Buccaneer (31 page)

“Just a slight difficulty. Before I came on shore to see you, I left orders for the mate of the
Griffin
(that is my own ship) and the acting master of my prize…”

“What the devil has that to do with me?”

“The orders were to prevent anyone from boarding and if soldiers came out in dugouts the ship’s companies should sink them. If necessary they will also flood the holds of the two ships.”

Heffer suddenly stood up, sending his chair flying. “You would never dare do that! You are bluffing! Why, you’d lose your ships. They’d just sink!”

This time it was Thomas’ turn to shake his head. He had been silent for longer than he was accustomed. “General, we are rough sailors and know nothing about soldiering. Why, we couldn’t tell a cavalry caracole from a pint of small beer. Still, we can be forgiven our ignorance because you know nothing about ships.”

“Well, I don’t see what this has to do with grain, but most certainly I know nothing about ships, which seem to me always to reek of bilgewater and swarm with rats.”

“Indeed, how right you are. But do you appreciate that the cargo holds can be flooded without losing the ships? My friend arranged matters so that enough water would be allowed in to ruin the grain, but then the sodden grain could be thrown over the side.”

Heffer looked wide-eyed at each man and then fixed his stare on Ned. “But why should you have given such orders? You had no reason to distrust me. After all, I am the representative here of the Lord Protector and Council of State.”

Ned, scarcely able to believe his ears, shrugged his shoulders. “In business, one always has some security, or deposit. My friend and I thought we ought to have some sort of security because although you through Slinger struck a bargain with us before we sailed, who knows, some senior officer might have overruled you…”

“Senior officer overruled me? I
am
the senior officer,” Heffer said crossly. “And I never break my word. You failed to make any arrangements for collecting the money. Now, what do you suggest?”

Ned said casually: “Well, if you really do want the grain, we will conduct it according to our normal rules of business.”

“What are those?” Heffer said suspiciously.

“Full payment for the 250 tons is taken on board the
Peleus
and handed over to my friend here. Then I will bring the
Griffin
alongside and you can unload her.”

“What about the Spanish ship?”

“Ah, we must be patient. As soon as the
Griffin
is unloaded, you deliver the full price for the Spanish ship’s 350 tons of grain on board the
Peleus
, and then we bring the
Carmen
alongside and unload her.”

“But what is to stop you bolting with her the moment you get the money on board the
Peleus
?”

“Nothing,” Ned said bluntly. “But remember this: we sailed from here to the Main to get you the grain: we kept our word. You have no reason to distrust us. But the moment we arrived back with the grain, you decided to requisition it and not pay us. You did not keep your word.
We
have no reason to trust
you
.”

Heffer banged the table. “I never gave my word!”

Ned stared at him. “Didn’t you? I thought you did.”

Heffer shook his head triumphantly. “If you recall the conversation exactly, Major Slinger never gave his word.”

“In that case,” Ned said, “we shall need the full price in gold, as agreed, to be delivered on board the
Peleus
before the
Griffin
or the
Carmen
come alongside and one bag is unloaded.”

“This is ridiculous – why, I’ll sink your ships!”

“That would be quite impossible for you, but anyway it would lose the maize.” He turned to Whetstone. “You were right, Thomas, I can see why they never captured Santo Domingo. We’ll find a better market in Havana.” He gave Heffer an ironic bow. “Good day to you.”

For a few moments Heffer looked desperate, finally running to the door and standing with his back to it. “I must have that grain! My men are starving.”

Whetstone’s voice cut across the room like a whiplash. “General Heffer, you are a thief but an incompetent one. You have the money to buy the grain, but you intended to persuade us to get it and then you’d requisition it. However, you’d report to the Council of State that you had to buy it at the current market price and you’d put the money in your pocket.”

“How dare you – why, I shall –”

Whetstone waved aside the man’s stammerings. “Heffer,” he snapped, deliberately omitting his rank, “my friend and I deal with the Spanish. They are very cunning, very shrewd and very dishonest. But my friend and I survive; indeed, we flourish. We rate people like you as less troublesome than a cutpurse. You have the imagination of a pander. Now, yes or no; do you want the grain at the agreed price?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Then send the full price out to the
Peleus
. Use a canoe with slaves rowing. Your fishy Mr Rowlands will be the only soldier and he will wait in the canoe until we have counted it.”

“But –”

“Those are our terms. No grain until we have the money. By the way, you had better stop your soldiers going out in those boats: all that grain might be ruined!”

With an agonized screech Heffer ran out of the door, bellowing for Rowlands.

Ned and Thomas walked out of the building and along to their boat. “You know,” Thomas said, “neither of us is a bully by nature…”

“No,” Ned agreed, “but men like that bring out the worst in me.”

“Not the worst; there’s no rule that makes you carry your valuables where they can be taken by a pickpocket.”

It took two days to unload the
Griffin
and five to hoist all the sacks of grain out of the
Carmen
. Much to General Heffer’s annoyance, Ned insisted that no more than twenty-five soldiers be on the jetty at any one time, and had seamen armed with muskets and pistols to enforce the order.

By now Ned felt competent to command the
Griffin
providing he had a navigator, so that Saxby could remain in command of the
Carmen
. There was no Admiralty court in Jamaica and General Heffer had never mentioned her, so Ned and Thomas Whetstone had decided that the prize should have her name discreetly changed and Ned’s forger should draw up a certificate of registry naming the four people each owning sixteen of the sixty-four shares in which ownership of a British vessel was vested. The owners would be Ned, Aurelia, Thomas and Diana. Giving her a new name had presented no difficulty: she had, in effect, risen from the ashes so she was called
Phoenix
.

The grain money from the general had been divided, with both Ned and Thomas agreeing that Saxby deserved a share, and from that had emerged a new plan: from now on the three ships would act together as proper buccaneers, with everyone serving on a shares basis.

Thomas and Ned had worked for several hours on the plan. They had a complete list of the names and ratings of everyone on board the three ships, including the women. So far as was possible they rated the men in the way the Royal Navy did, with completely unskilled men put down as landmen, competent men as ordinary seamen, and very good men as able seamen. They did not appoint any petty officers except for three bosuns. Thomas kept his own in the
Peleus
and Ned had the
Griffin
’s regular one, but Thomas’ finest seaman was made bosun of the
Phoenix
.

Finally, armed with the lists and their proposals, the two men had everyone in the three ships meet on board the
Griffin
, where Thomas addressed them.

With three ships, he told them, they could carry out some good buccaneering expeditions, and for that reason he and Mr Yorke were proposing that everyone went on to the accepted “no purchase, no pay” arrangement, with the regular division of the purchase.

Mrs Judd, who had never heard the word used before in this context, demanded to know what “purchase” was.

“It is the polite word for whatever we capture,” Thomas said. “You could call it ‘loot’, but that is such a vulgar word.”

He then went on to describe how it was customary to divide a ship’s purchase into a hundred parts. Each person was entitled to a certain number of shares or parts, according to his rank. A certain number went to the ship, to pay for replacement of rope, sails, powder, shot and repairs.

“What about anyone who gets a leg knocked off, or a sword in his gizzard?” asked the indomitable Mrs Judd.

Whetstone waved a sheet of paper. “Here’s the list of the most likely wounds – losing a leg, an arm, blinded in one eye, and so on. And beside each one is the shares such a man gets. Obviously the highest share goes to a combination like losing a leg and an arm and the sight of one eye.

“Now, the wounded are always the first to be paid out. That means if we have a lot of wounded in a particular attack, there will be less of the purchase left to share among those who escaped without injury. But that’s fair, you’ll all agree?”

Everyone murmured his approval.

“So this is what happens. With all your approval, I shall be the leader of the squadron. Mr Yorke and Mr Saxby will agree to this because I’ve been buccaneering a few years. Very well, I decide where we shall attack. In fact this will be done in agreement with everyone. If someone does not want to stay on board his ship for a particular attack, he’s free to leave the ship and go on shore.”

“And get beastly drunk, I suppose,” Mrs Judd declared.

“Perhaps,” Whetstone said with a grin. “Anyway, we attack, and it doesn’t matter whether one ship, two or three get purchase, we all meet together later and share it out, a third to each ship. Then each ship divides her part into a hundred shares.”

Whetstone then described how they were proposing to change some of the men from one ship to another. “Some of you who have been with me for three years or more will be going to one of the other ships. There’s no compulsion, though. Some less experienced will be coming to the
Peleus
.”

“What about the lady, sir?” a voice asked.

Whetstone grinned. “There are several ladies now, Bennett, but as you are a Peleus I can guess who you mean. She’ll be staying in the
Peleus
with me.”

“Ah,” the man said, obviously now quite satisfied. “Wouldn’t want to change our luck!”

Whetstone then read out names from the three lists, indicating in which ships they wanted the men to serve. When he had finished, Ned stepped forward.

“There’s no compulsion; no one has to change his ship if he does not want to. Indeed, once everyone is fully trained, there’s no reason why we don’t have another meeting to change round again. The whole point of the present change is to spread the experienced men evenly among the three ships.”

There were no complaints. Ned and Whetstone had been very careful with the list and changed the least possible number of men. Ned and Aurelia found themselves saddened by the switching of Mrs Judd from the
Griffin
to the
Phoenix
, but Saxby would be lost without her, and the Bullocks were staying in the
Griffin
. The mate, Simpson, went to the
Phoenix
while two women transferred from the
Griffin
to the
Peleus
, where they could help Diana and amuse the men.

The next day was spent changing round the ships’ companies and their possessions. Few owned more than could be packed into a small canvas bag. An exception was Mrs Judd, who had managed to bring the set of her favourite copper cooking pots from Kingsnorth, and her carvers and bone saw. She watched the pots being lowered into the boat with such care and such threats to the seamen should they drop one that Saxby was finally exasperated enough to growl: “You never guarded your virginity with such care.”

“I didn’t,” she said bluntly. “What damned good did it ever do me?”

The day after the change, the twelfth since they had arrived back in Jamaica with the grain, saw the masters of the three ships, Thomas, Ned and Saxby, arranging their watch and quarter bills, which were lists telling each man his task in the various sailing evolutions like weighing anchor and tacking, and his post when the ship went into battle.

Aurelia, Mrs Bullock and the remaining two women decided they would be responsible for the wounded if or when they had any, and sheets of nankeen and calico were cut into strips of various widths and then rolled up for use as bandages. Small earthenware jars were filled with pitch, ready to be warmed over the galley stove so that the stump of a limb could be pushed into one to stop the bleeding and protect it while it healed: most buccaneers swore by the method, claiming that many fewer had gangrene and it was the surest way of staunching the blood, even if agonizing. Aurelia had nearly fainted when Diana had mentioned the jars, but when she described how she had herself been forced to use them, she told Aurelia in no uncertain terms that her determination might save men’s lives in the heat of battle.

Ned walked round the ship with his new mate, John Lobb, the former second mate of the
Peleus
. By an extraordinary coincidence Lobb was a man of Kent; he came from Little Chart, a tiny village a few miles south-west of Ashford and a dozen miles from Godmersham. He knew the Yorke estate there; indeed, he admitted that he and his brother and their father regularly poached over it until John Lobb came to sea, and the remaining Lobbs no doubt still continued the habit.

“Best place in the county for hares, sir,” he said with all the enthusiasm of a man trying to persuade Yorke to buy it.

“I know,” Yorke said wryly. “Deer, too, but you would never have taken them!”

Lobb’s young face went crimson and then he went white: poaching deer meant transportation if you were caught.

Seeing how upset the mate had become, Yorke slapped him on the back and laughed. “We no longer own the estate! One of Cromwell’s favourites lives in it now! I hope the Lobb family are taking all his deer!”