HMS Athena: A Charles Mullins novel (Sea Command Book 4) (12 page)

Lieutenant Archer was invited to the cabin and asked what news he brought. Archer knew about Admiral Duckworth’s great victory over Admiral Leissègues and his fleet. According to Archer, nearly the entire fo
rce had been taken or destroyed.

When asked about his new lieutenant’s coat, Archer was dismissive. “I was ordered to remain in the rear, my task was to rescue any seamen in the water and to perform any services within my capacity.”

“Apparently the French forces ashore were greatly concerned about the slave revolt that was taking place then, as well as the threat from Admiral Duckworth’s fleet and loaded a merchant ship with government funds to deliver to a safer port.”

“That ship came out of Santo Domingo harbor right after the French fleet, where they all saw the British fleet forming battle line. In the confusion, the transport was separated from the frigate escorting her. The transport was able to escape through a gap in our battle line. At the time, the objective was to prevent the enemy fleet from escaping, not stopping a single merchant.”

“Receiving a belated signal from the flag to stop that transport, Havoc set out after her. We followed her for two days before we brought her to. When we boarded her, we found her full of casks of specie. Admiral Duckworth was most appreciative.”

Captain Mullins allowed himself a quiet whistle. Lieutenant Archer was now a most wealthy young man. Quite an elevation for a youngster who had been begging his bread in the streets, only a few years before. Of course, the admiral would have realized a pretty penny himself, from his own share of the spoils.

After the capture of the French merchant, Mister Archer confessed his sole remaining task was to search for the errant HMS Athena before returning to Jamaica Station. Apparently, there had been concern when Athena was seen being chased by three French warships. With Athena accounted for and this last duty complete, Havoc would return to harbor.

When Archer located the orders for Athena and they were opened, Mullins found his ship ordered to proceed to Jamaica Station, there to recount his efforts against his pursuers. Since Havoc was also ordered to the same destination, Mullins would accompany the lugger. With Athena’s extensive damage, it would be difficult to say which vessel was more in need of an escort. Havoc herself was rather small to be let out on this sea by herself and Athena probably should not face another opponent, even one much smaller than her own size.

When the pair returned to Jamaica Station, the fleet had sailed, searching for any remaining ships of Admiral Leissègues’s fleet. A senior post captain was present, waiting for the dockyard to make his damaged frigate whole again.

Captain Holcomb told Mullins he was in command during the absence of Admiral Duckworth and the fleet and was using his authority to assign them to a convoy presently being assembled. There would be some delay in this, giving Athena time to have her various faults repaired. Of course, with the summer hurricane season approaching, it would not be wise to delay departure.

The recent defeat of Admiral Leissègues’s fleet had encouraged ship-owners and merchants to risk shipping their goods. Produce from around the Leeward Islands was being delivered to Kingstown, where it could be transshipped to vessels bound for England.

In view of the impending escort mission, the dockyard took Athena into its hands immediately for repair of the recent battle damage. There was no permanent receiving ship to take aboard Athena’s crewmen, but an old, hulked second rate was in the harbor, slowly deteriorating. At the moment, she was being primarily utilized for the storage of records and other Navy property.  It was thought several hundred seamen could be accommodated while Athena was being made whole.

With his ship immobilized for several weeks, Mullins had time for himself. One afternoon, while sitting with Lieutenant Archer in a respectable public house, drinking island punch, he mentioned he needed to replenish his purse and hoped to find someone able to negotiate a note of hand for him.

Archer recalled a casual acquaintance located right here in Kingstown. A wealthy man who was involved in many avenues of becoming even wealthier. This person, besides being involved in the import of trade goods for sale to the local inhabitants and the export of island produce back to England, also owned a substantial sugar plantation. Mister Hollister was perfectly agreeable to negotiate a note of hand for him, although at usurious rates.

After having his purse replenished, the agent invited the officers to visit his plantation on the outskirts of Kingstown. To Mullins, the holding was impressive, but Ronald Hollister assured him it was a very humble plantation, as these went. He grumbled that he only had two dozen slaves, although there was work for twice that many. He complained it was impossible to purchase more unless a Spanish or Dutch slaver was captured and its cargo sold at auction, and even then such servants were usually in very poor condition, often more dead than alive.

After a tour of the estate on horseback, which included a pass by the slave quarters, Mullins was happy to make his excuses and leave. He was familiar with the squalor of the poorer sections of many seaside cities, but had difficulty understanding how humans could survive in conditions such as these.

Both Mullins and Archer were of the opinion there would be little chance of their making a closer association with Hollister. Archer was soon sent out to sea in his lugger to carry dispatches to the fleet, but Athena’s captain was forced to cool his heels here in Kingstown until repairs were complete. He took rooms in a house close to the dockyard. The landlady was a free woman of Color who earned her living caring for the dispossessed officers waiting for their ships to be repaired.

After she once invited him to sit with her at the table she had in a little court in front of her door, she often repeated the invitation, where they discussed events taking place in the islands.

Normally, subjects such as slavery were avoided, but one Sunday morning Martha seemed to be depressed. Unable to free her from her gloom, Mullins waved at a passing street peddler with his keg of grog mounted on a pushcart.

Martha refused to drink from the common cups the peddler carried with him, instead bringing out her own. The peddler mixed a concoction of island rum, shaddock and lemon juice mixed with island sugar and water. No ice could be expected here but it was a good drink and Martha’s spirits were immediately raised.

Soon, after another drink, she explained her distress. From a house servant of Ronald Hollister, she had learned Hollister, desperate for additional slaves for his plantation, had become involved in a scheme with a planter from a French occupied region of Hispaniola. It seemed French troops had taken some hundreds of Blacks who were in revolt, and were holding them in terrible conditions.

Early on in the French Revolution, these Blacks had been promised their freedom, but now Bonaparte was said to be considering reimposing slavery on certain islands to make the sugar industry profitable again.

For a pittance, the French planter was prepared to buy some of these prisoners from their guards and load them on a small inter-island trader. This craft would rendezvous with one of Hollister’s ships off an uninhabited key south of Spanish Florida. There, in return for some good English guineas, the captives would be transferred to their new owner and they would become enslaved to Hollister.

It was a sad story, but all too familiar to residents of these islands. Next day however, matters changed. A Marine corporal delivered orders to him. He learned his ship was now complete and her crew would soon be sent back to her from the hulk where they had been surviving.

HMS Athena was being towed out to her berth from the dockyard when Mullins reached the waterfront. The standing officers were already aboard and the other officers had been notified and were on their way. That afternoon, the hands began arriving, pulled over on a pair of cumbersome barges.

All was not quite well. A dozen men had been taken by the captain of a visiting frigate. There was no recourse to Mullins. The frigate had left port immediately and was probably joining the fleet at that moment. Matters could have been worse though, since he still had most of a well-trained crew.

The orders Mullins received postponed the escorting mission until a later date, instead they required him to put to sea and patrol the waters around Spanish Florida, searching for privateers and out-and-out pirates said to be swarming in those parts. Several ships expected to join the convoy had never arrived. Of course, any accident could have been the cause, but fears were pirates or privateers may have been involved.

With supplies coming aboard at a furious pace, he would be leaving very soon. He took a half-day to return to his rooms to recover some clothing he had left there and have a last drink with Martha.

When he told her of his orders, she was at first startled, then elated. Asking him to sit by himself for a bit, she ran off, returning at length with a lanky Black slave lad. The young man carried a torn poster in his waist band and handed it to Martha, who in turn gave it to Mullins.

Speaking quietly, she explained. “This is Luke, a house slave of Mister Hollister. One of the other house slaves copied a map Hollister left in his room. We think it is a chart of the island Hollister’s ship will visit to retrieve those French slaves. Since this island is supposed to be near the area you will be patrolling, perhaps you could seize the ship carrying the slaves and free them. There are many escaped Blacks on the shores of Spanish Florida. Many have been successful in joining with the native tribes there.”

Mullins attempted to inject a little reason in the discussion. “Martha, since we do not know the exact date the slave ship from Hispaniola will arrive, it will be difficult to locate that vessel. Since all we know of the island is this rough sketch, not knowing its name or location, out task will be even harder.”

“Also, the only ship I dare to attack is the French ship. She would be a legitimate prize. Once the slaves are loaded on Hollister’s ship, matters become complex. While what he is doing is illegal, it would be difficult to prove, and I would likely be cast into damages.”

Martha was so disheartened that Mullins assured her he would do what he could to rescue these slaves. While she was getting herself together, Mullins, making conversation, asked about the lad who had delivered the paper. She told him he was one of Hollister’s house cooks. He did some of the cooking for the planter’s frequent dinners.
Some of his seafood creations were said to be the talk of the island.

Later, he could not fathom what had possessed him, but turning to Martha, he told her he did enjoy seafood properly prepared. Should any such cook find himself on the quay before sunrise on the morning after tomorrow, he would endeavor to take him aboard. If the subject came voluntarily and willingly, the ship’s captain would be justified in signing him on as a Royal Navy seaman. Once he made his mark, he would then be a free man, no longer subject to being sent back into bondage.

Back aboard Athena, the last of the water had come aboard and now the only task remaining was to tow the ship out in the outer harbor to take aboard the powder. This took a day, and then they were free to leave. With the smoke and thunder of the gun salute echoing, the post ship made her way out into the Caribbean waters.

Once at sea, Mullins invited Mister Howard and Mister Cartwright into his quarters. The new Black cook who had stepped into the ship’s jolly boat back in Kingstown was now Mullin’s cook, and his first efforts at the dinner the captain gave to his officers were pronounced superb.

The officers were acquainted of the possibility of taking a French slave ship somewhere on one of the Spanish-Florida Keys. Cartwright was philosophic. “If we take this ship, then those slaves will be sold at a slave auction probably right there on Jamaica. Well, at least they will be British slaves rather than French.”

Mullins kept his silence as did young Amos, the captain’s new cook, who had taken that name when he came on the ship. On being shown the hand-drawn chart though, neither Cartwright nor Howard recognized the island.

In the very unlikely event the slave ship was taken, Mullins intended to do what he could to insure the Blacks did not go under the auction hammer.

The area they were patrolling had been neglected by the Navy in the recent past, and nearly every day they began sighting vessels of interest. Of course, many of them were able to evade their attacks and some of them were not legitimate prey. One that was, proved to be an American schooner,
taken recently by a Spanish privateer turned pirate.

Surprisingly, the small original crew was still alive, possibly being held for ransom. Although alive, no one would be able to say those Americans were healthy. They had endured unpleasant privations at the hands of the pirates, and Mullins, conferring with the schooner’s American captain, at first intended to land the pirates at the newly purchased American port of New Orleans, in hopes the American justice systems might choose to deliver prompt justice.

Further discussions revealed that American courts had not yet been constituted in the newly purchased territory and further, piracy out of New Orleans had been a normal activity during the latter part of the Spanish occupation. The matter was resolved though when the United States Revenue Cutter Cherokee was sighted approaching them.