Richard Testrake - (Sea Command 2) (9 page)

The sloop-of war was escorting a big ship-rigged merchant across the Mediterranean. The ship ‘City of Glasgow’ had a cargo of cast off muskets of various European countries to offer in trade for the cattle they hoped to obtain. Mullins boarded the merchant to inspect its offerings before sailing and was amazed anyone would actually wish to purchase such defective equipment.

Warner re-assured him. “These old muskets will be sold or traded to itinerate herdsmen who will hope to use them on raiding parties against their neighbors. Those neighbors probably have weapons in the same stage of disrepair as these. In any case, we do not want to furnish these people with arms they may be able to use successfully against ourselves.”

A pair of Moorish raiders investigated them as they approached the African coast. There was no way of knowing the intentions of these people, but it was safe to assume they would attack violently if they thought they could succeed. Seeing the guns Valkyrie showed in her ports, the raiders sheared off and went on their way. Mullins would have liked to pursue but knew he could never catch them. If there was a chance one might be overtaken, all it would need to do to escape would be to turn into the wind, drop the sails and go on oars.

Approaching their destination, the ruined breakwater was readily apparent off the village of mud-brick hovels. Using the lead line, Valkyrie approached as close as Mister Ralston dared, then two boats led the way into the area behind the breakwater. People began to gather in substantial numbers on shore. Since there were numerous boats of various sizes on the beach, Mullins thought it wise to keep his guns showing, to prevent any misunderstandings.

Some of the people on-shore got into a boat and pulled out to the merchant. Guessing these were their businessmen, Mullins decided to take a party of armed seamen over and monitor the discussions. Leaving Mister Danton in charge of the ship, he took a party of seamen over to the merchant.

The principals had all adjourned to the main cabin. The first mate ushered Mullins to the conference, leaving the seamen on deck, to glare at the similarly armed boat crew from shore. Captain Warner and a robed and turbaned individual with an impressive growth of beard were sitting on the deck around a strange looking apparatus.

Warner stopped his presentation and introduced Mullins to the Moor, switching from English to Arabic with apparent ease. He invited Mullins to make use of the hookah, explaining it was a water pipe, that burned tobacco. The smoke passed through a water bath which cooled it, before being inhaled. Both men were sharing a single tube to draw in the smoke.

Not impressed, Mullins declined. The emir was an enormously grimy individual. His face and beard were equally stained, making it difficult to determine the actual color. He was not at all enthused to put that tube, which had just left the emir’s mouth into his own. For much of the discussion, he sat there, listening to the Arabic discussion without understanding a word. Occasionally, Warner gave a synopsis of the matters they were discussing.

Finally, Warner gave a shout and a pair of hands brought in a heavy wooden crate, opening it before leaving. Inside were a half dozen French Charleville pattern muskets. These weapons had seen hard usage and had obviously been out in the weather before being crated.

These weapons, despite their flaws, appeared to be functional, unlike many others Mullins had seen in the same cargo.

The bargaining resumed in earnest, with the Moor expressing his disgust with the offerings. Finally, Warner gave another shout, and a box full of paper cartridges was brought into the cabin. At length, Warner told Mullins they were going to adjourn to the deck where the emir wished to fire the weapons.

Mullins was not at all sure about this wisdom. Most of the weapons he had seen were battlefield relics, collected after days or weeks laying out in the weather after a battle. However, Warner was the trader, not himself, so he remained quiet.

On deck, the party stood by the taffrail while Warner asked the Moor to select a weapon to fire. Grinning, the Moor bent over the pile of muskets and made his selection, handing it to Warner. This weapon had a broken flint and could not be expected to fire in its present condition.

Warner had one of his men go to an arms chest nearby, and remove a musket. This was a late pattern British Army Brown Bess musket in perfect firing order.

The weapons in this chest were part of the supply carried on the merchant meant to be used for defensive purposes by the crew and would not be part of the trade goods.

Warner loosened the clamp holding the flint in place in the cock, withdrew the flint and installed it securely in the old French musket. He reached into the open box of paper cartridges, selecting one and tearing off the paper ‘tail’ at its base. Pouring a little powder in the pan, he closed the frizzen and dumped the rest of the powder down the barrel. Dropping the ball from the cartridge in, he stuffed the paper remnants of the cartridge down the muzzle and pushed everything home with the ramrod.

Warner offered the loaded weapon to the emir, but that worthy did not want to be the first to fire this old musket.

When it was offered to Mullins, he looked for a potential target. The only thing visible at a reasonable range was a dead fish floating nearby in the harbor. He had grave doubts about his ability with a musket, especially a battlefield relic like this. He pointed out his target to the others and steadied the weapon on target. Cocking the piece, a pull on the trigger resulted in a flash and smoke discharge from the musket’s pan, then an instant later came the blast and recoil, as the gun’s charge fired. A stiff breeze blew away the powder smoke and a gout of water splashed up a good six feet short of the target.

The emir gave a hoot of distain and reached out for the musket. Loading it rather more handily than Warner had, he took a shot at the same target. This time, the big ball impacted the target and the fish disintegrated. The emir grunted with satisfaction and spoke to Warner. In turn, Warner informed Mullins that sheep and cattle would be brought to the shore for loading on the ships.

“In addition to the muskets, he wants an additional fifty guineas, as well as a supply of ammunition. I have the money, but will not give him more than twenty guineas. I have only a few of the French cartridges and hesitate to give him any for fear of what he might do with them.”

Mullins thought for a moment. “I can furnish a crate of a thousand cartridges from my ship’s stores. Hopefully, the governor will replace it so I do not have to account for it. When will we see the cattle?”

“The animals will be brought to the quay in the morning, where they will be loaded on lighters and brought to the ship. As the livestock is loaded, we will hand down the weapons into the lighter. The gold and ammunition will be the last articles we hand over, when we are satisfied with the trade.”

Early the next morning, the midshipman of the anchor watch reported that herds of sheep and cattle were appearing on shore. A pair of large fishing boats were pressed into service to deliver the animals out to the ships. Crews on shore and aboard ship labored all day to get the beasts stowed. When it became obvious the merchantman could not hold another animal, Warner came to see Mullins.

“Captain, the Moors have delivered more beasts than I had counted on. I cannot get another one in my ship. We have another two dozen bullocks to load. Could I prevail upon you to take them aboard your ship?”

Mullins was not enthused to load two dozen bullocks aboard his ship to befoul his clean decks, but he knew the governor would also not be happy to learn they had left these animals behind. Giving Warner the nod, he called for his carpenter. Some kind of pens must be constructed to hold the animals until they could make it back to Gibraltar.

When it was time to send over the ammunition, a box containing a thousand paper cartridges meant for the ship’s Sea Pattern muskets was swayed up on deck. The crate of British cartridges, with an accompanying purse of guineas, was lowered into the craft that had delivered the last load of cattle, and they were ready to leave.

The ships left their harbor that evening, Mullins had not been at all happy about lying at anchor where his ship could be swarmed at any minute by hordes of pirates.

Once at sea, the bosun approached the quarterdeck and wondered what they were to feed the cattle. Of course, Captain Warner would have forage available on his own ship, but the sea was high enough to make transporting such bulky material in ship’s boats a difficult operation. After some thought, Mullins ordered each animal be given a limited ration of ship’s biscuit. Having never seen such an article before, the cattle refused to touch the strange food initially, until an especially venturesome young bullock tried a sample.

When this one began devouring his ration, the other cattle came awake and soon every last crumb had disappeared.

Their water and ship’s biscuit was severely depleted by the time they anchored in Gibraltar harbor. As shore crews came aboard to move the livestock, Mullins invited Captain Warner over for a supper.

Over a bottle of wine, Mullins wondered what the emir was doing with those new muskets. Warner replied, “He’s probably leading his people out to conquer another village by now. This could be his chance to take over all of this section of North Africa.”

Mullins mused, “If he is, he may be having some trouble with his ammunition supply. The cartridges I gave him fit our own Brown Bess muskets. The French muskets we delivered to him take a smaller ball. When we were firing the muskets on deck, we were using the limited number of French cartridges you furnished. The balls in the British cartridges I gave him will never fit in the smaller bores of the French guns. He will have to re-cast every ball, if he can find bullet molds of the correct size.”

Warner grumbled this would prevent him from ever doing business with this emir again. Brightening, an instant later though, he said, “I am not concerned though. That man knows how to make enemies. I would be surprised if he is still alive next week. As soon as his neighbors find his guns do not work, they will be coming at him from all sides. In another month, there will likely be another emir to deal with.”

Upon making port in Gibraltar, there was a certain amount of grousing from the head quarter’s staff there over the disbursement of the ammunition as well as the three bullocks which Mullins had ordered to be slaughtered and used as rations for the men. In addition, the provisioning superintendent could not understand how the ship could have consumed so much biscuit on this cruise.

Finally, with all these difficulties hammered into a resolution no one agreed with, HMS Valkyrie set sail for the blockading fleet off Toulon. There, she spent months patrolling the waters just offshore.

On one occasion, a heavily laden ship flying French colors was spotted trying to make her escape from Toulon on a stormy night. Coming upon her by accident, Valkyrie gave chase. Both captains took blood-curdling risks, coming close upon the near-shore rocks. Eventually, with her mizzen tops shot away by Valkyrie’s forward guns, the chase took refuge in a narrow harbor. Several batteries of guns in separate locations defended this anchorage. One battery was sited at the very entrance of the harbor, while another covered the anchorage itself. Mullins had on occasion, captured a few ships in this situation by first taking the battery, but try as he might, he could see no likelihood of successfully doing that this time. There was no nearby shore road on which he could march men to one of the batteries, and the rear of the harbor had a sheer cliff coming right down near the water’s edge.

With no other options, he decided on a classic cutting-out operation. On a night when the sea was high and a strong wind was sending waves crashing onto the shore, Mullins launched all of his boats, pulling into the heavy seas. Visibility was poor in the rain and spray and it was difficult to follow a compass course, with the needle swinging constantly.

Fortunately, a brief respite in the storm brought them a glimpse of their destination and the boats were able to pull right into the harbor. The sentries ashore were sheltering from the weather and did not see them approaching. The anchor watch on board the targeted ship was also sheltering themselves, wrapped up against the wind and rain.

What sound the boarding party made was muffled by the sounds of the sea and the working of the ship. There were few crew on board, and those that were, woke with a knife at their throats. Little commotion was made, and nobody ashore noticed the ship raise her tops’ls and some headsails, then ease out of the harbor. Not a gun sounded.

Mullins decided on the next morning, looking at the neat prize carrying bulk corn, that he was glad he was not that battery commander. Heads would surely roll over that fiasco.

That is, if anyone even noticed. To all intents and purposes, the ship had simply vanished. Perhaps the local military commander would simply assume the ship had found an opportunity to sail and was now on its way to the next port. When she failed to reach her next destination, who would remember her mysterious departure?”

Valkyrie joined the blockading fleet with another prize she had up picked upon the way. It was an unimportant coaster of little value except for its cargo of wine and oil. Captain Mullins might have burned such a prize earlier, but thought the Mediterranean fleet, far from a source of supply, might be able to use it.

Mullins took a cask of wine and another of oil with him when he was ordered to report to the flag. Of course, strictly speaking, he was forbidden to remove cargo of captured prizes, but this example could be explained away as ‘samples’ to be examined by the commodore’s staff.

The wine turned out to be of good quality and the entire cargo was purchased by the commodore for the use of the fleet. The coaster itself was given to a midshipman to command and pressed into service as an aviso or messenger craft. The commodore allowed Mullins to furnish one of his mids to command the aviso, which was considered to be a compliment.

Thinking over his options, he sent Midshipman Raynor to the aviso. Although rather new to the sea, he had had much varied experience and had successfully navigated small vessels over long distances. The men from his parent’s estate, Bill and Edward, he decided to keep with him. The pair had more or less adopted Mister Raynor, since their escape from Aphrodite, but now that Raynor had a command of his own, it was time for him to be on his own.

Mullins knew his own father would be greatly displeased if he did not watch out for the men. His father had sent these two men to him and expected them to be returned to him in good health. He well knew, if the men came into the hands of another captain senior to him, he might well never see them again.

Raynor in his new command was now dispatched upon the many seemingly frivolous duties that Mullins would have formerly expected to fall upon him. Valkyrie remained with the offshore fleet, engaged in endless practice evolutions. Eventually, the day came when the flag hung out a signal; for her to send an officer to the flag.

Mister Danton, the obvious choice, had just stood down from his night watch and besides, Mullins knew he was feeling a little poorly. Mister Daniels, their Marine officer, was always happy to don his uniform, so he went on the mission to the flagship.

When Daniels returned, hours later, he bore orders sending them on a cruise. Daniels himself, was rather ‘under the weather’, having been invited to the flag’s wardroom. By the time all of the many toasts had been drunk, he could hardly recount his own name, let alone the briefing he had been given.

However, the Navy was used to these types of incidents. Daniels had brought with him written orders explaining the various duties Valkyrie was to perform.

Basically, she was to sail along the French and Italian coastlines, observing everything of a military or naval nature that might be of importance. In addition, she was to take, burn or otherwise destroy any enemy shipping encountered, if that could be done without endangering the ship. After this, she should proceed into the Aegean where she should patrol for enemy shipping as well as pirates. Pirate corsairs should be destroyed and their slave crews rescued, whenever feasible.

HMS Valkyrie left the fleet early in the morning watch in a strong northeasterly wind. Mister Ralston was constantly on deck with his charts, poring over the information he could glean from the old data. Much of the time, he had Midshipman Adolphus by his side. The mid had learned to use a sextant to measure angles of features on shore that were visible to them, and by triangulation, their position at sea could be accurately determined.

Mullins wanted to attempt to have his sloop-of-war pose as a French national corvette, which she had been, until recently. In her sail locker, she still had some of the old French canvas which was cut differently than the fashion in HM ships of war. Hoisting that, and a counterfeit tricolor, Mullins felt he might be able to puzzle the enemy.

At a meeting in his cabin with the officers and petty officers, he emphasized the desirability of obtaining a French signal book, so they might further bring confusion to any enemy commanders with false signals. He explained to the junior petty officers that the enemy, when faced with the capture of their ship, would likely try to dispose of such a signal book. An enemy officer or hand seen trying to approach the side of his ship with a weighted bag or box should be stopped.

The northeasterly had become a gale, which the ship was riding out handily under storm canvas. Visibility was poor, with sometimes periods where the rain was so heavy, one could hardly see anything away from the ship. Occasionally, visibility improved momentarily, so Mullins required the masthead lookouts remain in place, although they were to be replaced frequently.

It was in one of those periods that the foremast lookout reported a brig in sight approaching them on their starboard bow. With no time to come to quarters, Mullins ordered the false tricolor hoisted, reasoning there was little chance for a British brig to be in this area of the Med.

The two vessels passed uncomfortably close in this weather, and the brig was lost in the rain and spray.

When conditions became more settled a half glass later, Mister Ralston wore the ship around and they followed the course the brig seemed to be on. Late in the afternoon watch, her tops were sighted and the sloop continued to pursue, all the while flying the tricolor.

Near dusk, they had closed within a cable’s length, with the brig under pursuit making no effort to escape. When within a cable’ length of the chase, Mullins ordered the tricolor lowered and the British colors raised. Through his glass, it appeared no one on the chase was paying attention. The men at its helm were occupied with their duty, and the other two men aft were apparently in the middle of a good tale.

Mullins ordered a forward gun to fire, and this caused the chase’s helmsman to let his brig fall off the wind. Valkyrie surged up alongside the chase while those aboard her were wondering why this French corvette was expressing its displeasure by firing a gun.

Grapnels were thrown to hold the vessels together while boarders began scrambling over the sides. It was then, the brig’s captain emerged upon deck, took in the British colors flying, then scuttled below again. Mullins followed most of the crew over onto the brig’s deck, taking along a ship’s cutlass with him. He had never visited a swordsmith to get another blade after losing his own with the loss of Aphrodite.

There was little fight in the crew. These were merchant seamen who had no incentive to die attempting to protect the owner’s property. Not so the brig’s captain. He emerged from his cabin again with a box in one hand and an elegent hunting blade in the other. While on his way to the side to dispose of the box, Prince Adolphus tried to intercept him, with his dirk as his only weapon.

The Frenchman attacked the mid savagely with his hanger, slashing the prince across the chest. Mullins intervened then, using the heavy cutlass to attack the now off-balance enemy. The cutlass was too heavy for any deliberate fencing but the hanger carried by his opponent was really too light and Mullins merely slashed toward the Frenchman’s head. The enemy captain tried to parry the blow, but unsteady as he was, the heavy blade knocked his light hanger aside and the brig’s captain took the stroke on his neck, nearly severing it.

By then the fighting was over, with the enemy crew being driven below. Bending to his now expiring foe, Mullins recovered the box the man had dropped. While he was reaching for it, he saw his opponent’s fallen sword. It appeared to be of good quality and had survived the fight with only a notch in the blade where his cutlass struck. Rather embarrassed to be fighting with a seaman’s cutlass, he appropriated the enemy’s blade for himself. He knew it was light for a dedicated fighting blade, but he had a pair of Manton pistols to assist his survival in serious conflicts.

Later, he called for Midshipman Adolphus to help him translate the signal book. Mister Danton reported the prince was in the cockpit having his wound treated. There had been few casualties among Valkyrie’s crew and the surgeon was finished with Adolphus by the time Mullins arrived.

The surgeon was now busy with a French crewman with a shattered arm and Mullins went right to the lad. Adolphus had been administered rum and laudanum before his treatment and was quite confused. Assured the midshipman should recover fully, Mullins met with the other patients conscious enough to talk, then went back to the quarterdeck.

Mister Danton had secured the prize and sent over a master’s mate to command her. The brig had a cargo of sulphur from a nearby island, which had been consigned to Toulon. With this substance being a necessary ingredient of gunpowder, Mullins thought it should be sent to Gibraltar. Doing this now, however, would deprive him of the men assigned to crew the brig. Rather than burn the brig, he elected to take it with him. He could always destroy the prize later on should he need the men back on the ship.

Following the coast down the boot of Italy, they found little quarry that interested them. Mostly they encountered small fishing vessels and coastal trading craft which they refrained from molesting. Mullins thought it was not worth incurring the wrath of the locals by taking small craft that were not obviously aiding the enemy.

By now. Midshipman Adolphus had been dismissed by the surgeon and resumed standing watches, a massive bandage covering his chest under his uniform. Seeing him at his post by the signal halyards, Mullins called him into his cabin. Producing the wooden box taken from the dead former captain of the brig, he opened it and displayed the contents to the prince. It contained a book made of cheap paper and had a piece of lead covering the bottom to insure its sinking if it fell into deep water. Several small holes had been drilled in the box.

Taking the book, Mullins handed it to the boy and asked if he could translate it. Adolphus leafed through the book and told him it was a French signal book and he could indeed translate it. The clerk was called and ordered to write down the translations as they were made.

A day later, the pair was approaching Sicily when sails were sighted ahead. Leaving the slower brig behind, Valkyrie hoisted all the canvas she could carry and pursued, ordering the tricolor flown, as well as a signal in the French naval code saying she was a French national corvette based at Toulon, requiring the convoy to stop and submit to search.

The strangers were indeed French, a small convoy being escorted by a tricolor-flagged pinque privateer, mounting ten guns. Midshipman Adolphus, in his capacity as signal officer, informed his captain the privateer was inquiring why she must stop and be searched. Mullins told him to report a dangerous prisoner had escaped and the corvette was searching all ships to find the felon.

Obediently, the privateer backed her mizzen topsail and waited for the supposed corvette to come up. Valkyrie came up to the privateer’s starboard quarter, then turned to port so she was close to the vessel’s stern. With the pinque between Valkyrie and the convoy, the British ship was partly obscured to the convoy. Mullins then had the starboard battery run out and the British colors hoisted. The pinque’s captain immediately saw his situation. With eleven guns at point blank range of his stern, and no means to reply, he had no choice. Throwing his hat on the deck, his own flag came down.

Mister Daniels took his Marines and some seamen over to take possession. The sloop-of-war remained in a covering position until it was ascertained the prize was under control.

Coming around the new prize, Valkyrie made for the nearest vessel, a schooner-rigged craft. Her captain had grown suspicious and attempted to get under sail, but a pair of nine-pound shot convinced him to stop. Mister Ralston went over to her with a few seamen and now it was time to go after the others.

The three remaining members of the convoy got under sail and scattered. After a short chase of one promising target, it spread more canvas and showed a surprising turn of speed. Uncomfortable about leaving the prizes he had already taken, Mullins ordered the ship back to them.

Daniels had taken effective control of the pinque and was securing the prisoners. Mister Ralston however, thinking he just had a few merchant crew to deal with, found he had a dozen armed French Army officers below, not at all eager to be taken. The officers were mainly armed with pistols and swords, while Ralston’s seamen had Tower muskets, but even so, a deadly little skirmish broke out below decks.

In their darkened cabin, with these small arms, the enemy officers were able to hold their own for a time, but more men were sent over and the rebellion was quelled, with one seaman left groaning on the deck with a pistol ball in his belly. Another had a sword cut on his arm and three of the enemy officers were mortally wounded with musket ball wounds.

Their earlier capture, the sulphur laden brig, now came up and it was time to decide what to do with these captures. A quick glance through the papers received from the commodore off Toulon told him he was authorized to send in prizes to the British Minister to the Court of the Kingdom of the two Sicily’s.

Hopefully, the prizes could be processed at a Sicilian prize auction and he could recover his men.