HMS Athena: A Charles Mullins novel (Sea Command Book 4) (13 page)

After much negotiation between Mullins and the Master/Commander of the Cherokee, it was decided the captured schooner would be released to her captain and crew, while the pirates now in irons in Athena would be turned over to Master/Commander Phillips who would take them to an appropriate jurisdiction for trial.

After agreeing on the disposition of the pirates, Mullins produced some bottles of a decent claret he had purchased at a prize auction back on Jamaica, while Master/Commander Phillips was able to contribute some Spanish cigars. Leaning over Mullin’s desk to light his cigar, Phillips noticed the scrap of paper constituting the chart of the island where the Hollister slave transfer was to take place. He commented the image looked very much like a Spanish-owned island off Florida, called Cayo Santa Maria.

After separating from Cherokee, Mister Cartwright set course for Cayo Santa Maria. He had no accurate charts of this area, what he had merely being copies of ancient Spanish drawings. Without more accurate guidance, neither Mullins nor Cartwright dared to approach the key’s shores too closely. The hand drawn chart they had indicated the slaves were to be transferred at sea near the mid-point of the island’s southern coast.

Cruising along the coast, nothing was sighted, either ashore or on the sea. Mullins had not really expected any positive results. The French ship may well have appeared a week ago, or it might come a week after their last pass along this coast. Athena continued down the chain of islands, stopping occasionally to investigate bays and coves that might prove useful in the future.

Nothing remarkable was found, although a colony of Blacks was found on the shore of one beautiful key near the end of the chain of islands. Rounding a point, the ship encountered a pair of dugout canoes, paddled frantically toward shore by their crews. A dozen thatched huts were erected on the banks of a small stream, their inhabitants running into the island’s brushy cover.

Guessing these were either runaway Spanish slaves, or the descendants of the same, Mullins ordered the ship back out to sea again, having no wish to disturb these people. Patrolling farther out for a week, Mullins wondered whether he should remain in these parts or look for prey in other areas.  Deciding to give it another try, Mullins ordered Mister Cartwright to close Cayo Santa Maria again, before going to other pastures. With the maintop lookout reporting land in sight ahead, just moments later he reported a sail approaching on their starboard beam.

Investigating the strange sail, several of the hands identified it as a French-built brig, although it was flying no ensign. Heavily laden, the brig had no chance to escape from the clean-lined post ship, and after a futile attempt to make for shallow water, a shot across her bow brought her to.

There was a moment of confusion on the deck of the stranger when some of the brig’s cargo was brought up from the hold. Still in their chains, lines of Blacks were paraded at the rail, as though about to be put over the side. Mullins had heard before that slave ship masters were known to do this when capture seemed to be imminent. Apparently, the theory was, if the all of the evidence was drowned men on the sea bottom, there would be no evidence to be brought against the slavers in court.

Mullins was having none of that. Nodding to Mister Howard at the forward nine-pounder, a shot exploded from the muzzle and impacted the brig just aft of her cutwater. The brig came off the wind and lay parallel with the swells, her sails flapping in the light airs.

Once Athena’s launch with the boarding party neared the brig, it was evident to the crew this was the ship for which they had been searching. Mullins had expected this brig to be delivering a few dozen slaves to Hollister. Apparently, the brig’s owners had larger plans. It was packed solidly with human flesh. In addition to the chained victims on deck, the brig’s spaces below decks were jammed. Despite Athena’s threatening guns, the brig’s crew continued enforcing discipline among their charges, witnessed by the innumerable whip slashes visible on the tortured bodies.

Mister Howard and Midshipman Gregor led the boarding party and soon had the slave’s guards disarmed and sequestered up forward. There was immediate tumult among the slaves, with many of them attempting to savage their former persecutors, even though handicapped by their bonds. As matters became more settled on the prize, with the boarders expressing their authority, Mister Gregor came back in the launch to make his report. It seemed the captives came from various stations in life. Although all had some percentage of African blood in their veins, many had been free all of their lives, often operating small businesses and establishments of various sorts. Others were uneducated field hands, some taken from their African homes earlier in their lives.

In the early days of the French Revolution, slavery in the colonies had been abolished and the servants had legally become free. Many of the slave owners objected to losing the investment in their workforce and refused to comply with the government’s edicts. Revolution erupted over the island, which French troops attempted to quell. Disease among the troops and British intervention disrupted the French army’s efforts to bring calm.

Upon Napoleon’s ascendency to the leadership of France, he remembered the days when this colony of St. Domingue produced much wealth for the parent country. Believing that slavery was essential to bringing prosperity to the colony, he attempted to re-impose slavery upon the colony. In the chaos that ensued, many persons of color were snatched up by force and placed in chains, even though some of their ancestors had been free for generations.

Midshipman Gregor reported that with the confused circumstances on the prize, it had been impossible to remove the shackles on the Blacks. Several Blacks, however, had approached Lieutenant Howard to explain their own circumstances.

One of the spokesmen spoke fluent English, having traded for years with the British islands before the war. He requested the British captain to allow them to seek refuge on some British island where they might be safe from French authority.

Convinced that he must go aboard the prize to discuss these problems, Mullins had himself pulled over in his gig. After listening to Mister Howard’s explanations, he ordered a space on deck cleared where he could speak with representatives of the victims.

Monsieur Henri Bruyes, an English speaking former free Black, was the chief spokesman since his English was better than any of Mullins’ officer’s French. Bruyes said after the initial decrees granting freedom to most slaves, many of the white masters had reacted violently, with Blacks of any station treated abominably. One day a squad of French soldiers broke into his own home, announcing he and his family were now to be slaves, even though even his grandparents had been free, as had his parents and those of his wife.

The anguished victim pleaded with Mullins for some show of mercy toward his new charges. Captain Mullins explained his difficulty. He was not certain how the civil authorities back at Jamaica Station would view this cargo of captured French slaves. He himself believed they would be regarded as spoils of war and placed on the auction block, there to become slaves to British owners, hardly an improvement in their circumstances.

As he considered his options, an idea to assist this particular person came to him. Monsieur Bruyes appeared to be a mature adult of perhaps forty years of age, seemingly healthy. According to his own account, he had run a successful business in the colony for years.

Captain Mullins had a purser on board that he did not entirely trust. There were many instances of ‘mistakes’ which caused crew members pay to be debited for goods they had never actually received. The purser was not actually a crew member. Actually, he was an independent contractor who supplied crew members with goods and delicacies which they otherwise would have done without.

It was one of Mullins chores to oversee the purser’s account, to ensure the crew members were not being defrauded, a task for which he had never been trained.

Voicing his problem to M. Bruyes, he informed him that any person taking service with the Royal Navy, automatically became free, regardless of previous conditions of servitude.

“Monsieur, if you would voluntarily take service aboard this ship as my servant, you would be free, in the eyes of British law, with no one able to put you back into chains again. Although you would be on the ship’s books as my servant, you would actually be watching over my purser, hopefully discovering the means by which he might be bilking my crewmen. Of course, some will say you have merely exchanged one means of servitude to another, I will say to you this war will not last indefinitely. At some point, your last ship will pay-off and you will go ashore with your pay, a free man.”

Bruyes protested, “But sir, what of my wife. She is still below on the slave ship, in irons. What will become of her?”

Mullins considered. “Monsieur Bruyes, it is not unknown in the Royal Navy for wives to sail aboard ship with their husbands. I take it your wife is an educated woman?”

Assured this was indeed the case, Mullins decreed, “Well then, we have a solution. Your wife will come aboard Athena where she will be provided quarters with yourself. I am afraid it will not be luxurious, merely a curtained -off corner, with hammocks for beds.”

“One of the problems aboard this ship is that none of my officers are fluent in the French tongue. Perhaps we might employ your wife to instruct some of my younger officers in her language. These young men will recompense your wife with a portion of their pay each month.”

With advice from Seaman Bruyes, six other former captives found employment on Athena. Unfortunately, none were seamen, but all were glad to accept landsmen positions once their situation was explained to them. Mullins promised he would do what he could to deter any attempt by shore authorities to send them to the slave auction.

The remainder of the former captives were freed from their bonds and left aboard the prize, promised by Athena’s captain he would make every effort to ensure their safety. Warnings were given to all that any expression of violence would see the perpetrators being put back in chains and handed over to the authorities back at Jamaica Station.

With some semblance of order on his ships now, Mullins directed Mister Cartwright to lay a course up the chain of islands. When they came to the island where they had encountered the fugitive Blacks, a week before, Athena came to anchor in a protected cove.

Several of the refugees were fluent in the Spanish Creole dialect spoken by many of the Spanish Blacks in these parts, and volunteers were asked to go ashore and attempt to communicate with the present residents.

Gifts of various sorts were left on the beach, well away from the landing site of the uninvited guests. Knives, cutlasses and even a few muskets from the prize, although with little ammunition for these. The launch, after landing the gifts and visitors, lay well off the beach, covering the visitors with the boat carronade, in case of any disagreement.

At long length, a pair of aged Blacks emerged from the brush and approached the visitors. When one of these natives proved to be able to communicate with the visitors in Spanish Creole, it was explained to the natives the gifts were theirs to do with as they wished. If desired, representatives from the ship would like to visit with them following day.

On that day, the launch approached the rocky shore and unloaded more presents. Then, the Creole-speaking visitors landed, among them was Mister Gregor. The natives had previously indicated they were afraid of whites and would not come out of the brush if any were present. Midshipman Gregor though, was a slight-appearing youth who, it was thought, would present little threat to the native population.

Gregor had been briefed by his captain concerning his duties and seemed to understand the nuances. Over mugs of rum, from which Gregor had been ordered to abstain, the natives and their visitors discussed their special problems. The natives feared the Spaniard would be landing in force at any time, raiding the island for new slaves. They were in turn informed of the situation of their visitors, who were seeking a place where they could live free from the threat of enslavement themselves.

Gregor, when he was allowed by the native elders to speak, assured all muskets and ammunition would be issued to both sides in equal amounts, to hopefully ward off any threats from outside the islands. The numbers of refugees wishing to come ashore worried the original inhabitants, believing the original inhabitants might be overwhelmed by the more numerous newcomers.

Finally, both groups agreed the new immigrants would settle on a neighboring island. The original natives agreed to assist them in building shelters and showing them good fishing areas, as well as teaching them the skills they would need to survive in this new environment. In return, the newcomers would assist in repelling any attacks from outside.

With the decisions made, Gregor returned to the ship with some of the refugees, the remainder staying on the island.

Mullins questioned his midshipman closely, but determined that he had represented the ship fairly. The natives, impressed by the rum furnished for the negotiations, had insisted that a keg of this be also added to the inventory of gifts already promised to cement the treaty. Fearing the natives, unused to strong drink, might be led astray, Mullins ordered the drink be provided, but had the purser dilute the rum with equal parts of ship’s water. Further, the promised muskets, would be delivered a day later. He expected the native would react in a similar fashion to sailors he had known. He thought they would likely finish the rum on the first night, drinking themselves into insensibility, waking with ferocious hangovers.

With the arms arriving after the debauch, he thought they would be unlikely to get into much trouble with their weapons. One of the Creole-speaking interpreters, who was remaining on the ship, reinforced his idea, informing Mullins that many of the native islanders had been born there, having little or no knowledge of white-mans’ weapons. Doubtless the new immigrants would give them some instruction, but it was not likely there would be a sudden blood-bath between the two groups.