Across to America: A Tim Phillips Novel (War at Sea Book 9) (14 page)

“Meaning yourself, you mean,” the admiral quipped. “As long as I have to suffer here, so do you, Anderson.”

While Phillips and the admiral were discussing the past mission, Anderson was sorting through the documents Phillips had delivered. Just as Phillips was wondering if he should volunteer to leave or wait ‘till he was told, Anderson gave a little start and interrupted the admiral in mid-sentence, shoving a sheaf of papers in front of him.

From the disgusted conversation between the two, Phillips soon grasped the subject was the missing first officer of Tenedos back in English Harbor. In Phillips hearing, the admiral ordered Granger’s arrest when found. When found, he was to be brought back in chains.

After a few more minutes of discussion, Sawyer dismissed Phillips. He was told to expect orders within days, and was told to take aboard what supplies he needed.

The work went rapidly and Roebuck was just waiting for orders to sail. He was on the quarterdeck watching a shore boat make its way out in the harbor, expecting it might be delivering an order for cabin stores he had sent for. There were too many people in the boat however. Three of them were Americans he had landed here after they assisted in some ship work on the way north. He had promised to set them ashore and he had. Now, they were climbing the side of the ship and explaining themselves to the anchor watch.

The master’s mate led the trio aft and reported the men wished to speak with him. The spokesman explained the other Americans at liberty ashore treated them as pariahs and threatened them with the punishments they would receive when they returned to the States.

Phillips was sympathetic but had no idea what he was to do about their problem. “Well, what do you want me to do for you? You will not serve against your countrymen, and I have no place for men who will not fight.”

“We are seamen, Captain Phillips. Could you give us berths as topmen, where we wouldn’t have to shoot at Americans?”

Phillips answered, “Never let it be said I turned down a good topmen. You understand though, sooner or later the ship will be paid off and you will be sent aboard another ship. The captain of that ship may very well not be sympathetic to your wishes of avoiding combat.”

“Oh, that’s all right, Captain. This part of the war won’t last much longer anyway. Then the ship will pay off and we’ll sign on to some merchant on her way to India or China.”

Hornady took the men in hand to get their names in his book, while Phillips gazed out over the harbor at the boat approaching. It was coming direct toward Roebuck and it looked to be on official business. A natty looking lieutenant climbed aboard and presented his packet to Phillips, with the added message that Admiral Sawyer wished to see him at his earliest convenience,

Knowing full well that meant he was to be on the flagship instantly, Phillips dropped down into the officer’s boat so that he wouldn’t have to wait until his own had been prepared. As he went down the side, he told Hornady to have his own boat sent to the flag to bring him back when the admiral was finished with him.

Admiral Sawyer had a worried expression on his face when Phillips entered the great cabin. “You reported earlier of a French frigate turning pirate down south. I have received similar reports from other sources. Today I learned that frigate got into one of our convoys and raised hell. Took off with two fat merchantmen. The Exchange in London will have my guts. I have nobody else available to go after the pirate, so I am sending you. Have you any thoughts?”

“We can be on the way as soon as the winds serve to get us out of harbor, sir.”

Admiral Sawyer mused, “I know putting a twenty-four gun post ship up against a forty gun frigate is daft, but maybe not as bad as it may seem. We suspect she may not have all of her guns, and what is she doing for men?  She won’t have professional officers aboard, and her crew is probably just scum, with no discipline. I think you will be alright.”

Going back to Roebuck, Phillips knew it was very well for the admiral to think things would be alright, but it would be up to himself and his crew to make them that way. On the weeks long voyage, Phillips exercised his guns every day, until he had expended all of his privately purchased ammunition. They took a week long hiatus then, but coming across an island off the coast of Georgia, Phillips pointed to a pile of rocks at the water’s edge.

“Mister Hornady, I believe there could be some guns behind those rocks.”

“Oh sir, surely not. Those are just rocks.”

“Mister Hornady, I am your captain. That means I am wiser than you. I think there are enemy guns there and I intend to fire on them. Would you ready the starboard side guns, please?”

The ship ran past the island at two cables length distance firing each gun deliberately. Of course, every man on the ship knew very well there were no guns ashore, but they also knew the captain wanted to get in some more practice. Afterward, the log was duly brought up to date with the entry, ‘two guns sighted on Jackson Island. Fired starboard broadside, destroyed battery’.

The men did not really need the practice now, since they had previously been well schooled, but every few days, Phillips would attempt to find a reason to fire a few shots.

At length, Roebuck came to the vicinity of the Bahamas. He did not approach any of the islands, remaining out to sea, but a pair of local armed brigs came out to inspect him. He received more word of the pirate frigate. It seemed she was becoming stronger. She was taking guns and ammunition from her prizes, and word was, she was gaining plenty of recruits.

This war had trained plenty of privateer’s men. Laws of the sea were strict with what such people could do or could not do. Some thought it more profitable to turn pirate so they need not be squeamish about whether a potential target was legal quarry or not.

Roebuck sailed farther south, down past Spanish Cuba and Puerto Rico. Phillips heard some sad tales of the excesses of the pirate but no sign of her was seen. Stores were running low, so they put into English Harbor to obtain their wants. Governor Eliot again met with Roebuck’s officers, giving them what little accurate information that he had.

There was one benefit of this port call. The salt beef they had taken aboard here had a different flavor that the old beef they had been using. Too, the purser took on casks of fresher lemon and lime juice to mix with their grog. A few cases of incipient scurvy cleared right up and Doctor Baynes, who had been constantly preaching to anyone that would listen to him that the old juice they had used before was suspect, was now pronounced a wizard for curing the scurvy.

A quantity of old, captured French powder was available for purchase, and Phillips bought all that he could stow in the magazine. It was old and of poor quality because of improper storage, but Gunner Adams assured him with enough time, he could dry it out until it was as good as any made in England. Some of the crew groaned to themselves, since this would mean plenty of gun practice, and the labor of heaving the heavy guns and carriages to battery.

After leaving English Harbor Roebuck continued south, stopping at every major island and many of the smaller island groups. Many time, they learned they had missed the pirate by just a few weeks. Phillips thought about finding the port where the pirate was taking his spoils, but decided they were mostly stripping their captures of anything they could sell, then delivering that to ports in the nearby Spanish Empire.

Spain, still involved in a terrible war back home, was also troubled with wars of independence here in the Americas, and was unable to police its own territories. The officers spent many a night in the great cabin agonizing over the question of where the big frigate could be based without being too obvious. Certainly, hundreds of ships were looking for the pirate but its location was a complete mystery.

Ranging down to Brazil, nothing was found. At least, they learned there was no sign of the frigate this far south. Some of the officers took part in a hunt on an island off the mainland. With his rifle, Phillips knocked down a young pig at well over a hundred yards, while Lieutenant Hastings, their Marine officer, bagged a wild goat.

It was not possible to hang the game long in view of the sweltering heat, so it was decided the captain and wardroom officers would dine on fresh pig tonight, while the goat would be tendered to the midshipmen for their own feast in the gunroom.

Since the captain was furnishing the meat, the other officers offered the wardroom for the meal. Much of the officers wine supply was now exhausted, so Phillips had his servant rummage around in his store and ferret out a five gallon little cask of a rather fiery liquor he had purchased at Cape Colony in South Africa long ago. There was actually nothing special about the spirits but it was different from the ubiquitous rum and therefore popular that evening. The officers had a riotously good time that evening and suffered accordingly the next morning.

On his solitary pacing on the quarterdeck, Phillips was attempting to walk off a monumental hangover. One fragmental memory of the evening before kept running through his brain. He very dimly recalled having an intense discussion with Doctor Baynes, in which they solved all of the world’s problems.

Phillips knew well these were but the maundering thoughts of a pair of drunks, but somehow, at the time, they thought they had discovered the location of their quarry. Dismissing these useless thoughts from his mind, he walked about the deck, examining everything he could think of. After finishing this, he pulled himself into the mizzen shrouds and began climbing. The crew in the immediate area looked upon him with some concern, since they well knew of his activities the evening before, and they also knew he was in no fit state to be climbing around in the tops.

Stubbornly, he kept climbing in the face of his men’s disapproval until he reached the mizzen top. Here was a problem. There was a perfectly good opening next to the mast itself through which all the shrouds passed. This made a sensible pathway for a climber to gain the little platform that was the top, however no self-respecting topman would take that route.

Instead, by custom it was required to lean backwards high off the deck and clamber over the outside edge of the top. As captain, he could not possibly proceed on the easy path and face concealed ridicule from the hands. So he gritted his teeth and did it the proper way. Gaining the mizzen top, he felt a momentary glow of pride in himself, but then the hangover resumed its reminders.

Deciding then what he really wished was to get back down and rest in his bed, he reached out, clutched the mizzen’s backstay and started to slide down. There was a trick to this that he had learned as a boy. One held on to the stay with one’s hands, put the legs around the stay and start sliding, applying enough pressure to keep the descent at a moderate pace. However, over the years, he had lost the knack. Starting out initially sliding downward too fast, he attempted to slow himself by tightening his grasp. There was intense pain as the skin began stripping from his hands. In the end, he let gravity take its course as he rocketed downward. His left foot struck the deck first and he fell flat. When he attempted to rise, it was too painful. His foot and leg refused to function.

Someone passed the word for the doctor, and Baynes was there in a moment. Probing the area produced such pain that Phillips cried out and demanded he keep his hands to himself. Doctor Baynes reminded Phillips of the time when he had remonstrated with the doctor because Baynes did not respect his captain’s authority. Now however, the shoe was on the other foot. It was Phillips who was not respecting Baynes authority in the medical field.

With poor grace, Phillips submitted and suffered the indignities. The doctor mixed up a physic that he compelled his patient to drink right down. The mixture was a concoction of the doctor’s own invention and had both a horrible taste and a more terrible smell, but it did contain tincture of laudanum which soon put him to sleep.

When he wakened, he found his foot and leg had been bound with splints and much of the pain was gone. Even his hangover had dissipated. Baynes found he could avoid listening to his patient’s bad temper by administering laudanum quite frequently. After being kept in a stupor for two days, the doctor permitted his patient to be carried on deck and installed in his deck chair.

Eventually, the two men discovered they had much to talk about. Phillips was able to explain to the bemused doctor the maze of rigging over their heads and how it was used to propel the ship in the direction required. In return, Baynes explained his ideas of how the human body functioned and how the humors controlled men’s health.

By now, the doctor had reduced the massive doses of tincture of laudanum, and Phillips now had just a warm glow. His mental faculties were about normal, and he idly asked the doctor, “Do you remember during the dinner in the wardroom when we all had too much to drink? I have the recollection that we discussed where the pirate ship we are looking for might be based. Do you remember what we decided upon?”

The doctor thought. “As I recall, Lord Forsythe learned from the couple caring for him the pirate ship visited the Puerto Rico area quite often. I believe he said the ship even visited Vieques itself. In our inebriated state, we decided to look closely there.”

As soon as Baynes uttered the words, Phillips recalled Forsythe mentioning something about pirates, but had not made the association with any particular lot. This idea might be worth exploring more closely. He called Mister Hornady and asked him to consult with Mister Layton about a course back to Puerto Rico.