Sails Across the Sea: A Tim Phillips Novel (War at Sea Book 8)

by Richard Testrake

  Then, the full load was fired. It took some time before the crews became used to the new weapons, and except for number seventeen gun aft, all seemed to be proper. The gun captain of that weapon was upset, saying he thought a defect in the bore of the gun was preventing the best accuracy. A test was done, running a cloth inside the bore on a worm. The cloth would often catch on an interior imperfection.

  “Looks like I made a bad bargain, Henderson. Next time we meet a Frenchman, I shall ask for my money back!” Phillips quipped.

  The wind returned and next day the transports were handed off to the Army at Lisbon and Terrier resumed her voyage down the Peninsula toward Gibraltar. Passing offshore from Cadiz, early one morning, the lookout was surprised to see a ship emerging from the darkness to the west. His alarmed cry brought Phillips out of his cabin with his glass.

  The newcomer just coming into view was only a mile or so away and coming up fast. Whatever else one had to say about the first officer, no one could say he did not know his duty. The crew had been brought up before fist light to clear the brig for action and to clean the decks. With the sighting, the crew flung down their swabs and ran to the guns.

  Powder boys were already bringing up the charges and the guns prepared. The gun crews were ordered to leave the gun port lids closed for now. Phillips was standing by the helm with the master’s mate who was acting as sailing master. He ordered the brig to be brought around to obtain a little sea room. The problem was the stranger, which had been identified as a small frigate or large corvette, of twenty four guns now flying the French tricolor, was almost in his way.

  The frigate initiated hostilities, firing off her forward portside guns, which were shockingly well aimed. One shot, probably an eight pounder, was directly aimed at the brig’s starboard bow, but a little low. It struck the sea a cables length away, skipped across the surface and slammed into Terrier’s forward hull low, almost at the water line.

  The shot, slowed by striking the water, merely started a few seams and cracked the wood in a strake. Terrier, turning toward the aggressor, fired her forward starboard long gun. This shot also hit, and the enemy apparently thinking Terrier was only armed with eight pounders continued on, closing the range. Phillips ordered his topsails aback to slow his forward progress and the enemy rapidly closed her, steadily firing his forward starboard guns at the brig.

  Only a few of the enemy guns were firing and hitting their target, but damage was being done to the brig. Some of the balls proved to be twelve pounders and Captain Phillips did not want to think of what they were doing to his brig’s hull. At the proper time, at a close range indeed, he ordered the starboard gun port lids opened and the carronades readied. The forward carronades and the re-loaded long gun all fired nearly simultaneously, while the after carronades fired as they came on target.

  The effect was devastating. The enemy hull was not designed to withstand the battering from the heavy ammunition it had just received, and now she was getting grape fired into her, too. Over two hundred pounds of little iron plums came across her deck and into her rigging at every broadside.

  Terrier was firing faster than the enemy, also. The ‘smashers’ were lighter than the long guns the enemy was using, and were quicker to load. Too, with every exchange, more enemy crewmen were lying dead or wounded in the scuppers, leaving fewer men to sail the ship or man the guns. In addition to crew losses, the concentrated fire was causing terrible damage to the frigate’s rigging, and Phillips could not see how she could stand it much longer.

  Her foremast came down in a tangle of sailcloth and rigging, masking some guns. With these guns unable to fire and so many of the crew disabled or called away from their posts making repairs, she was no longer able to fight effectively. The frigate’s tricolor was then hauled down. Phillips sent Hawkins to the prize with some seamen and most of the Marines to take command. Hawkins almost immediately sent back word he needed carpenter's crew. It seemed the frigate’s hull had received a few serious knocks ‘between wind and water’, and she was now taking on water fast.

  Terrier had received few serious wounds, much of it was in the rigging, as the frigate had fired high, apparently in the hope of disabling the gun brig. The crewmen Phillips had sent over were now desperately fighting to save the prize, so he decided to visit the frigate, leaving his sailing master to tend to the repairs on the brig.

  The men were in the process of fothering a sail under her bow, where the most serious damage had occurred. The men had passed lines under the ship and used them to draw a sail under in an attempt to slow the leak. As Hawkins overlooked the activity, he reported about half the intake of water had been stopped, at least temporarily. Now crews were working inside the hull, stuffing hammocks into the cavities and bracing timber over the plugs.

  He reminded Phillips they were making headway, but the prize was still in a perilous position. The bow was very low in the water, and the increased pressure was hazarding the repairs made thus far.

  “Sir, I’d like to take off some weight forward. Could I heave some of the forward guns over the side?”

  Giving permission, Phillips had a thought. He watched the breaching cables chopped with axes and the guns, carriage and all pushed through the ports. Most of the guns were twelve pounders but there were some eights right up forward.

  The captain approached Hawkins and modified his permission. “Mister Hawkins, I would like to save a few of those eight pounder guns. I’ll send some men to move them back to the stern. In the meantime, continue with dropping the twelve pounders over the side.”

  A quick discussion with the bosun’s mate and Chips elicited the information the ship’s bow was beginning to rise a little, with the dead weight of the guns being removed.

  With the extreme activity required to save the frigate, the men were beginning to tire. Hawkins alleviated that problem by sending the men needing relief to the pumps, to supervise the French captives who were manning them. Although the prisoners had been warned they might well go down with the ship if it sank, after a long spell of pumping ship though many of that body began whispering the British would not let them die, so the pumping efforts began to subside.

  The supervisors were armed with lengths of knotted ropes ends, which were used freely on the backs of any presumed slackers.

  With no one to fight now, the Royal Marines had removed their red uniforms and donned the seamen’s slops which they normally wore at sea, and took up their duties as guards, standing behind the prisoners with their muskets and bayonets to ensure these men did not attempt to re-take the ship.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  When it was judged the prize was now unlikely to sink, Phillips approached Hawkins on the prize’s quarterdeck and asked him whether he preferred to go back as the rig’s first officer or whether he wished to command the prize.

  Both officers knew full well an officer bringing in a ship captured in fair fight by a smaller vessel, had excellent reason to believe in likely promotion. Mister Hawkins probably no longer feared he might spend the rest of his days as a lieutenant. Much of course depended on what Phillips might have to say about him in his report. At any rate, he accepted the command of the prize with alacrity.

  One grim fact to be faced now was the lack of proper medical care for the dreadful number of casualties aboard the frigate.

  The prize did have a surgeon aboard, which was fortunate since Terrier had only an assistant surgeon, with little experience, who was terribly stressed by the injuries he had to deal with on the brig.

  Luckily, one of the loblolly boys was a landsman who had worked as a cow-leach at one time, and was absolutely fearless in dealing with the wounded, admittedly not always for the better. After the few casualties aboard Terrier were treated, he was sent over to the prize to assist the French surgeon and hopefully learn a bit of medical knowledge.

  The day passed with men being ferried from one vessel to the other as their specialties were needed. Crude patches and sheet lead finally stopped the
inrush of water to the prize, and they were able to make their way toward Lisbon harbor, the prize much lower in the water than when she had engaged Terrier. In the days it had taken the ships to reach Lisbon, the intensity of screams and cries had lessened dramatically as men died and were buried over the side.

  Upon reaching a squadron of the fleet off Lisbon, the senior officer present ordered Phillips to leave his crewmen aboard the prize to finish her repairs and to sail her back home. As replacements, the brig received a draft of Portuguese seamen who wished to fight the French invaders of their country.

  Phillips was now genuinely sorry to see Lieutenant Hawkins depart. The man’s attitude had changed greatly since the capture of the frigate, and Phillips thought he was now an asset to the Navy. He was fortunate enough to find a senior master’s mate ashore in Lisbon. Mister Davison seemed to be an intelligent, capable young man, who through no fault of his own, had been left behind when his ship sailed away hurriedly in an emergency, leaving a landing party behind.

  Davison reported he had been running an errand for his own first officer when he saw the ship sailing out of the harbor without him. The men of his party were taken aboard other ships needing men, but no one needed a senior master’s mate.

  Phillips reminded the lad he was only a commander himself, with little power or prestige in the Royal Navy. He could though, take him aboard Terrier and promote him to the temporary rank of acting lieutenant. He reminded Davison he had no power to make the promotion permanent, and that the most likely scenario would see the man reduced back to master’s mate when they reported to the fleet, and a genuine lieutenant was piped aboard

  Copies of the voluminous reports of the battle were sent ashore along with the pertinent pouches from home and the prize was turned over to the Lisbon dockyard for the necessary repairs to see the ship back home. Mister Hawkins visited Terrier before she left and said the dockyard was doing wonders repairing the frigate’s damage.

  He said he had doubts earlier whether the Navy would ever purchase such a wreck into the fleet, but he now thought he would be able to sail an almost perfectly repaired ship back to Britain.

  Lieutenant Hawkins did wonder what he should say about the guns removed from the frigate.

  Phillips reminded him those guns not dropped over the side, were loaded aboard Terrier, where some were put in use in the fore and aft gun ports. He intended to report this to the Mediterranean Fleet Commander.

  “Sir, what about those guns we took on board back at Portsmouth?”

  “Mister Hawkins, I intend to report the presence of all French guns we have aboard. I may mention they might prove to be useful to the local Portuguese forces as well as give our brig a little extra effect at longer ranges. I see no reason to emphasize where exactly each gun originated.”

  The formalities taken care of, the Terrier hoisted anchor with orders to report to Admiral Charles Cotton, at the moment well offshore searching for some French liners reportedly trying to find a port. She had a pouch of paperwork to deliver to the admiral.

  Phillips had had a previous relationship with Cotton. The admiral had put him in command of a previous vessel when he was an under-aged master’s mate, and he felt obligated to the Mediterranean Fleet Commander. Now tasked to find him, he had only the haziest idea of where his ships might be found.

  He did have the opportunity to work with his new first officer and the replacement hands taken on at Lisbon. He informed Mister Davison of the history of the French eight pounders fore and aft.

  “We originally acquired some guns from the dockyard at Portsmouth. They were scheduled to be re-melted and re-cast, but we spared them from that fate. Since we were originally issued only carronades, my thought was to have weapons aboard that might extend our range a bit. However at sea, one of them developed a flaw in the bore which affected accuracy. When we took the frigate, she was leaking badly from battle damage, and we had to remove some guns to raise her bow a bit.”

  “After taking some on to Terrier, we found these guns in good order so replaced the Portsmouth guns. We landed all of the French guns save four back in Lisbon and I will report such to Admiral Cotton. I hope he will permit us to continue using the long eights at bow and stern. Along with the guns, we took some bagged powder charges and ball shot from the frigate’s stores.

  Davison wondered how the Ordnance people would view all of these activities.

  “Well, since it has not been inventoried yet, we should be able to make free of it for target purposes.

  There is no reason for them to become aware of our possession of the ammunition. Of course, I have reported in the log our taking aboard the French guns. When I next see Admiral Cotton of course, I will ask him to allow us to keep the weapons. All he can do is say no. I can emphasize this addition will cost the crown nothing.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Searching the Eastern Mediterranean without result, Phillips began stopping every vessel they could catch for information. A neutral American ship gave them quite a chase, her captain wary of having half his crew impressed. When finally overhauled she reported having seen sails in the east which might have been the fleet they were searching for. Leaving the American’s crew intact Terrier bore off to the east. Toward noon, the lookout sighted a sail up ahead.

  When overhauled, she proved not to be part of the fleet but a small fore-and aft vessel with a lateen as her main. She was a tartane out of Ragusa and a lawful prize. She was filled with wine in casks and tanned hides. Normally he would have considered burning such a small craft but considering the valuable cargo aboard, he put a midshipman in command with a small crew and ordered the tartane to follow the brig.

  Eventually, returning to Toulon, Terrier found the fleet. At the peremptory signal from the flag. Phillips dropped into his gig with the requisite pouches and was pulled over to the flag where the flag captain met him at the entry port. He mentioned the Admiral had had a bad night and would not ask him into the great cabin.

  Instead, Captain Hornsby took Phillips aside on the quarterdeck and discussed a problem. “First of all, Captain, you will excuse me if I mention that your command is really neither here nor there in the grand scheme of things here in the Med. Normally the Admiral will use her to deliver dispatches, obtain supplies for the fleet, and the like.”

  “However, we do have a difficulty in these parts which you may be able to assist with. You will know the waters in the Mediterranean have been infested with pirates and corsairs for millennia. At times they have proved to be a most difficult burden for those Christian states trading in the Mediterranean to bear.”

  “Depending upon who happens to be the grand vizier in Istanbul at the time, the Ottoman naval forces may hinder these bandits. At other times, they are ignored so long as they do not incur the wrath of the Porte.”

  “At this moment, we have a new Grand Vizier in Istanbul, Laz Ahmed Pasha, if I have got his name right. For his own reasons he has not seen fit to restrain the more energetic of his captains and they have sowed a swath of destruction and rapine around the Mediterranean wherever moderating forces are not present.”

  “Of course, you are aware HM Government pays the rulers of some of the North African states, who are more or less autonomous from Istanbul, to refrain from attacking British flagged shipping. Last year however, we learned that one scoundrel took the brig Nancy Jane out of Naples on her way home to Plymouth. As one of her passengers, she carried the wife of Sir Roger Forsythe, prominent in the Lords, and a member of the War Ministry. As I understand the situation, while travelling with her husband, on official business in Naples, she became with child. Not wishing to endure childbirth in a strange land away from family members, she prevailed upon her husband to send her home. It was strongly suggested she wait until the next convoy, but she was anxious to get home as soon as possible and took passage on the un-escorted Nancy Jane.

  Of course, the bounty paid by HM Treasury to the various Barbary States was designed to make it profitable for tho
se states to refrain from piracy and engage in normal trade instead. The captain of that merchantman probably counted on that protection. The pirate however, perhaps thought no one would ever find out about his misdeeds. After she was taken, one demand for ransom was received but before it could be acted upon, communications ceased.”

  “Recently though, a Barbary rover was caught in the act of pillaging a British merchant vessel. HMS Pallas interrupted the proceedings and destroyed the pirate vessel. The crew was mostly left to their own resources to sink or swim amongst the shattered remains of their galley, as it were, but one pirate was heard speaking understandable English.”

  “He proved to be an Englishman, captured young, who had converted to Islam and gone into the free-booting trade himself.”

  “Taken to England, he was tried and convicted of piracy and murder and was awaiting his appointment with the hangman when his aged mother appeared and begged an interview with her wayward son.”

  “Confronted by her, he admitted to his crimes, one of which was the part he paid in the taking of the Nancy Jane. It seems the Bey of the port from which the pirate had sailed had taken the bounty offered by HM Government to refrain from attacking British shipping.”

  “The corsair captain, knowing the Bey might well send his head to the British commissioner as apology, decided to sell his captives and loot in another port well distant. It seems the current Bey had recently attained office and did not wish to jeopardize the yearly bounty paid to prevent his corsairs from preying on British shipping. Accordingly, the pirate made for the eastern Med where he sold his captives to a slave market on an island to the east of Cyprus. Only the young and healthy were sold. Many of the former crew were put to the sword or sent to the galleys.”