Richard Testrake - (Sea Command 2)

by Richard Testrake

  Chapter Seven

  The colonel, elated at getting his own way, sat in the stern sheets of the boat, beside Mullins, seemingly undeterred by the rough passage to the rock-strewn beach. As they neared the beach, departing gunners from the battery were seen making their escape through the dense gorse in the rear.

  The seamen saw to pulling the boat up on shore, while the Marines doubled to the remnants of the battery. Colonel Howard followed them and occupied himself by poking around among the wrecked guns with their dead and wounded French gunners. Mullins put a petty officer to getting the enemy wounded under shelter and instructed a party to see to the dead. If they had time before French forces responded, he intended to give them a burial, perhaps leaving a note with details of the casualties’ names, if these could be determined.

  Colonel Howard gave a whoop as he discovered the badly wounded French artillery lieutenant who had commanded the battery. The officer had received a grapeshot ball that had mangled his shoulder, tearing some flesh away. Howard had his sword to the weakened officer’s neck trying to get him to stand.

  Seeing this, Mullins hurried over, ordering the colonel to stand down. Astonished at the captain’s effrontery, Howard seemed to be considering what he should do, but the sight of a pair of Marines behind Mullins caused him to lower his weapon.

  Those men with serious wounds were placed on carrying boards and taken out to the ship, to be seen by the surgeon; the former French commander being one of the first to be sent.

  The other prisoners, healthy or those with minor wounds, were placed under guard and taken to a safe area, well away from the magazine.

  Mister Weems had come ashore when the boat returned from its mission of delivering wounded and went with Mullins to examine the former battery’s magazine. A pit had been dug on the reverse slope of a knoll and had been lined with mortared stone. A low roof covered it. Much of the interior was filled with kegs of powder, but a separate room inside served as space for a crew to fill cartridges. Storage for projectiles was in a crudely built shed behind the magazine.

  The bulk powder was in the standard oaken kegs. After Weems pronounced it to be in excellent condition, Mullins ordered a party of seamen to roll some of the casks down to the shore. This would serve as practice ammunition, which would not need to be accounted for on return to port.

  When all preparations had been made, the captured powder was first loaded in the launch to be pulled out to the ship, then most of the landing force was sent away, keeping only a few men to assist with the demolition of the magazine. Colonel Howard insisted upon staying as well.

  Mister Weems had brought some quick match on shore with him, as well as a few fathoms of slow match.

  With the remaining barrels of powder in the magazine, were also some cartridges already made up for use. Leaving the outside door open to gain a little light to see what they were doing, Weems and Mullins carefully placed a dozen cartridges at the base of the powder kegs. Weems slit one of the cartridges with his knife and the dry powder spilled out onto the stone floor.

  Thrusting one end of a length of quick match into the loose powder he led the remaining portion through the open door. At the other end of the quick match. Weems tied a short length of slow match. This slow match would burn at the rate of a few inches an hour, while the quick match could flash through fifty yards in an eye blink.

  In this case, when the slow match was lit, it would burn very slowly to its junction with the quick match. When that fired, it would flash to its destination with the gunpowder almost instantly.

  With all ready, Weems drew out his large Sea Service pistol. Picking up a shorebird’s lost feather from the beach, he jammed the quill end into the flash hole of his weapon. Hopefully, this would prevent the flash of the powder in the pan from igniting the main charge and firing the pistol. After renewing the priming of the pistol’s pan, he placed a wad of tow into the branches of a convenient bush and sprinkled powder onto the material. With his pistol in one hand and the slow match in the other, he fired the pistol, holding it over the powder impregnated tow. Almost instantly after the powder in the pistol’s pan flared, that in the tow also caught and there was for a moment a hot fire blazing in the top of that bush. Igniting the match from that blaze, it was now time to make the final preparations for departure.

  The party retreated to a distant part of the beach. In due course, the ember at the end of the slow match reached the quick match. Then, the flame flashed toward its target, the powder in the magazine. The results were spectacular, leaving nothing but a crater in the earth where the magazine had been.

  Those prisoners left on shore, both lightly wounded and healthy, were liberated and told they were free to depart.

  Their mission on shore ended, Mullins and the rest of the party boarded the launch and were pulled out to the ship, Colonel Howard being strangely silent for the trip. Mullins thought he might have learned a bit on this day.

  HMS Valkyrie proceeded on course for Gibraltar. On the way, several small coasters were sighted close to shore but, because of the poor quality of their near-shore chart, it was decided that it would be dangerous to approach any of these shallow-draft vessels, so they were ignored. Colonel Howard, his blood now up, requested they locate more shore installations to attack, but for the same reason, Mullins declined, thinking they had done enough damage for now. It would be better to wait until reaching Gibraltar where they might find what the Navy wanted them to do.

  By the time they arrived, the colonel had modified his views on the Royal Navy in general and HMS Valkyrie in particular. One of Mullin’s barge-men had retrieved the French tricolor from the battery’s flag pole and proudly displayed it to his mess-mates whenever he had a chance.

  Captain Mullins purchased the flag from the seaman with a bottle of fine brandy and presented it to Colonel Howard.

  Howard, upon reaching shore, submitted a most gratifying report on the professional abilities of the captain and officers on this King’s ship. Mullins and Lieutenant Danton were invited to the colonel’s regimental mess where they found the captured banner on prominent display, with the elegantly inscribed script on a silver plate describing how it had been captured in battle by forces under the command of Colonel Howard.

  Amused by the incident, Mullins enjoyed himself, so much it took several seamen to hoist him aboard ship later in the evening.

  The ship swung at anchor in harbor while loading incidental supplies. Mullins went ashore to the Government building in the ‘Convent’, where he was informed his ship was to escort a merchantman across to Algeria to take on a load of livestock. The animals would serve as provisions for the Gibraltar garrison as well as for ships calling at the port. It was hoped this would develop into a normal trade path between the two continents.

  Although theoretically, the entire North African coast was ruled by Constantinople, actually many enclaves were more or less independent.

  Captain Ben Warner of the merchant ship, ‘City of Glasgow, came aboard Valkyrie that evening and explained the situation over wine and cigars in Mullin’s quarters.

  “Every local strongman in North Africa hopes to overthrow his overlord and become the supreme ruler in his area. If he succeeds, he can become very wealthy from his share of plunder and trade. We are sailing to a small village on the north coast of Africa. It would normally be insignificant, but it does have an ancient breakwater built by the Romans, which serves as a port of sorts. The local strongman was months ago a petty chieftain of nomadic tribesmen who based themselves in that village.”

  “He murdered the previous ruler and pronounced himself emir. Sooner or later, someone will be able to remove him, but at the moment he has a large number of native tribesmen at his call. His people, when not looting or pillaging others, are primarily herders and farmers. One of his agents contacted me recently offering to sell quantities of sheep and cattle. I posted a letter to Governor O’Hara here about the possibility of trade. He was most interested in the prospect
and will give me an open contract for the importation of livestock and corn from this source.”

  Mullins wondered, “Captain Warner, just how is it that you are known to this ruler? Why has he come to you?”

  Warner answered, “Emir al-Hassan doesn’t know me from Adam’s off ox. When I was a young seaman sailing out of Plymouth, the fishing boat I was working on was taken by Moorish raiders, right outside the channel. They took what catch we had and cut the throats of all the crew but myself. They let me live since I was young and fit in those days and they needed another oarsman.”

  “I pulled an oar for five years and was about on my last legs when the xebec in which I was pulling an oar attacked a small convoy of merchants near Sicily. They were not well armed and had no escort, which meant that several of them would probably be taken. When my xebec came up on the starboard beam of a poleacre, a brig to our starboard came right at us. That brig’s captain was being bloody minded and crushed our hull right in.”

  “There were a few hundred Moors on the xebec and they tried to board the two merchants but the 24-pounder guns we had in our bow pulled us right down when the hull went.”

  “I was chained to my bench, but the impact tore something free and I was able to get clear before the xebec went down. I still had my irons on and would have soon gone under myself, but grabbed a big spar next to me and that kept me afloat until I was rescued.”

  “I went back to sea and after twenty years was master of my own ship. Since I knew the language, I often arrange for cargoes through some merchants I do business with. These people have friends and relatives in most ports around the Med and are usually honest.”

  “I can mostly trust their word as to any danger involved. In this case, the man that contacted me assured me this emir could deliver his cattle and corn, but would likely cut my throat if he thought there was profit in it. Governor O’Hara said he could get me a Royal Navy escort, and that convinced me to take the risk.”

  Mullins and Warner finished another brace of claret before they decided to call it a night. Mullins head was still muddled the next morning, and he could recall little of the previous evening. Fortunately, Warner had left behind his notes for the undertaking. They were well written and easily understood.

  Calling Mister Danton as well as the sailing master into his quarters, Mullins went over the plans. Ralston produced his charts of the North African coast and the destination village was located. The chart showed the old breakwater. From all the information Mister Ralston was able to obtain, this breakwater consisted of remains from an ancient Roman harbor. Much of the stonework had been removed over the centuries, but enough of the huge blocks of stone remained in the water to offer some protection to small craft.

  Ralston was dubious about the accuracy of the marked depths on the charts, but thought a pair of boats going in ahead of the ship, sounding as they went, could give adequate warning of any dangers.

  Chapter Eight

  The sloop-of war was escorting a big ship-rigged merchant across the Mediterranean. The ship ‘City of Glasgow’ had a cargo of cast off muskets of various European countries to offer in trade for the cattle they hoped to obtain. Mullins boarded the merchant to inspect its offerings before sailing and was amazed anyone would actually wish to purchase such defective equipment.

  Warner re-assured him. “These old muskets will be sold or traded to itinerate herdsmen who will hope to use them on raiding parties against their neighbors. Those neighbors probably have weapons in the same stage of disrepair as these. In any case, we do not want to furnish these people with arms they may be able to use successfully against ourselves.”

  A pair of Moorish raiders investigated them as they approached the African coast. There was no way of knowing the intentions of these people, but it was safe to assume they would attack violently if they thought they could succeed. Seeing the guns Valkyrie showed in her ports, the raiders sheared off and went on their way. Mullins would have liked to pursue but knew he could never catch them. If there was a chance one might be overtaken, all it would need to do to escape would be to turn into the wind, drop the sails and go on oars.

  Approaching their destination, the ruined breakwater was readily apparent off the village of mud-brick hovels. Using the lead line, Valkyrie approached as close as Mister Ralston dared, then two boats led the way into the area behind the breakwater. People began to gather in substantial numbers on shore. Since there were numerous boats of various sizes on the beach, Mullins thought it wise to keep his guns showing, to prevent any misunderstandings.

  Some of the people on-shore got into a boat and pulled out to the merchant. Guessing these were their businessmen, Mullins decided to take a party of armed seamen over and monitor the discussions. Leaving Mister Danton in charge of the ship, he took a party of seamen over to the merchant.

  The principals had all adjourned to the main cabin. The first mate ushered Mullins to the conference, leaving the seamen on deck, to glare at the similarly armed boat crew from shore. Captain Warner and a robed and turbaned individual with an impressive growth of beard were sitting on the deck around a strange looking apparatus.

  Warner stopped his presentation and introduced Mullins to the Moor, switching from English to Arabic with apparent ease. He invited Mullins to make use of the hookah, explaining it was a water pipe, that burned tobacco. The smoke passed through a water bath which cooled it, before being inhaled. Both men were sharing a single tube to draw in the smoke.

  Not impressed, Mullins declined. The emir was an enormously grimy individual. His face and beard were equally stained, making it difficult to determine the actual color. He was not at all enthused to put that tube, which had just left the emir’s mouth into his own. For much of the discussion, he sat there, listening to the Arabic discussion without understanding a word. Occasionally, Warner gave a synopsis of the matters they were discussing.

  Finally, Warner gave a shout and a pair of hands brought in a heavy wooden crate, opening it before leaving. Inside were a half dozen French Charleville pattern muskets. These weapons had seen hard usage and had obviously been out in the weather before being crated.

  These weapons, despite their flaws, appeared to be functional, unlike many others Mullins had seen in the same cargo.

  The bargaining resumed in earnest, with the Moor expressing his disgust with the offerings. Finally, Warner gave another shout, and a box full of paper cartridges was brought into the cabin. At length, Warner told Mullins they were going to adjourn to the deck where the emir wished to fire the weapons.

  Mullins was not at all sure about this wisdom. Most of the weapons he had seen were battlefield relics, collected after days or weeks laying out in the weather after a battle. However, Warner was the trader, not himself, so he remained quiet.

  On deck, the party stood by the taffrail while Warner asked the Moor to select a weapon to fire. Grinning, the Moor bent over the pile of muskets and made his selection, handing it to Warner. This weapon had a broken flint and could not be expected to fire in its present condition.

  Warner had one of his men go to an arms chest nearby, and remove a musket. This was a late pattern British Army Brown Bess musket in perfect firing order.

  The weapons in this chest were part of the supply carried on the merchant meant to be used for defensive purposes by the crew and would not be part of the trade goods.

  Warner loosened the clamp holding the flint in place in the cock, withdrew the flint and installed it securely in the old French musket. He reached into the open box of paper cartridges, selecting one and tearing off the paper ‘tail’ at its base. Pouring a little powder in the pan, he closed the frizzen and dumped the rest of the powder down the barrel. Dropping the ball from the cartridge in, he stuffed the paper remnants of the cartridge down the muzzle and pushed everything home with the ramrod.

  Warner offered the loaded weapon to the emir, but that worthy did not want to be the first to fire this old musket.

  When it was offer
ed to Mullins, he looked for a potential target. The only thing visible at a reasonable range was a dead fish floating nearby in the harbor. He had grave doubts about his ability with a musket, especially a battlefield relic like this. He pointed out his target to the others and steadied the weapon on target. Cocking the piece, a pull on the trigger resulted in a flash and smoke discharge from the musket’s pan, then an instant later came the blast and recoil, as the gun’s charge fired. A stiff breeze blew away the powder smoke and a gout of water splashed up a good six feet short of the target.

  The emir gave a hoot of distain and reached out for the musket. Loading it rather more handily than Warner had, he took a shot at the same target. This time, the big ball impacted the target and the fish disintegrated. The emir grunted with satisfaction and spoke to Warner. In turn, Warner informed Mullins that sheep and cattle would be brought to the shore for loading on the ships.

  “In addition to the muskets, he wants an additional fifty guineas, as well as a supply of ammunition. I have the money, but will not give him more than twenty guineas. I have only a few of the French cartridges and hesitate to give him any for fear of what he might do with them.”

  Mullins thought for a moment. “I can furnish a crate of a thousand cartridges from my ship’s stores. Hopefully, the governor will replace it so I do not have to account for it. When will we see the cattle?”

  “The animals will be brought to the quay in the morning, where they will be loaded on lighters and brought to the ship. As the livestock is loaded, we will hand down the weapons into the lighter. The gold and ammunition will be the last articles we hand over, when we are satisfied with the trade.”

  Early the next morning, the midshipman of the anchor watch reported that herds of sheep and cattle were appearing on shore. A pair of large fishing boats were pressed into service to deliver the animals out to the ships. Crews on shore and aboard ship labored all day to get the beasts stowed. When it became obvious the merchantman could not hold another animal, Warner came to see Mullins.