“The troops were all more-or-less black, sir. Locally recruited rather than regulars from Holland and probably a conscript militia, forced to a service that is alien to them. Having once started to run many will be disinclined to stop, bringing their enlistments to an unofficial end. Far better than killing them, as any humane man must agree.”
They hovered off the mouth of the harbour, peering at the defences of New Amsterdam. There were two batteries of a little age and a fortress of some size. Raw earth showed in three different places, to suggest that guns had been newly emplaced.
“If they could put four long-barrel thirty-twos in a tower watching over a minor inlet, then one might expect them to have much more in town, Mr Nias.”
The master ventured to disagree.
“That inlet had a hard road leading along the coast, sir, and was the sole landing point I have been able to discern within half a day’s march of the port. I think it may have loomed large in their general’s mind.”
“You make a large assumption of the military there, Mr Nias. I do not know that I have ever come across a general who possessed a mind!”
Murray snorted his agreement – the army tended to be the province of the foolish in his experience. Men who would have been ill-qualified in civilian life to rise to the position of village idiot were made commanding generals by the military.
“We need information, Sir Frederick.”
“We do, Captain Murray, and I am most unwilling to send you ashore, sir. It is a small town and an unknown face might stick out in it. It is not like the Greek islands where boats are forever trading from one to another – this is a backwater in which there is never anything new!”
Trident retired over the horizon and the cutter was sent out in the near darkness to intercept unwary fishing boats, Murray aboard to talk.
“Gold coins, Mr Murray, to buy some of their catch and to persuade mouths to open. Do remember that we must never offer harm to fishermen – they are protected by all nations except the Turk, and we are not to be as they, sir!”
“I shall suggest that we might wish to purchase again tomorrow, sir, and then they will probably not tell of us in town.”
“Two big guns, sir, at the harbour mouth, in the fortress. The other pieces from the fortress and the right and left side of the harbour mouth were recently shifted – with great labour – along the coast to the tower we destroyed. Besides the pair of coastal guns there are two batteries of field guns, nine and twelve pounders, sir, a dozen in total and spread between the emplacements we have recorded. It is thought that the soldiery will be able to hold any landing force in the streets of the town, assisted by the people themselves, who will all be armed against need. The fishermen think they are bloody fools, because the ordinary folk would rather shoot the soldiers, who are a nuisance to them, refusing to pay in cash for anything they take.”
“Do they have anything to tell us about the frigate?”
“Moored under the big guns, sir; guard boat at night; boarding netting rigged.”
A stealthy cutting-out was not possible. It was a pity that the Navy was predictably aggressive – very few of the enemy tended towards complacency these days.
“The island boats, the schooners, sir, all landed the guns that were placed upon them and have fled down coast. They fear revenge for Speedy, it would seem. They were ordered to remain under arms but asked the Governor for a guarantee that they would be reimbursed the price of their boats when the British sank them; when he refused they were rude to him and all sailed away, threatening to hang him from a lamp post if he made the army shoot at them.”
“What of the sloop?”
“Sent down coast, sir, carrying some sort of despatches to the garrisons there.”
Trident clapped on all sail in the hope of intercepting the sloop on her return, preferably out of earshot of New Amsterdam, so as to keep them guessing and waiting a little longer.
They caught the sloop ten miles down the coast, rather foolishly crawling along inshore just outside the reef, presumably hoping to avoid observation but leaving herself with no way of using the wind gage she held.
“Three miles offshore, Mr Murray, and she could have made a tack and then used her ability to point up closer than us. But she’s got no sea room, sir!”
Nias was triumphant – he dearly loved to sneer at the foolishness of lesser seamen.
“What is she to do, Mr Nias?”
“Fire a gun, for the sake of the honour of the flag, and then hurriedly surrender, Mr Murray. She cannot possibly fight a frigate such as Trident. Was we a smaller ship, carrying no more than twelve pounders, then she might try to cross our bows, taking, possibly evading, most of our shots, and then make her escape. But she will know we have twenty-four pounders on the broadside and that she cannot live under their fire. She is too frail.”
“So we have a prize to replace Speedy.”
“Probably – though her captain might choose to scuttle, or more likely fire her, to keep her out of our hands. Less likely because it is held to be legitimate to shoot at the boats containing the escaping crew in such a circumstance – they having refused to surrender.”
“I had wondered about that, you know, why so many ships are taken which could have destroyed themselves.”
“There are rules, Mr Murray, which the great bulk of mariners keep to, whether their Admiralties like it or not!”
The Dutch held by those rules and transferred their ship to English ownership in the most polite fashion, not quite apologising for the inconvenience they were causing but offering all courtesy.
The commander offered Frederick his sword, accepted it back, as he had expected in the circumstances, and remained in quiet conversation for a few minutes.
“I hope to be able to exchange you quite soon, mijnheer.”
“Please do not put yourself to any bother, sir! I have no family on this side of the ocean to return to, and small love for the damned French who own my country now. A holiday, a vacation one might say, in Antigua or Trinidad would have much in its favour. Eventually, indeed, it might be possible to take ship for America? I am sure that I could find a berth there and retire from naval service, which I find increasingly tedious.”
Frederick handed the gentleman over to Captain Murray, who led him to the wardroom and a consolatory bottle, chatting idly the while.
“He tells me they rescued none of Speedy’s people, sir. She went down so very fast and they could not find them in the darkness before the sharks came in. They lost almost all of the men from their own schooner as well, just two who made their way into the boat towing astern surviving. He was most distressed, sir, but assured me they did what little they could.”
“A pity, but these are bad waters, renowned as such. The fishing is rich, they tell me, and so the sharks proliferate. At least I can now write a letter to Mr Akers’ people giving them certainty. Better to know he is dead than to have the doubt of him reported ‘missing’.”
It was hard, but the Navy rarely gave an easy option.
“Mr McPherson, we shall give the sloop to Mr Walker to take in. I need you here, sir, if we are to make a try at the frigate. If successful then she will make a far better prize for you!”
McPherson was perfectly content in that decision – if he took a frigate in then he must be made Master and Commander in compliment, and if there was a shortage of officers to hand then be given a sloop of his own almost immediately. He might not even be made for bringing a mere sloop into port. Walker would probably gain his commission, and might well be returned to Trident as well, so it was a sensible course for Sir Frederick to take.
They returned to their station off New Amsterdam, waiting only a day before Nimble rejoined, Arnheim and Raven and Wallsend in company.
“The Admiral gave her a crew, sir, scraped up from all he had to hand, and I have added men from Arnheim. She is just able to serve her purpose, sir.”
“I can add a dozen men, Mr Jackman, having picked up a
few extra bodies down coast. Did you speak Mr Walker in his prize, by the way?”
“The Dutch sloop, I presume, sir. What is she, sixteen guns or so?”
“Pierced for eighteen, but two of her ports at the stern boarded over for the Dutch being unable to trim her properly. Carrying Dutch eight-pounders, which will be replaced by our nines, I doubt not. She is old, but well-found, spent time in the yard immediately prior to this commission. The Dutch had placed a pair of short barrel eighteen pound cannonades on the quarterdeck. A pair of twenty-four pound carronades will do better and will reduce weight and allow the rearmost ports to be used as they should be. She will be bought in for sure, Mr Jackman – wholly unharmed, caught under our guns and with no choice but to surrender.”
“What do you plan for Wallsend, sir?”
“We must protect Trinidad with a flotilla while the frigate remains at large, so it is better to make an end to her…”
Book Six: The Duty and Destiny Series
Chapter Six
“What more can you tell us of the harbour, Captain Murray?”
Murray had spent several nights out buying fish from the local boats and talking with their crews.
All of the captains of the squadron were sat in Trident’s great cabin, Lieutenant Perlman seeming uncomfortable in such august company, continually reminding himself that he had the right to be there, even if only just.
“Not a great deal, Sir Frederick, but sufficient to say that it is difficult, possibly very much so. The fortress definitely has but two long thirty-two pound coastal guns – rather old and smaller than one now expects, of course. But they are at high, sir, and emplaced in a sort of redan, thus enabling them to be shifted with some ease between embrasures and to cover almost the whole of the approaches. The fortress is placed on a small point, as well. The newer earthworks serve to cover coves, or beaches, as one might say, at which boats might land. They contain only twelve- and nine-pound field guns, but sufficient, I would suggest, to greatly annoy any landing parties. A regular siege by a brigade of infantry and a battery of siege guns must be successful in a very few weeks, I believe, the garrison being small and perhaps not wholly enthusiastic in their cause; but a landing or cutting out by this squadron might well take rather high casualties.”
Frederick was a little upset; that was not what he wished to hear.
He reflected that he might just possibly be too used to the obedience of his juniors. Murray was not a regular officer, concerned to receive a good report and proceed upwards to a more senior posting; consequently he saw no need to gild the truth, to take an optimistic view of the information he had received.
“This is the agreed word from the fishing boats, one presumes, Captain Murray.”
“To a very great extent, yes, sir… but, I have to say, that I have my suspicions, sir. I think it not impossible that the garrison commander is aware that we have bought from the boats and, obviously, have talked with them in process. I suspect that he may have primed them to give us the information he wants us to have. As an example, one of the fisherfolk told me, without being asked, that the gun crews are trained artillerymen, long in the post and very skilful. Not the sort of passing comment one might expect from a humble seafarer, a fisherman more interested in rum and baccy than tactics and high strategy.”
“Truthful?”
“I think it likely, yes, sir. I suspect that the colonel, or general or whatever it may be, does not wish to see us taking losses in a failed assault and so becoming determined on revenge. I think the word is that if we force them to fight, then so they will; but that if we leave them alone then they will not seek out trouble.”
“I have a memory of Dutch garrisons in Eastern waters being quite easily persuaded to haul down the flag, do I not?”
Murray waved a deprecating hand, this way, that way – a gesture he was fond of.
“To an extent, yes, sir. Generally speaking, the old soldiers have small love for the French, who they still see as invaders, and, if at a distance from them, will happily betray them. But they may be a little too close here; they might well fear that information would soon be received in their homes that they had played their new masters false.”
“And their kin would then be at risk.”
“Very much so, sir. This Bonaparte is utterly ruthless in pursuit of his own ends and will butcher innocents quite casually.”
Frederick decided against sending a boat in to demand the garrison’s surrender. They must examine the alternatives.
“It would take perhaps an hour to bring Wallsend’s mortars to bear, I would imagine, Captain Loveridge?”
The new captain agreed, rather nervously. He had never worked a bomb vessel before and suspected that it might be rather demanding of his limited mathematical abilities. He had sweated over his book for many an hour as a midshipman before eventually getting his navigation by rote; now he had to supervise his gunner, calculating range and powder charge, and the length to cut the fuze on the mortar bombs, working from a basis of near-total ignorance.
“I fear me, Sir Frederick, that, this being early days, it could not take less than sixty minutes.”
Frederick heard the unsaid words, ‘and quite possibly a damned sight more’.
“A moderately competent artilleryman could bring a pair of thirty-twos onto the target of a bomb ketch in less than ten minutes, I am quite sure. That is a pity, for I had hoped to rid the world of a Dutch frigate with your aid, Captain Loveridge, but that will not be so.”
He was sure that Loveridge heaved a sigh of relief, thought that he might have done the same.
“Wallsend to return to Trinidad, there to add herself to harbour defences under command of the senior officer – army or navy – present. My clerk will send you a written order, sir. I would suggest that a series of exercises of the mortars might be beneficial, captain.”
“Yes, sir.”
“When the fleet comes out then there will be a demand for your services, I do not doubt, Captain Loveridge, and I fear that the admiral, whoever he may be, may tend to be exigent in his orders.”
Loveridge feared the same, and his fear was far more immediate than Frederick’s.
“Raven and Nimble to maintain a blockade of the harbour. Distant and very cautious indeed, gentlemen! Pick up merchantmen coming in, even down to the smallest of barges, in the hope that you may annoy the Dutch sufficiently to send the frigate out. If she does sail then Nimble is to contact the squadron immediately while Raven tries her best to draw the frigate into indiscretion, pulling her distant from safety, if possible. You know the sort of thing, Mr Vereker – missing a tack and caught in irons; a topgallantmast lost; man overboard – very dramatic and much tearing out of hair as the frigate bears down and you are able just to claw out of range.”
Vereker showed proper enthusiasm, but they suspected he was no great theatre-goer.
“Trident and Arnheim to work down the coast to the south and east, towards Spanish territory. Essentially to see what, if anything, may be seen. I would expect to be offshore here within eight days, Mr Vereker.”
Vereker carefully did not ask.
“If we do not appear, sir, then you will take yourselves well out into the offing. Wind may be expected to be in the South-West at this time of year, or so I am told. You will therefore be able to run before it if a flota should appear. You will inform the Governors or senior naval officers at each harbour from Trinidad to Antigua – in person. Use a flag hoist for Georgetown here – you must not risk becoming embayed. I will put your orders into writing, I think. Better that there can be no imputation that you have run.”
Vereker was relieved – the malicious were always with them. There would be some nasty-minded object who would like nothing better than to sneer ‘yellow’ – probably from a place of safety on an admiral’s staff.
Frederick hoped they might not have noticed just how vague his plans were; essentially he was intending to trail his coat, to poke his nose into enemy waters a
nd discover whether they might react vigorously.
He was like the little boy who intended to shove his stick into a wasp’s nest and stir; and they all knew what happened to those foolish little fellows more often than not.
The problem was that he had to do something, and he knew not what.
“Have we any particular expectation of the Spanish, sir?”
“There is a possibility that they may wish to move an army into the Caribbean, Mr Jackman. They still claim the whole of the Sugar Islands as their own under the Papal Decree of Elizabethan times and believe the English, and the French, to be unlawful interlopers. Such being the case, they may act at any time they feel they have troops to spare. They are unpredictable, of course – their kings tend to be of limited sanity and less intelligence, and they nonetheless retain a degree of power and may issue orders that another would regard as erratic.”
There was a tactful and loyal silence – far be it from any man there to comment that George III had recently been discovered in converse with an oak tree, and apparently receiving interesting replies.
“I am at a loss, Mr Murray! I suspect that the First Lord was seriously misinformed when he gave me my orders. I believe he may have suspected that I would be wholly engaged in blockading Tobago and the Dutch Islands, cutting out and picking up merchantmen, making raids and generally keeping them busy and in a state of uproar. He might have expected the French to intervene so as to chase me away – there was a French fleet in the Sugar Islands and he cannot have known whether it would remain or sail for home having done its business at Haiti.”
“Then he had no forewarning of Spanish plans against Jamaica, sir?”
“None. He must have informed me if he had. However much he wished to do me down, Jamaica is more important.”
“My advice must be, sir, to put yourself in St Vincent’s shoes. What must he need to see achieved?”
“Jamaica must be protected. We cannot possibly afford to lose the island – its trade is vital to the country.”
Sugar and Spice (The Duty and Destiny Series, Book 6) Page 16
