Richard Testrake - (Sea Command 2)

by Richard Testrake

  Two admitted to service as petty officers on previous naval commissions, and they were given their old rates, at least temporarily. Now men began arriving from other sources almost every day. There were a number of men now being accommodated on an old hulk used as a receiving ship that were available to Valkyrie. Additionally, ships, both merchant and naval, arrived every day. Hands from the ships paying off were available for impressment if they would not enter service voluntarily.

  Two weeks after commissioning, HMS Valkyrie had nearly a full complement of men. The dockyard had done excellent work fitting the ship out for sea. As hands became available, ships stores were brought aboard, after which the ship was moved far out into the harbor where she took aboard her powder.

  Then it was time to put to sea to determine how the ship would perform with her new crew and equipment in British service. Signals had been received from the flag for the past few days wondering when they would sail. Mullins had the signal midshipman hoist the signal that Valkyrie was ready to sail.

  Now it was the turn of the admiral to delay sailing. The signal ‘Wait’ was flown from the flag, and Mister Danton had the watch below stand down. Nothing more was heard concerning the delay until the next morning, when a launch seen approaching, filled with red-coated Marines. Hailed, her cox’n replied with an ‘Aye-aye’, indicating an officer was aboard.

  A Lieutenant of Marines boarded, introducing himself as Daniels, and presenting orders sending himself and his Marines aboard HMS Valkyrie for service.

  There was an immediate flurry, as Mister Danton had to re-arrange berthing arrangements to supply room for the newcomers.

  In the midst of the confusion, a signal from the flag gave them permission to sail. Mullins gave Ralston the task of taking the ship out while Danton worked with Daniels to get the Marines stowed properly.

  There was the expected muddle when it became time to get sail on the ship. Men with previous experience had been assigned duty in the tops, while the landsmen were put on the braces to haul the big yards about. Unfortunately, despite hours of previous instruction by the petty officers, much of this training was forgotten as soon as the ship became alive. Many of the hands began spewing on the deck, and those hands not affected, began pulling at cross purposes with each other. Mister Danton was mortified when Daniel’s Marines saved the ship from being embarrassed when they tailed onto braces and helped get the ship out of the crowded harbor.

  Once at sea, out of sight of land, sail drill was commenced, with the different evolutions being repeated over and over again. Many new hands were shaking with exhaustion when Mullin’s ordered ‘Up Spirits’, with dinner following. After dinner, as a change of pace, gun drill commenced. The first hour was spent with the crew observing one of the nine-pounders being fired. Gunner Weems himself served as gun captain, and both Mullins and Danton served on the gun crew.

  Weems furnished a few emptied powder kegs for targets, and the crew took great pleasure watching their officers banging away at them, with little success. Following this instruction, every gun was manned and the petty officers began having the gun crews run their guns out by command, simulate firing, then run the guns to the rear in simulated recoil. After these actions were repeated multiple times, powder charges were brought on deck and each gun loaded with a powder charge, with only a few wads on top of the charge. The men had the opportunity of firing off the blank charges without the danger and recoil of fully loaded guns.

  New charges were brought on deck, and loaded carefully into the guns, observed closely by the petty officers. This time, each crew was ordered to select a ball from the rack and load it into the gun, then inserting a wad to hold the ball in place. Following this, the captain went to each gun, reminding them of the muffled jeers he had listened to when he had served on the officer’s gun.

  “Now, you men have a chance to show us what you can do. Each gun will have one target. Any gun crew that hits its target with their single shot will receive an extra ration of grog tonight. Now go to your guns and wait for the order to fire. If a gun demolishes its target, we will launch another for the next gun.

  After deploying a pair of the empty powder barrels, Valkyrie went about and approached the bobbing targets from downwind. A gunner’s mate went to each gun in its turn and made sure the weapon was safe to fire. The crews had to be supervised to insure that no one was in the way of the gun’s recoil when it fired.

  Some of the crews were frightened at the violent recoil, but most seemed to be exhilarated. All nine of the guns on the broadside fired without result, so Mullins put the ship around for another go.

  This time, number four gun’s ball struck a floating barrel a glancing blow, causing it to dissolve into its constituent components. The remainder of the guns fired at the other barrel with no success.

  At that point Mullins called a halt to the competition and called the winning crew aft, where he told them they would receive two rations of grog before supper. They would also be first in line.

  When the guns were cleaned and bowsed up against the ship’s side, Mullins felt he had a good crew. There had been much grousing earlier, especially among those who been brought aboard dead drunk from the effects of the recruiting parties in the pubs. While Mullins doubted few men were happy to be at sea, at least some now realized attention to duty could bring good results.

  His orders required him to put to sea for a week to make certain the ship was in order then proceed to Portsmouth for further orders. Mullins intended to expand upon his orders a little. At this point, he did not intend to initiate any action against a French national ship close to Valkyrie’s size, but he thought he might look for an enemy coaster that he might take prize.

  If he could bring such a prize into port, the crew would receive prize money, in addition to their miserable pay, perhaps enough to pay for a monumental drunk ashore, should they make port where he could safely give his men liberty. Without mentioning his plans, Valkyrie made her way across the Channel and began working her way along the coast.

  Deciding his men needed more gunnery practice and wishing to save the ammunition he had personally purchased, he had his lookouts watching the shore for targets of opportunity. Firing at legitimate military targets would give his crew valuable training without causing difficulties with the Board of Ordnance. One afternoon, a battalion of foot troops were sighted strung out on the coast road. The ship sailed parallel on the coast, overtaking the troops.

  Mister Ralston brought out his chart and Mullins and Mister Danton examined it. There appeared to be deep water near the shore a few miles down the coast off Cap Antifer. To avoid alarming their quarry, the ship veered away from shore and continued on. Since the ship was sailing faster than the troops were marching, it took some close judgement for the ship to arrive at her firing position at the same time as the troops.

  As Valkyrie sailed inbound, Gunner Weems went about the ship, inspecting each gun. When he was satisfied, Mullins called the men aft and explained what they were about. Most were excited over the prospect of imminent action. With the men at their stations and the guns readied, the ship neared her intended victims.

  At this time, trouble showed itself. From a jumble of rocks on a small cape, smoke blossomed and a ball came skipping across the water. A hidden battery emplaced on that cape had fired as Valkyrie approached within range. Deciding to use his readied weapons on that battery rather than go about and sail out of range, the gun captains were notified of the new targets, and the order given to fire. The first shots did little, but the succeeding broadside was more successful. Those officers with a glass focused on the target saw a gun barrel thrown into the air after being struck by a nine-pound ball.

  The remaining guns of the battery were slow to fire and Valkyrie got in a third broadside. Some shots were seen impacting outside the target area, but enough were effective to persuade the enemy gunners to abandon their weapons and depart.

  With the enemy battery now silent, Mullins put his glass on
the troops. They had formed up into ranks facing the sea and, as he watched, fired off a volley. Far out of effective range, few of the musket balls actually reached the ship. One ball, as big as the end of a man’s thumb, came aboard, striking the binnacle. Midshipman Connor, at Mullin’s side serving as his messenger, pried the ball from the wood and presented the ball to Mullins.

  Hardly deformed at all, the captain handed the missile back to the lad, telling him to show it to the young ladies he met, to impress on them the dangers he faced.

  The ship was now about 200 yards from shore, too far for the enemy musketry to pose a threat, but well within the capabilities of the ship’s guns.

  Mister Ralston altered course to avoid some underwater snags that appeared on his chart and steadied the ship to parallel the coast. Ghosting along under tops’ls alone, the ship crept up on the enemy troops. Just before reaching the perfect position to deliver a devastating broadside, a pair of galloper guns arrived at the end of the enemy line. The guns were unlimbered and the horses led off.

  Curious, Mullins watched first one of the guns, then the other prepared, aimed and fired. Although the guns were very close and firing at a large target, he was impressed at the speed and accuracy of their firing. Both balls struck the ship, although neither caused an injury or harmed the ship in any important manner.

  As soon as the guns dashed up, Mullins had sent Midshipman Connor around to make sure every gunner knew he was to fire at the guns. At the captain’s nod, Mister Danton gave the order to fire, and all guns on her broadside went off almost simultaneously. The gun crews had gained a little more experience, and Mullins was impressed by the results.

  Those galloper guns had been deployed much too close together and were in the open without cover of any sort. The hail of grape from the nine-pounder guns accounted for most of the enemy gun crew. The guns themselves seemed to be undamaged, but stood by themselves, surrounded by their dead and wounded crew.

  At last free to concentrate on the formation of troops, which by now were pumping volley after volley of musket fire at them, the guns commenced their thunder at the motionless flesh and blood.

  Some of the enemy balls had been coming on board and two men were down and being carried below to the surgeon. The musket fire ceased, when the charges of grapeshot arrived.

  The plum-sized iron balls were travelling fast enough at this range to penetrate several men at a time. Dozens of foot soldiers fell in swathes. Some of the survivors went through their musket drill, loading and presenting for another volley. When the second broadside arrived though, many of the survivors broke and fled, leaving only a steadfast group standing.

  Since these men were no longer firing at the ship, and Mullins was sickened at the carnage, he ordered the guns to cease their fire. Lieutenant Daniels took his Marines ashore to inspect the damage to the battery’s guns. The Marines were ashore for several hours, during which time, he met with the surviving officer of the enemy troops, under a flag of truce.

  This officer was concerned over the suffering of his wounded men and asked for a surgeon to assist them.

  Upon returning to the ship, Daniels reported all four of the battery’s guns had been dismounted. With no other means of permanently disabling them, his men hammered hardened steel spikes down each touchhole and broke them off. In order to fire the guns again, each spike would have to be removed, a time-consuming and difficult task.

  Mister Daniels reported an interesting bit of information about the guns of the battery. They were, all four of them, British weapons, taken, it had been learned from one of the batteries survivors, from the wreck of the brig Terror. HMS Terror had run on a rock just offshore in a gale two years before, and had been lost with most of her men.

  The galloper guns were easier to disable. One gun was loaded with a heavy charge and a ball and placed so the muzzle was inches away from a trunnion of the remaining gun. When fired from cover, that trunnion was blasted away, leaving no way for the gun to be mounted. The remaining weapon was loaded with a triple charge of powder and three balls. Bayonets from abandoned muskets were jammed into the muzzle, holding those balls in place. Then earth was tamped into the muzzle and the gun fired from behind a protective position. When the piece fired, a large piece of the cast-iron breech was blown out. This weapon would never fire again, until re-cast in a foundry.

  Daniels reported the events ashore to Mullins as soon as he came aboard, especially the request from the French officer regarding a surgeon for his wounded. Mullins was agreeable, and sent word to the surgeon to be prepared to treat wounded ashore as soon as he finished with the ship’s wounded.

  The surgeon spent the greater part of the day ashore, until the masthead reported traffic approaching along the coast road. The dust cloud resolved itself into a squadron of oncoming horsemen. Not wishing to become involved in another engagement, Mullins ordered the recall signal hoisted and a gun fired to give it emphasis. With no sign of compliance by the doctor, another gun was fired. This brought the doctor to the opening of the tent in which the wounded were being treated. The doctor waved a bloody bandage at the ship then went back inside. The French officer then disappeared into the tent, coming out with the doctor. A few soldiers escorted the protesting doctor to the boat waiting just offshore.

  The ship had already won her anchor when the boat hooked on, and had set sail for the open sea when the horsemen reached the site of the action. The cavalrymen dismounted and deployed, ready for action, but their short-barreled carbines would never throw a ball out to the receding ship.

  Doctor Burns was still fuming when he came aboard and proceeded to inform the captain of his views of abruptly abandoning badly injured patients. Mister Danton pulled Dr. Burns aside and explained to him that it was impolitic to speak to one’s captain in such a manner. Mister Ralston, watching the activity onshore through his glass, reported the arrivals had entered the hospital tent, and would probably continue the care of the wounded. Troopers wandered over the wreckage of the battery, apparently looking for articles to salvage.

  The quarterdeck officers noted the new arrivals had taken note of the destruction caused by this single ship and her guns and avoided concentrating in groups that might be worthwhile for the ship to engage. With no reason to remain, HMS Valkyrie departed.

  Now at some leisure, Mullins invited Mister Daniels to dine with him and questioned him about the British guns found in the battery.

  “How difficult would it have been to retrieve the weapons?” Mullins wondered.

  Daniels pondered the problem. “Sir, I suppose it would have been possible, given enough time and men. One of the guns had been struck on the muzzle by one of our shot, and had a large piece of the casting broken off.”

  Mullins said, “I think the Terror was armed with a dozen nine pounders. I wonder what the French did with the rest of them?”

  Daniels thought, “Sir, some of them could still be on the bottom. It might have been a difficult salvage mission to get those four guns on shore.”

  Mullins pointed to one of Mister Ralston’s charts he had been studying. It was an older one that had been recently corrected. Along the coast in their vicinity, three batteries had been recently constructed, protecting some small coves. One of the marked batteries was the one they had just destroyed.

  Thinking out loud, he mused, “I wonder if the French recovered all of Terrors’ guns and used them to construct these batteries?”

  Valkyrie continued her patrol down the coast until she came to the position of another of the marked batteries. It was late in the afternoon when they arrived and visibility was poor, with driving rain obscuring the shore. Mullins called his first officer and Mister Daniels.

  “Gentlemen, we are presently just off a previously undefended cove. Within recent months, our friends ashore have constructed a battery. What it is defending at this moment, I have no idea. However, since it is our duty to bring dismay to our enemy, I propose to attack that battery, and bring off any shipping t
hat may be in the harbor.”

  “We will man our boats, leaving a minimal crew on the ship and proceed into the harbor. The present rain will mask our approach and it should be dark by the time we arrive. Our first task will be to reduce the battery. After that has been rendered harmless, we will see what mischief we may do while there.

  The men were thoroughly soaked from the incessant rain before landing. Their weapons had their locks covered with greased leather covers, but Mullins doubted if more than a single musket could be made to fire in all this dampness. The boats landed behind a little rocky spur jutting out into the sea a quarter mile from their destination, and the men debarked. The boat crews were ordered to put out to sea and proceed to the site of the battery and await developments.

  The landing party scrambled up a brush covered hillside and found a track along the coast running toward their objective.

  It was a bedraggled party of men who came to the cove in a driving rain near midnight. The battery was there, four guns mounted behind an earthen embankment, with each gun’s muzzle protruding through its embrasure.

  None of the guns were manned. Apparently all of the gun crews were in their billets in the nearby hamlet.

  A low lying structure behind the battery proved to be the magazine. A pair of men were wrapped up in their greatcoats inside. A collection of empty wine bottles furnished evidence of their dedication to duty.

  Mister Daniels had his Marines secure the men, after which all of the individual muskets were dried and recharged. Then, parties of Marines went into the hamlet, searching each hovel for any French artillerymen.