On the King's Sea Service: A John Phillips Novel (War at Sea Book 1) (10 page)

Deciding the musket problem was one he need not concern himself over right away, he went to Lieutenant Burns to discuss the appearance of the ship and exercising the crew in sail and gun drill.

Bad Food

On the voyage to Gibraltar, Captain Phillips had the opportunity to thoroughly work his ship up and determine what departments needed work. He soon discovered his Premier, Lieutenant Burns, was an exceptionally capable officer and seaman. He found he need have no qualms about assigning any duty to the officer.

The second office, Lieutenant Harkins seemed to be an average quality officer such as you might find in wardrooms around the fleet by the gross. He would set about any task given him and do his best, but it might sometimes be necessary to keep a wary eye on the man. Harkins was found to sometimes set about matters in which he had little knowledge or skill.

Mister Granger, the third, was a reticent young man, seldom venturing any opinions of his own. His commissioning date indicated this was his first cruise as an officer. Phillips had to wonder how the shy young man had gained his promotion but there was no harm in the lad. He could see the officer would need as much practical experience as could be given him.

No sightings of enemy warships occurred on this leg of the journey, although they did sight a large schooner. They never were close enough to identify her. When first seen, she was heading for the Channel and could be heading for either a British or French port, perhaps even a Dutch, German or Baltic harbor. In the event though, she headed west, as close to the eye of the wind as she could sail, which was several points closer than Vigorous could handle.

As the quarterdeck crew watched her disappear over the horizon, there was speculation as to her origin. Some though a French vessel from the sugar islands in the Caribbean. Others thought a neutral Yankee who was merely attempting to prevent half his crew from being pressed.

After the passage to Gibraltar, the Vigorous entered the harbor there and saluted the governor’s flag. An official of the Victualing Board came aboard ship and insisted on inspecting the remaining beer. The issue beer had been mostly expended and the remainder was sour. It was not even good vinegar. Phillips had intended on issuing rum after finishing the beer, but the official insisted on sending out a lighter laden with casks of poor quality red wine. The sailors were to be issued a pint a day.

He learned in port that the tales of insurrection in some French areas, especially around Lyons, Marseille and Toulon were widespread. Hood was thought to be off the French port and important naval base of Toulon. While in port, Burns came to him with an evilly smelling piece of salt beef, right out of the cask. “Sir, the men have been complaining about their meat lately. The cook tells me it started with the last cask opened. I judge it unsuitable for consumption. At my order, he opened a new cask. That was just as bad.”

Phillips took the meat and held it to his nose. He was forced to pull the putrid meat away and toss it over the side. There was no way he would eat this himself. “What do we do about this, Mister Burns?”

“Sir, we will need to hold a court of inquiry, consisting of an officer, the surgeon and a respected member of the crew. If the court condemns the beef we can turn it in to the dockyard, but there will likely be a delay when we do it.”

“The bad beef appears to be very old stock, but is in new barrels. I suspect some contractor took already condemned beef and put it into new barrels, pocketing the money he would have had to pay for good beef.”

“Our orders call for us to expedite, Mister Burns. What if we left immediately and held our court at sea. Any condemned meat we can dispose of over board. We will just keep opening casks until we find some good beef.”

“Sir, the Victualing Board requires we return the condemned food. If we do not, they are apt to charge you for it.”

“How is the pork?” The ship held supplies of both salted pork and beef, to be consumed on alternating days, with cheese replacing the meat two days every week.

Burns reported the pork was fine.

The board had finished its deliberations on the decayed meat a half hour later and the ship received permission to depart moments later. Once away from the land, the two foul casks were emptied over the side, the empty containers scrubbed thoroughly with vinegar. Phillips ordered pork and cheese be substituted for the beef, until the matter could be rectified.

As they neared the French coast, they spoke a Spanish brig who reported that Admiral Langara of the Spanish Navy with Admiral Hood had entered the port of Toulon and had taken possession of the port.

Entering the inner harbor, Vigorous made her number and saluted Admiral Hood’s flag. The salute was acknowledged by both Hood’s flagship Victory, as well as a big Spanish three decker. Vigorous’ number appeared in the flag’s signal hoist, requiring her captain to come to the flag.

Phillips, already in his best, clambered into his boat and was rowed with all haste to the flagship, with the dispatches held firmly under his arm. Immediately after doffing his hat to Hood, he held out the paperwork, but Hood distractedly passed them off to his flag lieutenant. “I’ll look at them later. I think I already know their contents. What are your orders?”

“My Lord, I was to locate you and deliver my dispatches. I am also to deliver dispatches to Ambassador Hamilton at the Court of King Ferdinand in Naples. Following that, I am to report to you for duty.”

“Very well, Captain Phillips. That falls in with my needs. I too have a pouch for the Ambassador, which I hope you will deliver. If you will make your voyage to Naples and back, I am sure we will have work for you upon your return.”

“My Lord, we have a problem with our provisions. Some of the salt beef we took on in Portsmouth is spoiled. My men are living off the salt pork and cheese that are still good.”

“Hmm, can you make Naples with what you have on board?”

“Yes, My Lord.”

“Very well, do that. Flags will give you an order to indent on the embassy in Naples to obtain beef there. We have plenty of French beef in warehouses here, but it would take forever to locate it and get it issued. The quality may not be what the men are accustomed to, either. I need you at sea now. You may resupply in Naples.”

“By the way, we have a levy on all our warships. We need men temporarily to man the defenses of the port and its environs. You will supply the provost officer that boards your ship with twenty men. They will be returned when we get our expected reinforcements.”

The Vigorous left harbor on the evening breeze and set course for Naples. Having aboard a full complement, Vigorous did not suffer from the levy nearly as much as some of the ships, but there were long faces as men left the ship, not knowing when or if they would see their mates again.

Putting out to sea, Mister Avery confessed he did not have good charts for the port of Naples, or the region around it. The ones he had were old copies of older Venetian charts and he didn’t know how much he could trust them. On the way to their destination, they ran down a gun brig on a course for Algiers.

The crew of Vigorous hoped for a prize, but the brig displayed her number and the current recognition signal. She was on her way to North Africa to buy cattle for the fleet. Lieutenant Wayne, the captain of the Wolverine, assured Phillips he did have the necessary charts and his master was welcome to copy them. He reported that a pair of galleys had chased them for nearly a day, but they had slipped away after dark.

Vigorous made her way into Naples harbor the next afternoon and fired off the salute. He delivered his pouch directly to the embassy. Ambassador Hammond himself met just as soon as he was announced and took the pouch, excusing himself while he read the contents.

He paid the most attention to Lord Hood’s missive. The dispatch from the Admiralty was glanced at and put down.

“I wish Admiral Hood had sent a representative with you. He wishes King Ferdinand to supply troops and seamen to the forces occupying Toulon. In addition to the many soldiers he requires to defend the port, he needs seamen to help man the captured ships The King has some concerns and would like to speak with a knowledgeable military person about the prospects of victory or failure. Could you reassure his Majesty?”

“Your Honor, I was in Toulon harbor for only a day before I came here and never landed on shore. I suspect you know more of the situation than I do.”

“Hmm, there is that, Captain Phillips. Perhaps it would be best if you stealthily sailed off into the sunset.

“Your Honor, we do have somewhat of a problem aboard ship. Some of our salt beef stores have proved rotten. Admiral Hood thought we might resupply here.”

“Captain Phillips, normally that would not be a problem. King Ferdinand takes pleasure in helping ships of the Royal Navy, often personally. However, in this case it might be better if you did not meet. I think it would be best if you crossed over to Algiers and bought live cattle right on the quay.”

“How will I pay for them, sir, a letter of credit?”

“Captain, you will find the Bey of Algiers requires either gold or silver for any purchases made there. My funds are not unlimited, but I can furnish you with enough to purchase a few bullocks, enough meat to get you back to Toulon.”

The crew was restive upon leaving Naples. They had all seen the herd of ration bullocks on the quay and after a steady diet of salt pork and cheese they wanted beef, but the particular type of purse-furnished blackstrap wine was especially disliked. Lieutenant Burns advised he thought delegations from the crew could be expected to make their complaints any day now.”

Phillips called his clerk to him and began dictating some routine notes he wanted to enter later into the log. As the pair wandered casually to the helm, he dictated to his clerk the order from Hamilton to slope over to Algiers to buy live beef.

There, now the clerk knew their destination and the plan to obtain fresh beef and at least one of the helmsmen had overheard, also. He could expect this news to circulate around the ship by the end of the watch.

Pirate

The next morning, well out of sight of land, the mood on the ship was much better. As they proceeded on course, the lookout reported a sail, hull down. As Vigorous approached, Burns came up to him and said, “Sir, the sail appears to be a local trading brig. She is flying no flag and I think there is a galley on her lee. I think the brig has been taken by a pirate.

When the pirate crew realized they had been spotted, they left the prize, tumbled into the galley and set their big lateen sail. At first the pirate angled on the larboard tack toward the North African shore. The frigate, with a following wind, was booming right along and started to slowly overhaul the pirate. Phillips thought he might be able to reach the galley with a few of his forward eighteens. He ordered the ship cleared for action, then, with good men on the starboard guns, told the gun captains on the two forward eighteens to each try a ranging shot.

The most forward gun on each beam was a thirty six pounder carronade. These guns were enormously powerful but their effective range was not great. The next gun astern would be an eighteen pounder long gun. These guns were also powerful weapons but fired a ball half the weight of the carronades, but had greater range. Since these guns could not fire dead ahead, it would be necessary to veer the ship to fire upon the enemy.

The first ball hit the galley’s wake a cable to the rear. The next gun, fired when the ship pitched up on a wave, had seemingly grazed the stern of the target. Burns exulted, “Captain, I think we got her rudder.”

The galley immediately dropped her lateen and deployed her oars. She came right around to port, using her oars to steer. This caused the galley to slow momentarily as she came to the new course and allowed Vigorous to close the pirate a bit more.

She was going to end up right in the teeth of the wind, an ideal place for a galley to be, since the frigate could not pursue her effectively into the wind. To get there though, the galley had to first pass right by the frigate’s bow. Since, like most galleys, she only had a pair of guns in her bows, the Vigorous was in no danger of being raked, but Phillips had an opportunity.

Turning to port also, he followed the galley right around and momentarily found his ship beam to beam with the pirate. Approaching the ‘sweet spot’, he told Burns, “Fire the starboard guns as they bear.”

The mids serving as messengers ran for their respective destinations and gave the order. As the frigate came alongside, her guns started going off, forward ones first. Phillips saw the big iron ball from his forward carronade hit the bow of the pirate low down, smashing a large hole between ‘wind and water’. There was other damage to the hull also, so Phillips called, “load, but do not fire.”

The oars stopped as the first shots hit the galley and the craft suddenly slowed. The starboard oars got one more stroke than the port oars though, and the galley suddenly turned toward Vigorous. Her port bow gun fired a shot right at Vigorous’ bow. The ball hit right forward, causing damage in a very inconvenient spot. The carpenter got to work with his crew, while Phillips told his gunners to fire at the galley’s guns, reloading with grape.

The enemy’s guns were soon silenced, permanently it developed, when the vessel started going down by the bows and the guns eventually just slid out and went their separate way.

The galley was awash now, with crew scrambling to stay above water. The oarsmen, it seemed, were chained to their benches and unable to escape. Moreover, some of the sailing crew of the pirate, having no other weapons, began popping off muskets. Phillips sailed his ship out of musket range of the stalled pirate and came to the wind.

He sent one of the midshipman messengers to his cabin to get the Fitzhugh rifle and the cartridge box. When the weapon arrived, he extracted a cartridge from the box, tearing the paper tail off at the rear.

Carefully, he poured a pinch of powder in the pan, closed the frizzen and dumped the rest of the powder down the muzzle; he removed the twin projectiles from the remains of the cartridge and placed the projectile assembly down into the muzzle, ramming it home with the ramrod.

Glancing over at the flooding galley, he saw one man preparing to fire a musket. Another was reloading his own weapon. Judging the distance, he felt it was roughly one hundred fifty yards. He had three rear sights on the weapon, one, two and three hundred yard settings. He raised the center sight to the vertical position and aimed at the musket man.

He was swaying too much from the motion of the ship, so went over to the mizzen and leaned against it. Aiming the rifle again, he realized the whole crew was watching. His target, seeing he was going to be fired on, hurriedly snapped off his shot. The ball disappeared, coming nowhere close.

With the sights lined up on the target, he began squeezing the trigger. At the last moment he realized the weapon would strike a little high, so aimed at the red sash the man had about his middle. Almost simultaneously with the distracting flash from the weapon’s pan, he felt the silver butt plate slam into his shoulder.

The breeze immediately blew the smoke away and he saw the figure crumbling to the deck. The entire crew cheered. By now the other musket man had finished reloading and fired. This ball nicked the starboard rail. As Phillips reloaded, the new target frantically began the reload drill. Phillips was squeezing the trigger when the man threw his musket over the side.

He almost sent his shot into the blue, then remembered the drowning oarsmen chained to their benches. He sent the load right into the man’s chest.

The galley was in bad shape. Its bow had been smashed in and the hull was awash. The vessels had drifted together by now, with no further resistance by the pirate crew. Seamen and Marines were swarming over the wreck.

The ship’s armorer was attempting to break the chains on the slaves with his hammer and cold chisel. Slaves were alternately screaming in terror and laughing as they realized they were free of the pirates.

One of the pirate officers, a short, fat man with a magnificent set of whiskers on his face protested when a Marine tried to take his sword. In exasperation, the pirate pulled the scimitar free of his sash and attempted to slash the Marine across the face. The leatherneck parried the blow with his bayoneted musket, drew the musket back and smashed the butt plate into the man’s face. As the fool sank to the deck, the Marine pinned the screaming brigand to the gangway with the bayonet.

Phillips, by this time on board the galley’s deck with his Captain of Marines commented, “Captain Jones, I surely wouldn’t want to go up against your men when their blood was up.”

A slave, trapped in his chains at their feet, with his face barely above water spoke, “Sir, that fat bloke your Marine just run through has the keys to these chains.”

A word to the Marine sergeant soon had men searching the dead pirate’s bloody body. One came up with the ring, heavy with keys. “Your Honor, if you’d stick that big iron key in this lock here, some of us might get out before this scow goes down.”, the now spluttering prisoner spoke.

The key was turned in the lock and the man was free. He accepted the keys with a nod of thanks and began freeing the others. Barring those who had been killed during the cannonade, the drowning men were all saved. There would be much work for the surgeon and his mates among both the freed slaves and the wounded now aboard the Vigorous.

After Phillips went back on board the frigate again, the carpenter reported. “Sir, the shot that pirate gave us right up in the bow, did a lot of damage. I’ve got a sail fothered over the hull and extra hammocks plugging the hole, but we’re still taking on water.”

Phillips saw his officers, without bothering him, had got the pumps going and water was now gushing from the scuppers.

He could see they were going to be in serious trouble if they could not get the leak stopped. It appeared more water was entering the ship, than was leaving.

Taking stock, Phillips found he had rescued two dozen former galley slaves, with better than half without serious wounds. There were also ten pirates aboard, under Marine guard. Again, about half were free of disabling injuries. He spoke to the Marine’s officer and asked him to put the healthy prisoners to work pumping ship.

While discussing solutions to their problem with his sailing master and Lieutenant Burns, a rescued prisoner approached. He informed Captain Phillips he knew of a nearby island where the leak could be repaired.

“Well, please enlighten us, sir”, Phillips asked. The men explained there was an island just to the southeast a few leagues that had a good bay with a sheltered beach on the eastern side. “The pirates pull their galleys up on the beach when they have repairs to make.” He explained.

“What about people?” asked Burns?

“Jus’ a few shepherds and the like and nobody pays ‘em any mind.”

Phillips asked, “Just how familiar are you with this island, sir?”

“Lord Captain, I ain’t no sir. I’m just plain Bill Jenkins. I been chained to these galleys ten year now. I’ve been to that island upwards of a dozen times.”

“What about warships, Mister Jenkins. Do any call there?”

“Never seen none, captain. All the Moor’s warships belong to the Bey and he don’t let ‘em out too much. Liable to go pirating on their own account.”

“Have you ever served aboard a King’s ship, Jenkins?”

“Yessir, I was a gunner’s mate aboard the old Raccoon, on the America station during the last war. Happened I signed on a collier when the brig paid off and a pirate came up the Channel first voyage and took us. I been pulling on oars ever since.”

“Jenkins, speaking as a former gunner’s mate, do you think it would be practical to land some guns and make a battery to protect us while we work on the ship?”

“Yes sir, no problem at all.

“Well Jenkins, I’m not going to press you after your ordeal. But, if you’d like to volunteer, I’d rate you gunner’s mate.”

“I’d be pleased to make my mark on the ship’s book Yer Honor.

The master went through his meager supply of Mediterranean charts, but found nothing in the area indicated by Jenkins. The ship’s officers questioned other members of the galley’s crew, both former slaves and the Muslim masters. While none of the officers spoke any variety of Arabic, most of the freed Christians did spoke some dialect, or at least the lingua franca of those parts and questioned their old masters. These worthies were indignant to be questioned by their former slaves and uniformly refused to answer any questions.

The former pirates were put to work pumping ship, with former slaves armed with bosun’s ‘starters’ standing by to ‘encourage’ them to greater effort. The ship was put to the wind and lookouts ordered to look for any sign of land. It soon became apparent it would be necessary to reduce the influx of water.

Another sail was prepared and fothered over the area of the hull that had been penetrated. The crew began to remove the forward guns from their carriages and placed them on mats, which were dragged to the stern. When ‘Land Ho’ sounded from the main mast head, they had made a good start in lifting the bows.

Jenkins repeated the beach was on the eastern side of the island. It was of volcanic origin and the cliffs were high and jagged. When they found the beach, it was in an indentation in the cliff. The beach had apparently formed ages ago when a portion of the cliff collapsed and the beach was formed from the rubble. Jenkins said there were only a few people left on the island, since the pirates enslaved any of the locals they could locate without too much trouble.

A bit of the beach, flat and surrounded with earthen dikes, was filled with water. Jenkins said these were salt pans. The locals used them to evaporate seawater to produce salt, which they used themselves and sold to itinerant coastal traders.

As the ship approached the beach, Phillips was anxious to get as much weight off the bows as possible. Empty casks were roused out of the hold and used to make anchor buoys. Bending on lines, they were fastened to the bitter end of the anchor cables and the anchors, cable and all, went overboard.

The master and two lieutenants went out in ship’s boats and surveyed the bottom close to shore, finding no gross irregularities. With just a scrap of the fore topmast staysail showing, the ship crept closer to the beach until she touched. Now it was necessary to weigh down the after parts of the Vigorous. It was thought that sinking the stern, might bring up the bow a bit.

The bow now touching bottom, was a bit higher than it had been earlier and the gash in the bow was now slightly above water. Now the constant pumping was making an impression. The bows were rising a fraction more. Boat anchors were wedged in rocky crevices on shore. Using the capstan, it was possible to pull the ship shoreward a few more feet, raising the bow a little more, in turn causing some of the flooding water in the bows to flow to the stern.

The hull damage was now mostly above water level and the carpenter and his crew went to work on the damage. Cutting away the damaged wood, he fabricated timber in his stores to fit. While the carpenter was working, Phillips had six guns hoisted over the side and used them to establish a battery on shore, enclosing it with rocks and rubble.

One morning, a pair of Marines on sentry duty ashore spotted a boy clambering down the cliffs. Pretending not to notice, they cut him off when he became alarmed and tried to climb back up. The boy, perhaps fourteen or so spoke no language Phillips was familiar with, but one of the freed galley slaves was able to converse with the lad. Phillips gave the boy a silver sixpence and told the translator to inform the lad he wanted to purchase cattle, sheep, or goats, as well as salt to preserve the meat.