At length, a ball was seen to directly strike an embrasure, and some lively activity resulted. Suddenly, gun muzzles protruded from most of the embrasures, save for the one that had received their ball.
The three guns remaining intact in the battery fired, almost in unison, and all three balls were grouped closely near the ship’s port beam. A bit too close for comfort, so Mullins ordered the ship moved farther out, but their own cannonading continued before the ship could be put on the wind. In those few minutes, another enemy gun was put out of action.
Mister Reynolds became agitated after they moved away from their target. Mullins ignored him for awhile as he observed the enemy actions. The enemy guns continued their fire at this longer range. He thought the enemy commander was merely trying to entice Falcon to close the battery so they could fire at Falcon at a closer range. Now, they seemed to be at the very limit of the French guns range, and received no hits.
Falcon continued her fire, although she too had no further hits. It was now late in the afternoon and Mister Reynolds was becoming noticeably upset as he saw any chance of destroying the battery disappear. He did not see Captain Mullins watching him as he threw his speaking trumpet to the deck in disgust.
Taking pity on the frustrated officer, Mullins called him over. Mullins explained, “Lieutenant Reynolds, you will realize our enemy has only two guns remaining in that battery. Probably both are French eight-pounders, similar to our nines. It is in my mind to wait until dark, then Falcon will proceed directly toward the battery, turning to starboard while still in deep water. When within close range of the battery, we will open fire with our full battery on the port beam and see if we cannot remove the final pair of guns. At this same time, we will send away our boats to make an assault on the battery.’
“If successful, our guns will cease fire, and the shore party will take the battery, destroying anything possible as well as exploding the magazine. Mister Reynolds, you will command the assault party!”
The remaining two enemy guns did not have a chance to damage Falcon. As the light faded, guns from both sides stopped firing and midshipmen went around to each gun, asking the gunners to mark the battery in their minds, so that when they were at a closer range, the crews could accurately lay the carronades on the positions of the two remaining guns.
The light was mostly gone when the ship moved closer to the target, with no apparent notice being taken by the enemy. Hands on the ship could plainly hear the sounds made by the battery’s garrison as they attempted to make repairs in the dark. To his own eyes, he could see no sign of the enemy guns that remained ashore, but one of his crewmen swore he had a clear sight of one, and could destroy it with his first shot.
The ship had finished her approach and now presented her beam to the target. Suddenly, the night was lit up by the flash of a gun, very close to them. Screams indicated the ball had struck several seamen on Falcon. Without waiting until the second enemy gun was prepared, he gave the order to open fire.
A dozen guns fired, carronades and long guns together. In the light of the discharges, Mullins saw the barrel of an enemy gun sent spinning. The guns continued their bombardment with no reply evident from the enemy side. Convinced all enemy guns were destroyed, Mullins ordered the cease fire and sent the assault force in. A few small fires had started burning in the wreckage on the enemy site and gave enough light for the landing party to find their way.
Musketry and pistol flashes ashore showed the progress of the attackers when they landed, but there was little reply from the enemy. Once the landing party gained positive control of the battery, they began consolidating their positions and gathering the enemy casualties. By first light, the battery had been secured and efforts were now being made to destroy it. Three of the enemy eight-pounder guns had been so badly damaged they could never serve again, so these were left while attention was given to the last gun. While its carriage had been destroyed, and a large divot gouged from its breech, it seemed to be otherwise intact and could probably be pressed into use again.
The gun, now empty, was loaded with a triple charge of powder, with a pair of eight-pounder balls on top of the charge. Then, abandoned French bayonets were used to wedge the balls in place. Finally, damp clay was pounded into the gun on top of all the material.
A length of slow match led to the gun’s vent. Loose powder was poured into the vent around the matches end. When everyone had finished searching for souvenirs, the landing party loaded into their boats and Mullins and Mister Welks went to the gun. Asked his opinion, Welks noted the gouge in the breech where one of Falcon’s nine-pound balls had struck it. “Sir, I reckon the gun will give way at the point of the damage. There will probably be a hundred pieces of cast iron flying around when it explodes. It might be a good idea if we were back on the ship when it lets go.”
The cutter came back to pick them up. Before stepping into the boat, Mullins opened the shutter of a dark lantern and held the end of the slow match against the flame inside. Once burning, he dropped the deadly cord and scrambled into the boat. They had boarded the ship and were waiting for the explosion when a party of returning French soldiers came back. There were several small fires still burning, so they did not immediately notice the glare from the burning match. Just before the fire reached the breach of the gun, a soldat pointed to it and a pair of men advanced to investigate. One reached out to snuff it out, just as the ember reached the vent. Since a little powder had been placed in that vent earlier to help speed the flash on its way, the slow burning match fired the powder and instantly the gun fired.
The jammed balls in the bore as well as the packed clay inhibited the effort to cast these objects out, so instead the gun burst in a gigantic eruption, just as Gunner Waites had suggested. All of the party investigating perished, save for one who only had an arm neatly removed. He might have lived had anyone been around to give him aid, but the soldat bled out quickly and died before regaining consciousness.
Chapter Twelve
HMS Falcon cruised off the enemy shore, with lookouts at all three mastheads searching for the enemy. They were rewarded when a ship was sighted ahead, coming bows on toward them. Mullins, at the time, was secluded in his quarter gallery, attending to his personal business.
Pulling up his breeches, and throwing his coat over his arm, he rushed out on deck. Mister Reynolds had preceded him to the quarterdeck, his face half shaven. Mister Rainier, who had the deck, stood by, offering the use of his glass.
“What do we have here, Mister Rainier?” questioned Captain Mullins.
“Sir, all I can see from the deck is her tops’ls, but Jenkins in the maintop thinks she is one of the new French forty gun frigates. At any rate, she is bound for us and we should have a better view of her soon.”
Mullins was faced with a quandary here. On the face of it, his mission here was to interfere with the French navy’s ability to train up officers and crew. Very likely, this was just such a training ship. The issue, as Mullins saw it, was a forty-gun frigate was much too powerful for a little post ship to engage.
If he engaged the ship but lost the engagement, his career would doubtless be over. Should he turn tail and run, he would likely be accused of cowardice and his career again would be terminated.
As he considered the problem, his mind wandered to a possible solution. Before returning to the ship after the capture of the French battery, some of his people had gathered up loose papers scattered around the site. These had been hurriedly stuffed into a bag with no great attention. In the few days since, Lieutenant Rainier and one of the mids had occupied themselves in odd minutes going over the contents of the bag.
It was Midshipman Drew who initially recognized the two scorched and torn pages might have come from a French signal book. Together with the first officer, there was thinking that some of the signals on the pages might apply in the present case. One signal served for the challenge and reply for two ships meeting. Since the pages were from a signal book on a shore station, it
was not known whether they would apply to ships at sea, but it was worth a try.
While still too far away for signals to be read, Mullins ordered the French challenge signal to be sent. He had no idea of what number to identify his own ship he should use, but merely selected on one at random and ordered the challenge flown.
Soon, the approaching frigate answered with her own signal, which could not be read. Mullins cautioned Mister Drew. “That is likely the French signal for ‘Not Understood’. Make a note of it and when you can identify the flags, use that signal to answer any signal where we may need to prevaricate.”
Soon enough, the hoist from the stranger came down and another was hoisted. This one identified the approaching ship as the national ship ‘Terrible’ and her captain as Montrose. Most helpfully, she answered her challenge with a signal hoist which Mullins ordered Drew to record for further use.
Approaching rapidly, the frigate then sent a long signal which they had no means of reading. A few minutes were expended when Falcon replied with the ‘Not Understood’ signal, then it was time to decide what action must be taken.
Mister Reynolds was frantically attempting to get his captain’s attention. “Sir, if we are going to get away from this frigate, we must do so soon!”
Mullins replied, “Mister Reynolds, I think we may have left it a bit late. This fellow is coming up on us rapidly and I fear she is faster than we are. Perhaps we should think about bringing her to action.”
Embarrassed, the first officer moved away to inspect the set of the mizzen staysail while his captain explained to Mister Rainier.
“Lieutenant, the problem is, our enemy is attempting to train up crews for her warships by drafting former seamen recently serving in the ranks of her army. I believe this frigate that we face is one of those very training ships. Our orders are to interfere with such training ships. If we should abandon our efforts and flee, I suspect we may be regarding as lacking courage. Perhaps it would be better if we could follow orders and damage this fellow.”
Rainier answered dubiously, “Yes sir, but that does seem to be a very powerful ship.”
“Of course, you are correct, Mister Rainier, but her captain does not appear to be overly cautious. She is approaching us as if she has not a care in the world. It would probably be wiser for her to stand off at arms-length until she determines our identity and our armament. At this moment, she is well within range of our carronades which should give us a weight of broadside greater than her own.”
“Now, Mister Rainier, I wish you to go forward and set some headsails to push our bow around to port so our starboard battery is pointed at the enemy. I would like to deliver a raking broadside right at her bows.”
The enemy was not altogether surprised. As soon as her captain saw the stranger’s bow swinging about, he called for his crew to clear for action. There was some delay however. He had aboard a large number of former army conscripts, some of whom were former seamen. A few may not have been quite as capable as they may have led their interviewing officers to believe.
This class had been loaded aboard at Brest only days before and many had not yet learned their way about the ship yet. Some were still suffering from seasickness. The instruction thus far had been mostly sail drill and when the order to ‘clear for action’ was given, some of the trainee crew members had to be led to their stations and their duties clearly explained.
There was a terrible surprise when the strange, corvette-sized ship before them turned and presented her beam directly toward their bow. When her ports opened and the guns came out, there was momentary panic before her whole side exploded in fire and thunder. The eighteen-pound balls crashed into her forward hull, rending and tearing at the fabric of the ship and destroying men, weapons and equipment.
Aboard Falcon, the gun crews went into their drill, recharging the fired guns. The carronades in Falcon could be loaded much faster than the long guns on their opponent and after a few discharges, the sound of gunfire became continuous.
The crew of ‘Terrible’ had gone from a training exercise to a desperate struggle to remain alive in seconds. The ship had never been properly cleared for action and some lanterns were still alight below decks. In the savage action, bags of powder charges were torn and powder spilled on the deck. Somehow, flame from one of the ignition sources ignited some of that powder, then an entire bag flashed into flame in the blink of an eye. In seconds, the entire midships was aflame and men were deserting their posts rather than attempt to fight fires for which they had no training.
When the officers aboard Falcon saw the flames boiling from the open hatches, all efforts to fight the ship ceased and the emphasis changed to getting away from the enemy.
When fire raced up into the frigate’s rigging, scraps of blazing canvas flew over to Falcon. There was a flurry as seamen had to scramble to extinguish small fires above deck, but little actual danger evidenced itself.
Gunfire from both ships had ceased just moments after the fire began and seamen on Falcon busied themselves by launching the ship’s boats and throwing overside any articles that would float for the succor of the desperate enemy.
When Captain Mullins ordered men to board the enemy ship to see what could be done about salvage, there was a reluctance to comply. Only after the captain took a party over in his gig did the others follow.
Fortunately, for the survivors of the frigate, the early damage received had caused enough water to flood the frigate so that the lower tiers of her magazine had been flooded. Soon, the remainder of her powder was purposely flooded and now the ship seemed out of immediate danger, though she was riding very low in the water. Her masts were just standing despite the loss of many stays and shrouds. Amidships, there was little but burned out wreckage, and water was freely entering the ship through the enormous shot holes now well under the sea’s surface.
Mullins explored the wreck with his first officer and bosun to see if the ship could be salvaged. All agreed any effort to save the ship would be hopeless, so all work should be concentrated upon removing all of her wounded crew members and any equipment the officers thought should be examined by intelligence people back home.
The enemy ship had suffered horrible casualties and Mullins had doubts where he could stow so many people. Luckily some fishing boats had approached from a nearby village and began taking aboard casualties struggling in the sea.
Mullins did not interfere with that activity, but required his own boat crews to take ashore those horribly burned or wounded victims who could not be treated on Falcon. Once these victims were out of the way, space could just be found for the remaining enemy crew members, those in not such a desperate condition.
With every possible space for a berth filled, Falcon set sail for home.
After picking up a Thames pilot at the Nore, Falcon made her way up the river to London, taking up her mooring in the Pool. Word of her arrival had preceded her and a boat was waiting for them. A Royal Navy lieutenant offered Mullins welcome and informed him he was expected at Admiralty headquarters. The officer explained he would remain with the ship and offered any assistance that might be needed.
Mister Jones was waiting for Mullins in his office and required preliminary information from him as to care and housing for the prisoners as well as aid for Falcon’s own crew. When it came time to describe the battle, a half dozen Naval officers came in and questioned Mullins closely, concerning the action. A senior post captain was critical of his engagement with a more powerful ship than his own. This officer was soon ushered out and Mister Jones explained the captain had not had a command since the American war years before. He had no actual influence in any decision and his presence was due to family influence, allowing the fellow to receive a small honorarium for his advice.
When asked for his opinion on the mission, Mullins stated that he thought the emphasis on inhibiting the training activities of the Imperial navy was worthwhile, but mentioned his difficulty with Lord Keith. Jones was apologetic over the
matter but said it was politically difficult to remove the Channel Fleet commander from the chain of command. He did say future orders would be worded in such a manner as to help captains remain well clear of the admiral.
When the meeting finished, Jones told Mullins to go home and report to his ship in the morning.
“I regret we cannot let you stay in London longer, but the success of your last mission impels us to hasten your return to sea. The dockyard has released another pair of ships and they will be joining you as soon as they can take on crews and stores.
Outside the building, Mullins agonized over his decision of where to spend the night. He missed Doris and their son but could not forgive her for the harm she had caused. He could not abide the thought that a visit to his home might prove humiliating. In the end, he returned to the ship.
It was necessary to remain in the Pool for another two days. They had not used any great quantity of their stores, but Mullins wished to have a complete inventory of everything, since one never knew where the ship might be sent without prior notice.
When she unmoored, the ship even had a half-dozen new hands on board to replace casualties taken during their engagement. This time, there would be no nonsense about reporting to the Channel Fleet commander. The orders specifically assigned the ship to Commodore Harding’s little fleet.
The commodore was no longer in the area where they had last met him, but another member of his fleet was awaiting him there. Captain Hitchcock of the Redoubtable, although of the same substantive rank as Mullins, was senior to since he had been posted earlier, attempted to require him to remain in company with his ship. Mullins told Hitchcock that he felt bound by previous orders from Harding to keep his ship on the move, the better to interdict French traffic.
HMS Falcon: A Charles Mullins novel, Sea Command 7 Page 8
