her tongue too much and wished to hear no more. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of Mrs. Cooper hanging back in the crowd.
Young Alfred was not visible and he knew very well the now ambulatory little boy was apt to get into trouble.
Changing the subject from ship-board entertainments, he asked where Alfred might be. Doris answered, “Oh, I have engaged one of the ship’s employees to watch over our baby. Amala is a native woman from Bombay and is the most marvelous nurse to our baby. I do not know what I will do when we reach port. Alfred has grown to love her in the few days they have known each other.
The dinner in the great cabin was not quite the dreary occasion Mullins had anticipated. He was seated next to a colonel of foot, taking his retirement and returning to England. Colonel Edwards had a plethora of tales about his career on the sub-continent and was well able to carry on both sides of a conversation at once. Mrs. Hobson, on his other side, was the wife of a staff major of the Indian Army who was returning home by herself to watch over the estate, while her husband remained in India to drink himself into his grave. Both managed to relieve him of any responsibility to carry on any part of a conversation.
The toasts had begun, and Mullins was determined to limit his intake of the excellent wines. Already with the greater part of a bottle in his belly, he was concerned how he could avoid insulting his host, when a servant approached Captain Revere and whispered into his ear.
Revere rose and excused himself, assuring his company there was a minor problem which he must see to. Moments after his leaving, the servant returned going first to Captain Jones then himself. Finding he was being summoned to the quarterdeck, he followed the servant, while Jones finished a tale involving a troubled passage in the westerlies south of the Cape.
Mullins found the ship’s master peering at something off their port quarter with his glass. When Jones joined them, the glass was handed to him without a word being said. After Jones had looked his fill, he handed the glass to Mullins. It was with some difficulty he found the difficulty that so interested the other captains. He saw two tiny notches in the horizon, which he recognized to be the tops of ships in the distance.
Revere explained. “My officer of the watch sent one of the apprentices aloft with a glass, before calling me. After taking the glass to the crosstrees, he reports he believes these are two ship-rigged warships, most probably of either corvette or small frigate class. They are too distant to further identify, but we might consider them French national ships.
Jones retorted, “We must also consider, Captain, that we are at peace with France, and have been so for the past year.”
Mullins interjected, “When I called at the Verdes’ recently, there was talk about the possibility of the war resuming. Captain Revere, I would be glad if you could signal Aurora to pass within hail. I believe I must leave your delightful entertainment and return to my ship to investigate these strangers.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
As Mullins stood by the entry port awaiting his boat, Doris came to him. “Charles, I am most sorry that I have been so dreadful with you. Will you take me back to Aurora with you?”
Mullins, suddenly touched with remorse, replied, “Doris, I in turn apologize for being inattentive. Perhaps we can make our amends later. At this moment, we are faced with two ships, that may well wish us harm which could be unfriendly and may wish to do us harm. You must forgive me while I tend to them. For now, I think it best if you and Alfred remain on this ship.”
As Aurora closed with the Indiaman, Mullins climbed down into Captain Revere’s launch and was pulled over to his own ship. A few minutes later, Captain Jones left for the ‘Lord Sandwich’. The three Indiamen were all armed, and some of their officers had served in the Navy, at one time or another. If all the ships worked together, they could make any enemy work and suffer for any rewards.
The difficulty was, the Indiamen had sailed in a time of peace, where the only possibility of action would seem to be pirates. The crews of the big merchants had few trained gunners. It would be Aurora’s task to identify these strange ships, and see them off if they were unfriendly.
Aboard Aurora now, Mullins met with Mister Hardinger on the quarterdeck. The strangers were approaching from ahead and were now much closer than when last observed from Calcutta. Mister Archer, the mid with the best eyes, had just returned from the main cross-trees, where he had seen the tri-color flying from both of the visitors.
Mister Hardinger wondered if there had been any news of war on the Calcutta, but Mullins assured him they knew nothing more recent that what they had heard at the Cape Verde Islands. He gave his first officer instructions to put Aurora out ahead of the merchantmen, while giving Mister Adolphus, acting signals officer, the task of politely requesting the three Indiamen to alter course to starboard.
The big merchants obediently veered to the suggested course, but the oncoming corvettes altered to meet them and Aurora followed suit. At this time, the ship-sloop went to quarters, with all un-necessary furnishings struck below. The load on every gun was checked, and fresh charges readied on deck. Mullins intercepted Mister Evans as he went about his duty, instructing the Master Gunner to inform the gun captains of their duties before going below to his lair in the ship’s magazine. He wanted his gunners to open fire, if ordered, with ball loads, while being prepared to shift to grape or case loads at closer range.
As Aurora approached the leading corvette, she was slightly to windward of the enemy ship. By altering slightly to port, he could fire his forward guns on the starboard beam. Of course, at this moment, no one aboard ship knew for certain whether they were in a state of war yet. Only the French, having presumably sailed recently, would know that.
The leading French corvette, apparently pierced for twenty-two guns, was able to get off the first shots. Her two forward guns on the port beam belched smoke and fire simultaneously, followed by the staccato firing from her broadside guns. A half dozen balls impacted Aurora, without doing extensive harm. As was often the case, her guns had been aimed at Aurora’s tops, where little damage was done save for puncturing some canvas and the severing of a few lines. They were indeed at war!
A heartbeat later, Aurora’s guns discharged. The effects were somewhat different. Aurora’s nine-pounder guns threw much the same size of ball as did the Frenchmen’s eight-pounders, but the thirty-two pounder carronades mounted on forecastle and quarterdeck completely outclassed the French six-pounders in the same positons.
The carronades threw out a thirty-two pound iron ball, propelled by the same charge of powder that would normally be fired in a twenty-four pounder British long gun. The ball would leave the muzzle at somewhat slower speed than one fired from the long gun, but that made little difference at the target. The slower ball would send oaken splinters flying to cause serious wounds among the crew of the targeted ship.
The large ball would also cause extensive damage to the hull of the enemy, a fact of which the British gun crews had been made well aware. Many of the gunners tried with some success to direct their balls right at the water-line of the enemy.
As the battered corvette drifted down on Aurora, it could be seen that her sides were manned with hundreds of boarders, shouting and waving their weapons. A quick look around showed Captain Mullins the other corvette, this one smaller, pierced for sixteen guns, heading for the Calcutta.
Mullins knew Calcutta’s captain had once served as a lieutenant in the Royal Navy and had some experience dealing with enemy raiders. He decided he could ignore this second corvette for a few minutes, while he dealt with this one.
Ordering his midshipman messengers to run down the guns, informing all gunners to load half charges of powder with a ball and grape loaded on top. After that, case or grape would be loaded. As they came up alongside the corvette, a long musket shot away, both broadsides roared out. The French guns were directed a
t Aurora’s midships where they caused serious mayhem, as did Aurora’s own attempt. The difference was the French had fired solid ball, while the British ship used both ball and grape. The grape-shot, plum-sized iron balls, spread out like a load of duck shot and decimated the packed mass of boarders along the enemy’s sides, while the large balls accomplished their own task of destruction
The French captain had misjudged badly. He had intended to bring his ship alongside Aurora, to send massed boarders aboard his target. To obtain the necessary men, he had stripped his gun crews of most of their men, leaving sufficient to fire their last broadside, but not enough to reload in a timely fashion.
He had not been able to bring his ship alongside, there being a distance of a musket shot between the ships as they passed. Those massed boarders had not been able to rush onto Auroras’ deck, instead many died at their posts.
Aurora passed behind the French corvette, and came across her stern. Mullins had screamed orders to reload with ball, which some of the gunners had actually heard, then he fired the salvo into the enemy’s stern. A devastating barrage of ball and grape took out a large percentage of the people remaining, as well as damaging the enemy’s sternpost. She could no longer steer.
Leaving her shattered enemy, Aurora set after the second corvette. This one, knowing now she had no chance against the British warship, went right at Calcutta, hoping to take that Indiaman before Aurora could rescue her.
Captain Revere, instead of fleeing, turned to await his enemy, in the meantime fleshing out his gun crews with those passengers who had gained experience during the years in India. A dozen twelve-pounders, as well as numerous swivel guns brought from storage, waited for the enemy. In addition, almost every family returning from the sub-continent had at least one serious weapon available, some had many more than that.
HMS Aurora: A Charles Mullins Novel (Sea Command Book 3) Page 16
