Armada (6 page)

‘Why such haste?’ Abrahan asked, echoing Evardo’s thoughts.

‘Perhaps he is carrying orders of some import,’ he suggested, seeing in Abrahan’s expression the same doubt he felt himself. He looked back to the harbour mouth, his gaze sweeping its breadth.

‘De Acuña’s galleys,’ he breathed, noticing their changing aspect, ‘they’re sallying out to intercept the fleet.’

Evardo hesitated for a moment longer.

‘Clear for action,’ he roared, walking swiftly to the centre of the quarterdeck. ‘Raise the anchor. Hoist top gallants and mizzen.’

The crew of the
Halcón
sprung into action. The men spilled out from below decks to take to the shrouds while below the capstan of the anchor rope began to turn under the strident commands of a deck officer.

Evardo looked to Abrahan and the older man nodded in tacit agreement of the call to arms. Suddenly the air was rent with the distant sound of cannon fire, its intensity ending all doubt. Many of the crew of the
Halcón
froze and looked to the harbour mouth.

‘As you were!’ Evardo roared, the crew reacting to the whip crack of his command. He looked aloft. ‘Masthead, report!’

‘At least a dozen warships, galleons,’ the lookout called, ‘with smaller sail to the rear.’

‘What flag?’ Evardo shouted.

‘I see none,
Comandante
.’

‘And de Acuña’s galleys?’

‘They are fanning out in front of the attackers to close the harbour mouth.’

Evardo looked to the distant fight. ‘
Que coraje
,’ he whispered, his chest filling with pride for de Acuña’s forlorn daring.

The
Halcón
pressed forward slightly as the first sails took the light wind, the galleon coming up short against the anchor rope until the flukes gave way. The crew hauled in the remaining line.

‘Shall I call for topsails and courses,
Comandante
?’ the ship’s captain asked as Evardo looked to the waters surrounding the
Halcón
. The supply ships on all sides were already slipping their anchor cables in panic, raising their sails oblivious to the proximity of the other boats around them.

‘Hoist no more sail until we clear these other boats,’ Evardo replied, cursing his lack of foresight in not placing the
Halcón
in more open water.

The galleon came up to steerage speed and Evardo watched the sea ahead as the captain called out his orders to the helmsman, the two men working together to try to thread the
Halcón
through the heaving labyrinth of ship infested waters. A sudden crash caused Evardo to spin around and he stared in anger at a collision between two merchantmen. The crews were calling across at each other in futile rage, while underneath, Evardo could feel the panic beginning to envelop the hapless supply fleet. He looked ahead once more at the ships cutting loose across the path of the
Halcón
, realizing with dread that they were all but trapped.

‘Bring the larboard broadside to bear, Mister Varian.’

‘Hard to larboard,’ Robert shouted to the captain’s command and the
Retribution
turned tightly to starboard, presenting its port broadside to the Spanish galleys. On the gun deck beneath the main, Larkin, the master-gunner, waited patiently for the galleon to settle on its new course. He called out for the gun crews to stand ready. They stood with their linstocks poised. A bead of smoke trailed from each slow match.

Larkin, a bull of a man with hands blackened from his trade, had trained the crews relentlessly. On the gun deck he was in direct command of the most powerful weapons on the
Retribution
, two demi-culverins, eight culverins, and two cannon-pedros chasers both fore and aft that could hurl a 24 pound iron shot. On the main deck above he was ably seconded by the gunner’s mate, Peters, who had under his charge a further two demi-culverins, eight lighter sakers and eight man-killing falcons.

The
Retribution
completed the turn and Larkin stared out the foremost gun port to the squadron of Spanish galleys. Their bow mounted guns were firing intermittently, creating a cloud of smoke which compromised Larkin’s aim but with an experienced eye he pictured the outlines of his prey beyond the shroud. The outer galleys of the squadron passed before him and still he waited. The galleys surrounding the lead ship were more tightly packed.

‘Steady, boys,’ he shouted.

The
Retribution
swooped into the trough of a wave, its cutwater slicing up a spray of water. Larkin felt the recovery of the hull in the pit of his stomach, the beginning of the upswing as the galleon began its climb up the next swell. He took a half-breath.

‘Fire!’

As one, the linstocks fell on the touchholes of the guns. Larkin’s command was followed a heartbeat later by Peters’s on the main and the galleon bucked with the force of the double cannonade. The upper decks were engulfed in a blanket of gunpowder smoke and the deafening thunder of the broadside temporarily stunned the gun crews. The
Retribution
reeled but, like a prize fighter recovering from a blow that had winded but not wounded, the galleon quickly steadied.

Larkin was at once roaring at his crews, his throat and eyes burning from the foul smoke that filled the cramped gun deck. The men strained at the ropes to run in the four-wheeled carriages of their weapons and the pulleys squealed in protest as the guns, some of them weighing over 3,000 pounds, rolled across the deck. The crews’ discipline made them oblivious to the results of the first wave of fire they had unleashed upon an enemy. Every action counted down the time it would take them to ready their guns to fire again.

Cannon balls tore across the three hundred yards of open water towards the
Asuncion
and the galleys flanking her, striking even as the Spanish crews registered the eruption of smoke from the English galleon. De Acuña straightened his back and tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword, his every instinct screaming at him to take cover, while his rank and honour commanded him to stand tall on the fore deck.

A brace of cannon balls whistled over his head, striking the rigging of the
Asuncion
. Another slammed into the mainmast and the timber disintegrated in a rain of splinters that tore through the ranks of rowers on the open decks, the arrow-like fragments piercing flesh and spirit, spreading blood and panic amongst the defenceless slaves. The heavier cannon-pedro balls struck the hull and oars. The iron shot did not pierce the oak timbers of the bow but the fifteen foot long oars were snapped clean and the recoil of the blow broke the hands and wrists of the slaves still holding their charge.

The
Asuncion
was a maelstrom of noise. The screams of the injured fuelled the chaos of the panicking slaves and they tore the flesh of their ankles as they fought against the shackles holding them fast. De Acuña closed his mind to the noise and fixed his attention on the formation of enemy galleons, watching as the next ship sailed into position to deliver a broadside. Around him the crew worked frantically to reload the
medio cañónes
, their single preloaded 20 pound shot long since expended.

After the opening salvo the leading English galleons had formed into a ragged line and had in turn presented their guns to his squadron of galleys with devastating results. The next galleon swinging into position would be the sixth to make its attack run and de Acuña looked to the galleys on his flanks, his nerve faltering at the sight. The scuppers of each ship ran red, as if the galleys themselves were bleeding from the terrible wounds the enemy cannon balls had inflicted. More than one had been dismasted while the closest galley to the
Asuncion
was listing badly, its crew working desperately to pump out the ceaseless tide of seawater.

De Acuña had known from the start the odds were impossibly stacked against him but he had nevertheless stood firm where others might have fled. Now that resolve was failing. The relentless cannonades of the enemy ships had pierced his courage, forcing him to accept his position was beyond hopeless and bordering on madness. He called the galley captain to his side.

‘Take the rowers in hand and signal the other galleys. We sail for El Puerto de Santa Maria.’

The captain nodded and was away. De Acuña turned back to the enemy formation, his gaze falling on the galleon reaching the zenith of its attack run. Its cannons were run out and the baleful black eyes of the muzzles tracked the galleys of his command before disappearing behind an explosion of gun smoke. The boom of cannon was followed by the dreadful whine of round shot tearing through the air. De Acuña’s squadron reeled once more under the hammer blow, unable to respond in kind, and as they turned towards the shelter of El Puerto de Santa Maria, de Acuña could only hope his stand had given the supply fleet time to disperse into the shallows of the upper harbour.

‘Hard to starboard! Make way!’ Evardo roared with impotent fury, but it was too late and he was thrown to the deck as the
Halcón
collided with the trading carrack that had cut under the bow of the galleon. The momentum of the larger warship bore her on, locking the two vessels together in a tighter embrace. The bowsprit of the
Halcón
snapped off in the rigging of the carrack and the galleon pitched violently as its hull ground along the starboard bow of the smaller ship before coming to rest in a tangle of shattered spars.

‘God curse them,’ Evardo raved as he stumbled to the gunwale to look out over the carnage.

The
Halcón
had been close to escape when the gunfire from the outer harbour had suddenly ceased. All eyes had turned to see the galleys of de Acuña disperse and the enemy ships advance towards the upper harbour. Many ships of the supply fleet had already fled into the confines of Puerto Real at the head of the upper harbour or were beating up the shallows to take shelter under the guns of the fort of Cadiz. The centre however was still in chaos, and when the enemy ships finally unfurled their banners to reveal themselves as English, the last threads of restraint had unravelled.

From that moment the remaining supply ships reversed their efforts to flee and instead sailed closer to the
Halcón
, seeking protection under her guns, believing perhaps that the English would not attack the formidable warship.

‘Take in the sails and make ready to come about,’ Evardo shouted. His eyes darted to each point of his galleon and beyond to the approaching English ships. ‘
Capitán
, send men forward with axes and cut us free.’

‘We cannot flee,’ a calm voice said. ‘You must make ready to defend the ship from boarders.’

Evardo spun around to Abrahan. His angry retort died on his lips as he absorbed the older man’s words.

‘We have only seventy-five men on board,’ he said, speaking aloud his concern and his reason for attempting to flee, ignoring the temptation to lament the absence of his soldiers.

‘Then you must find a way to tip the odds more in your favour,’ Abrahan replied, his relaxed tone giving Evardo strength and reason for patience. He looked to the men attacking the entangled rigging of the
Halcón
and realized that even if he succeeded in getting underway, the loss of the bowsprit and the sheer numbers of English galleons would make his capture inevitable. He needed time. De Recalde’s squadron was overdue and might only be hours away. Or perhaps word was already sweeping inland of the attack and reinforcements could soon be on hand. Either way Abrahan was right; his only option was to make a stand.

He quickly assessed his own position, reversing his role so as to view the fight from the English side. Their galleons would not be able to approach the
Halcón
through such crowded waters, not without risking collision. They were also unlikely to fire upon the
Halcón
, viewing her as a prize, and Evardo’s face twisted in contempt as he contemplated such a fate for his ship. He concluded the enemy would therefore advance with boarding parties in smaller boats. The guns of the
Halcón
were preloaded, ready to deliver a single powerful broadside against an enemy galleon, but these guns, ranged over allied ships, would have unpredictable success against small nimble enemy boats. The only guns of value would be the
falconete
swivel guns but there were too few of these.

The English would board, Evardo now accepted that as inevitable, but with Abrahan’s help, he could manipulate where that attack would take place. He smiled coldly, now seeing the battle to come from his own side, knowing what he must do to secure his ship. The English would attack, but instead of repelling them he would draw them in. He would allow them a foothold on his deck, let them board in numbers, and then unleash on them a blaze of hellfire to drive them back into the sea. The
Halcón
would not fall without a fight.

Robert leaned into the turn as the
Retribution
came full about, beginning anew a figure-of-eight as it held station at the periphery of the melee. The galleon was flanked by the other larger ships of the English fleet, creating a partial blockade of the upper harbour while the smaller vessels, their crews complemented by additional men from the galleons, wreaked havoc amongst the tightly packed remnants of the Spanish supply fleet. There were over forty ships of every hue, from Spain and all her major allies and dominions, an unprecedented bounty on which the English crews continued to feed. Their appetite was insatiable even after hours of plunder, yet there were ships closer to the centre of the formation that were still untouched.

The evening was foreshortened by a false horizon of clouds to the west behind which the sun had already fallen and the sky was rapidly darkening. Robert took his gaze from the pillage to look to the harbour mouth. The fort of Cadiz was firing its cannon sporadically. It was a futile gesture of defiance, a hollow warning against attacking the meagre flotilla of supply ships that had sought refuge there. Across the mouth, the Spanish galleys that had been driven off earlier had re-emerged from the refuge of shallow water but seemed unwilling to advance once more into the fray.