Vendetta: The Dorset Boy - Book 6

by Christopher C Tubbs

  Ackermann grinned, saluted, and started shouting orders. A team was already reeving tackles to sling baggage up from a large barge that was tied up on the larboard side. Marty walked over, looked down, and saw Antton in the stern.

  “I hope you didn’t damage my hull with that arrival,” he called down. Antton made a show of inspecting the hull and gave him a thumbs up with a broad grin.

  Down in his cabin Sam was overseeing the placement of the few pieces of furniture Marty had taken out of the Tempest. It was woefully inadequate, but at least he had a couple of chairs, a table, and a more suitable desk. His weapons and sea chests had also been carried down. A familiar face was unpacking.

  “Adam Cooper! What are you doing here?” Marty asked in surprise at the sight of one of the footmen from his London home.

  “Lady Caroline said you would be needin’ a steward milord and I volunteered. I always fancied goin’ to sea.”

  Marty was astonished and welcomed him aboard; he was a top rate footman and valet. Ackermann arrived and Marty invited him to join him in the dining room as that was the quietest place for them to talk.

  “Now tell me how you rounded up all the Tempests and got down here so quickly,” Marty asked after the usual pleasantries.

  “Fletcher got word to me by fast courier. Me and him had come up with the idea, before we disbanded everyone, to choose one man from each of the places the boys lived and make him a point of contact. Then all we had to do was send messages to nine people and they round up the ones in their area and got them to assembly points. Fletcher arranged for wagons and coaches to be provided and they shipped all the men to a place just outside of Portsmouth called Eastleigh. Once we were all there, we moved on to the docks and got boats organised to take us all over.”

  “Commendable! It was well done. Whose idea was it to treat it as a cutting out exercise?”

  “I have to give credit to Wilson for that, sir. He thought we should give the new men a taste of what’s to come, and I agreed.”

  “Well it certainly shocked them,” Marty grinned then got down to business.

  “We have around one hundred new men, all volunteers and seasoned sailors. I want a watch list made up that mixes up the Tempests and the new men. I don’t want any divisions or favouritism in the crew because some have been with me longer than others.”

  “Aye aye, sir. I will have it ready by the end of the week. Oh, and by the way, Mr. Shelby will be joining us tomorrow. Fletcher is already aboard, and I believe Wilson is now rated Bosun.”

  “Yes, and John is quartermaster, Garai captain of the afterdeck, Antton captain of the mainmast, and Matai of the fore mast. Yeovilton is gunner and his friend still his mate,” Marty listed off what Ackermann already knew. “Do you know when Captain la Pierre will arrive?”

  “Last I heard he was in Portsmouth, weeding out the men he doesn’t want in his brigade.”

  “You mean the honest ones?” Marty joked.

  “Probably,” Ackermann replied with a laugh. “And to break in his two new lieutenants. They will relocate to The Farm once he is happy.”

  “Well get to it. Let me have the watch list as soon as you have a first draft and we will go over it together. Now, I would like to inspect my new ship.”

  They started on the rigging. Marty changed into a set of slop trousers, old shoes and his old midshipman’s shirt and jacket. He only wore his fighting knife on his left hip and a pistol clipped to the back of his belt.

  They started with the mizzen and checked every rope, block and stay. Then moved on to the mainmast and at the top yard they separated to check either side. That’s where Marty met Arnold Fuller, a topman from the new men.

  “You one of them blokes from the Captain’s old ship?” he asked Marty, who replied using his best Dorset drawl.

  “That I be.”

  “What be he like? We heard all sorts of rumours but all of ‘em be too wild to be believed.”

  “I dunno what you ‘erd but ‘e aint yer normal cap’ain,” Marty drawled.

  “Did ‘e really capture a treasure fleet wiv one hundred tons of gold?” Fuller asked. “And what about them savages? Where did he get them from?”

  “Well it were only five and twenty ton o’ gold and fifty of silver, an’ them ‘savages’ be all freed slaves.”

  At that point Ackermann clambered across from the other side. Fuller immediately got back to work and froze halfway through tying off a gasket when Ackermann said,

  “All’s well that side Captain. Anything over here?”

  “All seems to be in order,” Marty replied. “Gaskets seem to be well-tied.”

  Ackermann looked at Fuller, who was staring at Marty in horror.

  “Make sure the rest are just as good,” he said.

  “Aye aye, sir!” Fuller replied and, with shaking hands, finished the knot.

  At the foremast, Matai was waiting for them. He had seen Marty and Ackermann climbing the other masts and guessed what they were doing.

  “Captain,” he greeted Marty, who responded with a nod.

  “Race you to the top” and threw himself into the starboard ratlines. Matai didn’t need a second invitation but threw himself into the ratlines on the other side. The two of them raced up the mast, Marty slightly ahead but Matai had the agility of a monkey and was catching him rapidly. The men were watching their new captain in surprise and when the Tempests started to cheer on one or the other, they joined in.

  Marty knew Matai was gaining and threw everything he had in a burst of speed over the futtock shrouds, hanging out at forty-five degrees. His foot missed a hold, hitting a vertical rope instead and his body swung away from the shrouds, hanging vertically. There was an audible gasp from the men below. He pulled himself up with his arms alone, hand over hand, until he could swing his legs over the edge and climb up on the platform.

  Matai hadn’t waited and was already climbing the top mast. Marty knew he was beaten but gamely set off in pursuit. He had just gotten his head level with Matai’s feet when Matai touched the cap, winning the race. Marty finished the climb and patted Matai on the shoulder congratulating him.

  There were cheers and groans from below as men won and lost bets. Ackermann grinned up at the two of them and then bellowed orders for the men to get back to work.

  Once back on deck after checking the foremast rigging Marty went over every inch, personally checking every rope and eyebolt. He made sure he met the men who were working in each area and chatted with the warrant or midshipman in charge. Ackermann had produced a notebook and was as vigilant as his captain noting down every fault, damaged item, deficiency or shortage.

  They progressed to the guns and Yeovilton joined them. Marty noticed there were a few comments about the gunner’s appearance from some of the new men, that were rapidly squashed by his old hands.

  The big sixty-eight-pound carronades on the quarterdeck could be swivelled through over ninety degrees on the wheel and track at the rear of the mount around the azimuthal pivot. Recoil was taken up by the slide which also made loading them much easier than a long. Marty had the crew swing them through the full range to get an idea in his mind of how he could use them.

  If the marines thought they would get away without an inspection they were mistaken. He had them fit swivels on all the available mounts and discovered they were deficient in both mounts and guns. However, the ordnance they wanted to keep from the Tempest would soon be brought aboard, which would solve the shortage of guns, and installing more mounts was just a matter of time and effort.

  They checked each of the eighteen-pound longs in the main battery and the four twelve-pound chasers. Then they went through the orlop, holds and bilges.

  Back in his cabin Marty, Fletcher and Ackermann went over the list and when Yeovilton joined them discussed the armament.

  “Could we replace the two thirty-twos on the foredeck with one sixty-eight with a swivel that could track say two-hundred and forty degrees?” Marty asked.

 
; “There’s room for two sixty-eights with mounts like that placed in line on the centreline if we lose the two forward most eighteen pounders,” Yeovilton suggested.

  “Now that is an idea I like,” Marty replied with a happy smile at the thought of the devastation the big smashers would cause.

  “Can you get us a couple more sixty-eights?” he asked Fletcher who was making notes of what he needed to procure.

  “Certainly, from the Navy or privately?” he responded without looking up from his notes.

  “Let’s get the Navy to provide them,” Marty decided. “We will keep the eighteens in the hold, they will help trim the ship if we store them towards the stern,” he added.

  “Where are we storing the ordnance from the Tempest?”

  “She has been stripped of all the guns and they are waiting at Chatham. The swivels and small arms have been sent down to the Farm,” Fletcher reported.

  “And the big guns from the Bethany?”

  “They are on a barge in India Dock and will be shipped down to Chatham as well.”

  Marty was pleased to hear that as he owned the guns off the Bethany as well as a couple of the guns off the Tempest.

  “How long before we can sail,” he asked Ackermann.

  “We can leave for Chatham now and I think once we have the new guns fitted, we can probably be ready two weeks later as we are still missing some sails,” he replied after pondering for a moment.

  “I need to have a word with the provisioning officer about the age of some of the salt beef they are trying to palm off on us if you will excuse me,” Fletcher added and stood to leave.

  Alone once more Marty thought about how lucky he was to have such good men helping him. Cooper brought him in a cup of tea, put a bowl of water down for Blaez then left him alone to catch up on the paperwork that the Navy demanded from all its captains.

  A week later at Chatham a heavily laden barge was moored up beside the Formidiable and the crew were setting up the tackles to raise the carronade mounts up on to the deck. The two forward most eighteen pounders had been moved down into the hold to a point aft of the centreline that had been calculated to counterbalance the weight of the carronades. That had been the hard part as the two-and-half-yard-long, two-ton barrels were awkward and if not handled carefully could develop a mind of their own. With true Navy ingenuity the mounts, then the barrels were raised up and fitted into position.

  There had been a steady stream of new men join. Some had sailed with Marty before and had retired once from active service. There were a number who had sailed as freelancers in the Caribbean and had gotten bored with life ashore or had been duped out of their prize money. There were even three from the black country that had never sailed before, the only survivors of the group that had tried to hold up their coaches at the beginning of the year.

  Marty was just about to go back down to his, still sparsely furnished cabin, when Blaez stood with his forepaws on the rail and barked towards the shore. Marty walked over and put his arm around the dog’s shoulders to see what had gotten him excited. There was a coach on the dock that looked familiar and stood beside it were the unmistakable figures of his wife and children.

  He was about to order his boat to be sent over when he saw Sam climbing down into his barge which was already manned and John Smith organising a chair to lift them on board. He sighed, even though he really appreciated how his men used their initiative he wished they would let him tell them what to do sometimes instead of just doing it.

  Blaez was almost beside himself with excitement as the barge was rowed back to the ship and Marty had to stop him from jumping into the sea to swim over to it.

  Caroline was hoisted aboard, managed to look stunningly elegant throughout and was greeted enthusiastically by Blaez until the kids came up in the arms of Samuel and Antton, which sent him into paroxysms of joy.

  He hugged and kissed his wife on the cheek in greeting and was acutely aware of the stares of the new men. There was suddenly the sound of a fist contacting some part of a head and a thump of someone’s rear hitting the deck. A glance showed one of the new boys sitting on the deck with blood coming from a split lip and one of the Tempests rubbing his knuckles. He didn’t ask but assumed something had been said which was deemed inappropriate.

  They all retired to his quarters and when she entered Caroline was dismayed.

  “Is this all you have?” she asked sweeping an arm around to take in the whole cabin.

  “Well, I have been a little busy!” Marty protested feeling the wind picking up.

  She looked at him with a soft look on her face then hugged him, which turned into an extended kiss. When she came up for air, she had a determined look on that Marty knew all too well.

  “We’ll be going shopping then,” he said.

  And shop they did, new comfortable chairs and sofa, dining room table and chairs, sideboards, desk and chair, wine cabinet and even a checkerboard canvas for the floor and curtains for the transom windows, a dinner service and cutlery, bedding and tablecloths. It was all carted to the dock where it was barged over to the ship. Then there were his private stores which, after Caroline had checked them and deemed them totally inadequate, were topped up locally and would be further supplemented by a large order she sent to Fortnum and Maison’s to be delivered to the Farm.

  When they got back aboard, they found their son James being entertained by the Shadows. They had made him a wooden sword scaled to his size and Matai was sparring with him. Beth was sat over to the side with Blaez and his steward Cooper playing with a doll but watching James carefully.

  “Is Shelby on board?” asked Caroline.

  “Yes, he has been building a dedicated surgery on the orlop deck, you will probably find him down there. I have to attend to some things before dinner, will you be able to find him, or do you need a guide?”

  “No, I can manage,” she said and made her way to the stairs.

  Marty went down into his newly re-furnished cabin and settled at his desk. He had letters from Lieutenants Campbell and Thompson. James Campbell and Ryan Thompson had been with him for years now and had joined him as midshipmen. Ryan was in command of the Eagle and James the Alouette. James reported that the refit of the Alouette and Hornfleur were going well and he expected that another three weeks should see them back at sea and another week after that they should be at Deal.

  A new mid had been given the Hornfleur, he was twenty-year-old Angus Frasier a dur Scott from Aberdeen according to the letter from Thompson. He wrote that Frasier had been sent by Hood and according to his service record had been denied a lieutenancy for telling his previous commander he was an ass. Apparently, the commander had decided to force his ship through a number of French fishing boats, causing two to capsize. Frasier had taken him to task over it resulting in him being beached.

  A man of principle then, well we will see how he fits in with this bunch of pirates.

  Caroline joined him an hour later and sat down on the settee waiting for him to finish with his work and when he put down his pen for the last time and stretched his arms she said,

  “I have some news darling,”

  “Hmm?” Marty said as he stood and stretched his back.

  “I am pregnant again.”

  He froze mid-stretch and looked at her. “How far along?”

  “According to Shelby, three months.”

  Marty dropped to the settee beside her and gathered her into his arms and kissed her. Beth and James chose that moment to come down and the four of them celebrated the moment together.

  Marty stayed with Caroline on shore for the next two nights and during the day they went back aboard. The second day, around mid-morning, a lookout reported that an ornate carriage had pulled up on the dock and the escort was signalling to the ship.

  Marty went on deck and immediately recognised the carriage.

  “Mr. Ackermann! Please have my barge manned immediately and send it over to pick up the Prince Regent from the dock. Have Mr.
Trenchard command it in his number one uniform!” he added spotting the second lieutenant dressed in working rig.

  Fifteen minutes later the barge with smartly dressed crew in matching white trousers with blue and white striped shirts and second lieutenant, in full dress, was heading to the dock.

  Ackermann had a full side party assembled and Caroline was in a panic as all her dresses were ashore and James had gotten tar on his clothes. Marty assured her she looked fabulous.

  They had a bosun’s chair rigged and the Prince was brought aboard with all due ceremony. As soon as his feet hit the deck he stood and walked towards Marty with his arms outstretched. Marty had no choice but to accept the hug and kiss on the cheek in front of the entire crew.

  “My dear Martin! I just couldn’t wait to come down and see if you liked my gift to you.” he crowed joyfully, holding Marty at arm’s length so he could look him in the eyes.

  Marty realised he must be talking about the Formidiable. “She is wonderful, Your Highness, the perfect ship for the tasks ahead” he extemporised.

  “I had a little word in the ear of some of my friends in the Admiralty and as you captured her it was only just you get her!” He turned to Caroline. “Lady Caroline, you look absolutely radiant!”

  Marty gave the Prince a guided tour.

  “Is the Captain really a Lord?” asked Stan Wilkins, a bosun’s mate who had volunteered for special duty as it paid better than normal Navy pay. He had eight kids and two wives to support in two ports.

  “He certainly is,” Wilson told him. “Lord Candor, he’s got a big estate up in Cheshire and another down in Dorset.”

  “The old hands say they get paid in cash, not slips.”

  “That we do,” Wilson confirmed.

  “And he’s a friend of the Prince?”

  “Looks like it dunnit,” Wilson said in a voice that ended the conversation.

  Prince George stayed to a sumptuous lunch prepared by Roland du Demaine and played with the children, luckily Blaez took to him and just watched to make sure all was well. He left at three in the afternoon and invited them both to visit when Marty was back in London the next time.