Richard Testrake - (Sea Command 2) (7 page)

HMS Valkyrie saluted Vice Admiral Bridport’s flag, and her captain was ordered to report aboard. The cryptic message, ‘with passenger’ was appended, confusing the signals people, but Mullins knew it referred to the prince.

Adolphus was sent running below to change out of his tar-stained clothing. His best uniform was better than what he had removed, but nothing had been done about the stains on the boy’s face and hands.

Too late now to improve matters, Mullins followed Adolphus into the boat. The sea was rough out here in the Channel and both Mullins and the prince received their full ration of icy seawater on their clothing. Mullins had a boat cloak which helped to some extent, but Adolphus had his clothing drenched.

Once on the flag’s quarterdeck, the prince was given a royal greeting and rushed below to don dry clothing. Mullins was left on the quarterdeck with the deck officer. They had time to discuss the prospects of potential action with the enemy fleet before word was passed for Captain Mullins to report to the great cabin.

The best feast possible on a first rate ship-of-the-line, long at sea, was being placed on table as he entered. He was shown to a seat near the head, very close to the prince. Adolphus was deep in conversation with the flag captain. The lad seemed to be well versed on the problems faced by his little country. Someone had taken pains to educate the boy.

Sir Alexander addressed Mullins from the head of the table. “Captain Mullins, Prince Adolphus has been telling us of your exploits in bringing him to us. You have done some good work for the Navy. I have offered the prince a berth here in the flagship but he asks to stay on with you. Probably a good idea, as I imagine the Palace gave much thought of where to place Mister Midshipman Adolphus. We would not wish to disregard their wishes.”

Mullins head was swimming when he left the table. The admiral’s wine was good and he had drunk too much of it. Thankfully, Adolphus had been led away from the table to visit the midshipman’s berth before he had occasion to drink too much.

Admiral Bridport left the table himself, early on, but the flag captain collected Mullins as the others were leaving and had him walk the quarterdeck with him.

The topic of discussion was the level of danger the prince could be exposed to. Captain Hartford began, “We are advised by the Palace to insure Prince Adolphus is exposed to all the professional training the other mids receive. I think though, we had better not plan on exposing him to undue danger. Neither of us would care to explain at Court why we allowed Adolphus to be lost in some boarding action. At the same time, we must not send the boy below every time the lookout spots a tricolor.”

“Apparently, someone in Court has confidence in your discretion. You must now make sure that confidence is not misplaced. I want you to take the boy back to Valkyrie early this night. I expect to speak with Lord Bridport later, but I believe he will send your ship on a scouting mission to look into Brest. Orders will be sent over by boat in the morning and I expect they will state you are not to approach the defenses. Should you spot anything interesting leaving the harbor, you will be authorized to follow, and if feasible, take. I believe this will be all, Captain. You may wish to collect your midshipman and go back to your ship. Be prepared to part company soon after first light.”

HMS Valkyrie found herself patrolling off Ushant, hoping to intercept traffic inbound or outbound for Brest. She had not intercepted any enemy shipping, but had encountered her share of foul weather. Winter was near and the sea water coming on board as she beat her way against an easterly wind was icy. Mullins had been on deck all night and had gone into his quarters to find clothing not quite at wet as what he was now wearing.

As he was donning a thick woolen garment under his old uniform coat, Mister Adolphus came running to the cabin door. Hearing his expostulations to the Marine sentry, Mullins called for him to enter.

The prince normally spoke excellent English, but now half the words coming from the excited boy were German. Mullins got the idea he was needed on the quarterdeck that moment so forgot the rest of his clothing and went out.

It was coming daylight and while visibility was limited in the wind driven spray and spume, the breakers around a cluster of rocks ahead and to starboard were plainly seen.

Mister Ralston was standing by the helm, and had the ship on the port tack, striving to avoid the rocks. Should the ship drive over one of them, she surely would beat in her hull, probably causing the loss of the ship and the death of every man aboard.

As the ship passed the first rocks that had been seen to starboard, it seemed all was clear, until one of the hands up forward pointed out a pillar of spume thrown up when a swell surged over a submerged rock to starboard. Too late to veer away, every hand on deck held their breath as the ship passed the hidden obstruction without incident.

Somehow the ship had passed through the hazards without so much as scratching her copper. Ralston saw to getting the ship clear of the danger and reported to Captain Mullins when he felt Valkyrie was clear. With the ship on a beam reach and running clear of the dangers of the Brittany shore, the masthead lookout shouted down a sail was in sight ahead.

An excited Midshipman Adolphus was at hand, paying no attention to the state of his water-soaked clothing or the frigid temperature. Mullins would have liked to send him below, but instead ordered the boy to take a glass from the binnacle rack and join the lookout, reporting in detail what he saw.

The boy had expanded his vocabulary since he had come aboard, and was now able to report two sails in sight, the closest one being a ship, flying no flag. She had lost her topmasts and all but a scrap of canvas up forward. She was low in the water, with waves washing over her decks.

Off her port quarter was a brig, flying French colors, with a commission pennant indicating she was a French national ship, perhaps her escort. She was having her own difficulties in this gale, but seemed intact and under control.

Valkyrie came up on the starboard quarter of the ship, ignoring the brig. That vessel had her gun ports closed up and seemed to be no threat. In these seas, Mullins had no wish to initiate any action himself.

The ship they were following was in trouble, that was certain. There were only a few men on its deck, and they seemed unable to make the repairs that would get it free of danger. Mullins thought he should attempt to get some people over to it to assist, but first he had to make sure the brig did not interfere.

Dropping back a little, he ordered the port broadside guns readied for action. The ports themselves were to stay closed until further orders, to avoid un-necessary flooding through open gun ports.

Mister Danton was handling the guns, and Mullins advised him to open two ports at a time, fire, then close the ports immediately. Giving Danton the order to fire when ready, the two forward ports opened, the guns run out hurriedly and fired. There was little time for accurate gun laying and there was no evidence in the heavy seas to indicate where the shots had gone.

The pair of shots however, were enough for the captain of that brig. It veered a few points farther to port, ran up some more canvas, and began to work her way out of this dangerous position.

When the brig presented no further danger, Mullins brought his ship up on the starboard beam of the stricken ship. In the quieter water between the ships, he thought the launch would probably survive.

The cox’n had the launch ready and its crew already aboard. Mister Danton would lead the boarders and had already selected Mister Adolphus to accompany him. Mullins would have over-ruled this decision but other matters occupied him until the launch was away with its cargo of armed seamen.

The crew of the troubled ship did not dispute their boarding. Lines were thrown over to give them every assistance. When Mullins saw Danton wave from the ship’s quarterdeck he felt the ship might well be saved.

When the gale subsided a bit, Mullins sent over more men to relieve the men who had exhausted themselves attending to the crippled ship. Lieutenant Danton took the opportunity to return to Valkyrie, leaving Master’s Mate Gainer to command the prize crew.

For prize it was. It was a French flagged merchant ship sailing out of Baltimore with a cargo of American corn. It had been a member of a large convoy, which had scattered when the gale struck. Besides the troubles with the ship’s rigging, which were slowly being resolved, a seam in the ship’s side had opened and water was coming into one of the holds. The leak was hard to come by in the interior of the ship and a sail had been fothered and placed over the leak on the outside of the hull. It was too soon to tell if that had stopped the influx of seawater.

It was not possible to pump the ship dry, since the grain absorbed all the water that entered. The only way to rid the ship of the extra weight was to throw the wet grain over the side. Mullins wondered how Adolphus was working out on the prize. Danton said he had put the lad on the helm where he was doing good service. He reported one of the French crewmen assisting Adolphus had tried to leave his station when he tired and the prince took occasion to draw his bejeweled dirk and offered, in perfect French, to geld the man if he did not return to his duty.

The weather continued to improve and the crew on board the prize ship ‘Jeanne Marie’ were able to raise some replacement topmasts and get sail on the ship. The crew aboard had jettisoned enough grain to get at the leak and made more permanent repairs to the hull planking. With the vessel now riding a little higher, there seemed little danger now of the ship sinking. Mullins had his ship stand away from the prize, in an effort to locate the missing brig, but no sign was ever seen of her.

Escorting the prize back toward Brest, they met HMS Roebuck whose captain ordered Mullins to take this valuable prize to a British port. The pair sailed into Portsmouth with both ships in good order and most of the grain aboard the prize in good condition. The grain in the water soaked compartment was spoiled, of course, but that had mostly been jettisoned anyway.

Mullins and Midshipman Adolphus were invited to the flag for a late dinner and the pair were faced with a few selected journalists on the deck of the flagship. Mullins was ignored by these people, with the prince garnering all the attention. He did his duty with aplomb, embarrassing neither himself nor his ship or superiors. The lad asserted he had merely done his duty, as had all the other members of the crew.

The admiral was most pleased by how the interview had gone and thought the Palace would be pleased as well.

The ship received a thorough survey to discover any problems that might have occurred during the cruise. The ship actually was in good condition and Mullins suspected the real purpose of the delay was to enable the Palace to contact Prince Adolphus if necessary. No such contact was made, but the ship received a fresh coat of paint.

When the dockyard and port admiral were satisfied with the ship’s appearance, sailing orders were sent aboard. HMS Valkyrie was dispatched to Gibraltar with mail and a colonel of foot who was to rejoin his regiment there. Colonel Sir Richard Howard was a serious pain in the fundament. He was well aware of his being senior to Mullins and was insistent of his rights and prerogatives.

Ordinarily, Mullins would have the carpenter divide his own sleeping compartment in half and install the colonel in one. After spending some time with that officer, he decided to let the colonel have the whole compartment, instead turfing the first officer from his own cabin in the wardroom and sleeping there.

For the first portion of the voyage, little was heard of the good colonel, with Howard being occupied with his sea sickness. The first time they heard from the colonel was when Mullins ordered some gunnery practice to make certain the crew had not forgotten their newly earned skills.

The first guns fired resulted in a crescendo of oaths from the great cabin, followed by a care-worn servant who reported to the first officer that Sir Richard was most displeased by the infernal din and demanded it cease at once.

Mullins was within hearing and shared a smile with Danton. “Mister Danton, let us deploy several targets and fire the whole starboard broadside at once. I wish to see what damage we may do upon an adversary.”

There was a delay while the empty barrels were thrown over the side and the ship brought about. With the ship abreast of the bobbing targets a few hundred yards away, the order was given to fire. The guns exploded almost simultaneously, with the order resulting in the immediate destruction of the barrels.

Colonel Howard exploded seconds after the guns, emerging on deck waving his cane and demanding silence. He swore he would have them all on report as soon as they reached Gibraltar, and gave Mullins a direct order to eliminate all noise aboard ship.

Mullins removed his hat and told the officer, “Sir, while I acknowledge you to be my superior in rank, I am captain of the ship and regard gunnery training to be essential for the safety of the ship and yourself. I am afraid this is not a hospital nor a John Company ship and we cannot always defer to the comfort of our passengers.”

The colonel remained immured in the cabin for the next several days. The sailing orders brought aboard back in Portsmouth specified that Valkyrie, while expected to make the best of her way to Gibraltar, could engage such targets of opportunity along the way that might cause harm to the enemy.