The Privateersman

by The Privateersman (retail) (epub)

  By sunset, aided now by the downward slope of the land towards the beach, the gun reached the high-water mark. Kite was unwilling to lose an instant, and so he sent off to the schooner for a pot-mess, fed the men round an open fire on the beach and then urged them on to complete their task. Under the stars the men of the Spitfire toiled on into the night.

  While Kite, Harper and the greater part of the Spitfire’s company concentrated on dragging the gun down from its position near the lighthouse to the place selected for its embarkation, a smaller party of seamen under Lamont worked on board the schooner. Their task had been to construct a raft from materials on board and some taken off the island. A number of water casks were emptied and placed inside a rough framework of lashed spars, held together within this structure by a net to which they were individually lashed. The whole structure was then covered with a storm trysail of heavy grade canvas, folded in half for additional strength and stretched by means of a rope lacing. This extemporised raft was then dragged ashore and anchored in water reckoned deep enough to float it even when loaded. At about nine o’clock that evening the relocated sheer-legs lowered the heavy gun onto the contrivance. It bore the two tons of dead weight well and by ten o’clock, the men having wearily pulled the two boats towing their cumbersome burden back out to the anchored Spitfire, the gun lay alongside the schooner. The foresail throat halliard had been over-hauled and shifted from the fore gaff jaws to the end of the fore boom and this was topped up with the sheet, unshackled from the deck, left on it as a purchase. By this means the eighteen-pounder was finally deposited upon the Spitfire’s deck, inducing a slight list. By midnight the carriage had followed and the hands were piped below, orders being passed to turn out again at daylight.

  The following morning, having obtained additional stout timbers from the roof of a partly burned outhouse adjacent to the lighthouse-keepers dwellings, Harper and Kite began to fashion an extempore barbette just forward of the main hatchway where the long-boat usually nestled on her chocks. They had compensated for the additional weight of the eighteen-pounder by striking four of the small broadside guns down into the hold, simultaneously clearing the larger weapon’s field of fire. Before securing the hatch, the deck was shored up from below to take the weight of the heavier gun. Having completed bolting the necessary beams to the deck, a traversing slide was built on the barbette. This was liberally slushed with tallow and linseed oil and topped by the gun’s carriage, shorn of its wheels. Finally, twenty-six hours after Kite had opened negotiations with the keepers to acquire the gun, all forty hundredweights of the large iron weapon were laid on the carriage, the cap-squares were closed and pinned, and the men raised a ragged, but spontaneous cheer. Before sending them to dinner Kite ordered a practice firing. A charge of powder was brought up on deck, wadded home and, with the gun pointed away from the island, fire was applied to the touch-hole.

  As the charge in the chamber exploded, the gun carriage recoiled satisfactorily along the slide, though the whole ship shook with the reverberations of the thunderous discharge. But the gratifying concussion brought smiles to the faces of the men and two of them executed an excited little caper, to the delight of their watch-mates and the general merriment of all hands.

  ‘Belay that bloody dido,’ Lamont said with a laugh. ‘Larbowlines away for dinner,’ he ordered and with the larboard watch sent below for their midday meal, the starbowlines manned the windlass and the halliards. Half an hour later the two keepers on the parapet of the wrecked lighthouse stood and watched the schooner as she disappeared behind George Island and headed towards Nantasket Road, heading for Boston.

  ‘These are strange times,’ the principal keeper remarked philosophically, his fingers jingling the gold in his pocket.

  ‘Aye, they are,’ concurred his colleague with a laugh.

  ‘She was a handsome woman, that Mistress Kite…’ the older man said wistfully. The younger man nodded enthusiastically. ‘Aye she was that. And she knew all the right words to say to explain matters.’

  ‘Aye, and she had to help you with spelling some of them words, too.’

  The older man smiled at the recollection. Then he stirred and said, ‘we had better put that money safe away, I don’t want them dirty bastard rebels getting their greedy paws on it if they come back.’

  ‘No,’ the younger man said, grinning, ‘not like they took the fog-signal gun.’

  The two men laughed and congratulated themselves. ‘Not a word now, Jim lad, not even to your sainted mother.’

  Kite hardly dared to suppose that his luck had changed when he met a naval cutter in the King Road. If he could pass to her commander the task of informing General Gage of the attack on the lighthouse, he could the sooner be about his own affairs. He gave the schooner’s waist a quick glance: the eighteen-pounder lay concealed under a tarpaulin and looked like a pile of deck cargo. They had also taken Sarah’s pendant down while the displaced long-boat was under tow astern, making the Spitfire look even more like a merchantman than she really was.

  To attract the attention of the outward-bound cutter, Kite had a bow chaser fired to leeward and then hove-to and hauled the long-boat alongside, ordering half a dozen seamen into it and leaping in to take the tiller himself. He felt his spirits lift as, clasping the despatch largely dictated by Sarah and painfully written out by the junior keeper of the Brewster lighthouse, the boat danced across the wavelets towards the cutter which was in turn, heaving-to. Scrambling up the little vessel’s side Kite raised his hat and introduced himself.

  ‘Captain Kite of the schooner Spitfire of Liverpool.’

  ‘John Gilbert, lieutenant-in-command of His Britannic Majesty’s cutter Viper at your service.’ The two men shook hands.

  ‘I am on passage, Lieutenant Gilbert, but have been in contact with the lighthouse on the Brewster. They were making signals of distress having been attacked yesterday by rebels. We did what we could, but the lighthouse has been damaged and its stores completely looted. The keepers are anxious for the continuing existence of the pharos, not to mention their own safety, for I understand the rebels threatened to return. I have here their report of the incident.’

  Gilbert took the offered packet and nodded. ‘We were on our way out there, Captain Kite, having heard some rumours from the village of Hull on Nantasket, that smoke had been seen rising from Beacon Island.’

  ‘Forgive the presumption, sir,’ Kite said, ‘but the faster a garrison is placed on the island, the better. I believe the keeper’s report to be comprehensive, having urged him to write it to secure the prompt response of the authorities, and it may well be advantageous to convey it directly to Boston rather than waste time merely confirming the details. General Gage or the admiral will need to put troops or marines ashore as soon as possible in order to deter a further rebel descent on the island.’

  Gilbert considered a moment and then nodded. ‘Very well, Captain. My thanks to you. I will see what I can do. Tell me where are you bound?’

  ‘To Halifax, sir. I cleared outwards from Boston a couple of days ago, having discharged a cargo of flour from Antigua.’

  ‘Very well. And thank you, Captain.’

  The two men took their leave. As he put back to the Spitfire, Kite had the satisfaction of seeing the cutter swing round and her sails trimmed for a return passage to Boston. He wanted to escape all entrapment and involvement, and the encounter had been fortuitous. Besides, a report brought by a naval officer would have more impact than one brought by a mere merchant master, so the meeting with the Viper was to the advantage of all parties anxious to defend the rule of law.

  Both Lamont and Harper wore anxious expressions as they met him at the rail. He scrambled back over the Spitfire’s side and the long-boat was passed astern again on its painter.

  ‘Well gentlemen, that was the cutter Viper and Lieutenant John Gilbert proved most obliging. I think the coast is now clear for us to proceed, so let us work out clear of the islands and thereafter lay a course for C
ape Cod.’

  ‘You are going in chase of the Rattlesnake then, sir?’ Harper said.

  ‘Why Zachariah, what else should you suppose I would do?’

  ‘Nothing sir, but…’

  ‘But we need to be certain, Captain Kite,’ interjected Lamont, ‘so that we can better prepare ourselves.’

  ‘Indeed, I agree. We shall dine together once we have sufficient offing, in order to do just that. But for now let us work out clear of the Brewsters.’

  ‘Aye, aye, sir.’

  And hauling round herself, Spitfire headed again for the passage between the islands and the open sea beyond.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Nantucket Sound

  That evening the light in the cabin burned late. Hitherto the cabin had been Kite’s private quarters, but that night, leaving the deck to Jacob, Kite dined his two officers in formal state. This was not entirely a disinterested matter, for he had formed a liking for both men and they, it seemed, rubbed along together very well.

  ‘We all need a good night’s sleep gentlemen,’ Kite said, as Ben cleared the dishes and Sarah made to withdraw at least from the table. ‘Stay with us, my dear,’ Kite said, restraining her, ‘for this whole affair touches you as much as the rest of us and we should welcome your opinion, should we not gentlemen?’

  Lamont and Harper both concurred; Mistress Kite was a woman whose society it was difficult to avoid enjoying and besides, Captain Kite’s hospitality, rare though it was, proved lavish enough when he dispensed it.

  ‘I think ye’ve earned a place at our council, Mistress Kite, and a welcome one, if I may say so,’ Lamont said, ‘if your conduct in the late scrap with the rebels was anything to go by.’

  ‘Here, here,’ said Harper as Ben completed his task, drew the cloth, setting a decanter of madeira on the table from which Kite drew the stopper and passed it first to Lamont.

  ‘Now,’ he said, clearing his throat, ‘I am certain that our friend Rathburne has retired to Rhode Island to refit. I am equally certain that he will be back to raid the Brewsters again and, one way or another, that he knows who and what we are. He is not a man, I conceive, to let matters drop. On the contrary he is likely to come looking for us so, if we are to regain any initiative, we must fight on our own terms and for this the eighteen-pounder gives us our best chance.’ Kite paused and looked round the table. ‘Zachariah, you are looking troubled; what is the matter?’

  ‘Sir, I heard you talking to Hamish here, and saying that we could make up langridge and may even find some rocks in the ballast to charge the big gun up with, but if we could threatening him by implying we have a heavy calibre weapon capable of battering him from a distance…’

  ‘I have thought of that,’ Kite leaned forward eagerly. ‘The bore of the eighteen-pounder is a little larger than the sheaves in a number of the heavy blocks on board. We have several spare blocks in store and, by fitting rope grommets we can match the bore. A few pairs of these with bolts such as we keep for the channels between each of the sheaves will make good bar shot and my plan of attack is this…’

  Carefully, and in some detail, Kite explained his intentions, concluding with the words, ‘so it does not greatly matter in what circumstances we encounter the Rattlesnake, only that when we do so, the gun crew acts with absolute coolness. I am therefore going to order you Hamish to handle the eighteen-pounder. Pick your men carefully and impress upon them the absolute necessity of following the plan.’ Kite paused and staring at Lamont, let his import sink in.

  The Mate nodded. ‘I understand, Captain.’

  ‘Good. Now Zachariah, I am depending upon you to handle the forward guns and the headsail sheets while I shall handle the after guns and the ship herself. Both of us will be prepared either to lead the boarders or, if matters go against us, to defend the ship. To that end I shall require you to see that all the men not selected by Hamish for the eighteen-pounder, have weapons prepared and to hand. We will issue small arms tomorrow morning and, depending upon how long we have to wait for Rathburne, draw charges and renew them every morning or after any rain or excessive spraying. Is that understood?’

  Lamont and Harper both nodded.

  ‘Good. Now, since it may be some days before we find our quarry, we will divide the ship’s company into three watches. I will prepare watch-bills tomorrow forenoon and we will commence the three-watch system at noon…’

  ‘You mean to keep a watch then, Captain?’ Lamont asked.

  ‘Yes. When we meet Rathburne, we will require all our men to exert themselves to the utmost and by this means we can all benefit from the rest which we may, or may not of course, benefit from.’ Kite paused again, judging the impact of his words. ‘Finally,’ he said at last, ‘while I do not intend that we commit ourselves to a useless fate and I am confident that this will not become necessary, if events do go against us I shall not willingly submit. This man has done me and mine,’ Kite paused and looked at Sarah whose expression was one of rapt attention, ‘a deal of harm. I am not out for revenge, but for the only form of justice that men of Rathburne’s stamp comprehend.’ Kite stared round from face to face. ‘Now, any questions?’

  Lamont shook his head.

  ‘Beg pardon, sir, and you Mistress, but what of your wife, sir?’

  ‘I shall fight,’ said Sarah simply, speaking for the first time since the council-of-war had started.

  ‘But is that wise?’ Harper asked, colouring so that Kite wondered if he knew, or guessed, at Sarah’s condition.

  ‘No, it is not wise Zachariah,’ Sarah said coolly, ‘it would be wise to retire quietly to England with my husband,’ she reached out and placed one hand over Kite’s as he leaned forward clasping his glass, ‘but then I am an American and I am not much given to wisdom, Zachariah, much like yourself,’ and she smiled with such charm that the three men all laughed.

  ‘Well,’ said Kite, raising his glass, ‘here’s to our next encounter with the Rattlesnake.’

  After the two mates had gone, Harper to his cot and Lamont to take over the watch on deck, Kite turned to Sarah. ‘Zachariah has a point, Sarah. Does he know of your condition?’

  ‘Certainly not!’ Sarah exclaimed with a laugh, tossing her hair in a charmingly youthful motion. ‘As for Zachariah being right about my lack of wisdom, you know my sentiments. My child will not wish to be born an orphan and I would rather die at your side than survive to be at Rathburne’s mercy, whatever happens to you.’

  Kite laughed. ‘You might lack wisdom, my love, but you certainly do not lack honesty!’

  ‘Come,’ she said rising and matching the gentle roll of the Spitfire. ‘If you are keeping the morning watch, we should get some sleep.’

  * * *

  They cruised for a day or two in Rhode Island Sound without success. Outside his own watch Lamont and a pair of seamen he had selected for the big gun’s crew carefully prepared the extemporised ammunition for the eighteen-pounder, while Harper, in his watch-below, prepared the small arms, made up cartridges, checked the knapping of flints and the edge on cutlasses, tomahawks and boarding pikes.

  After a while Kite set the Spitfire’s bowsprit east from Block Island, cruising the shores of Buzzard’s Bay and Martha’s Vineyard, nosing into New Bedford and scouring every inlet along Nantucket Sound. They sighted fishing boats and the occasional coasting vessel, as well as two Royal Naval frigates and a sloop-of-war, but Rattlesnake had vanished, or so it seemed. Kite held to his theory in the face of an increasing if gentle and well-meant disagreement with Lamont.

  ‘You have put too much trust in your judgement of the man, Captain Kite,’ Lamont argued. ‘It is all right for you, with but a single objective but Rathburne, for all his hot-blooded temper, is only a part of the rebel movement. He may well be subject to orders.’

  In the end Kite had to admit that the Mate’s opinion that Rathburne had retreated, not to Rhode Island, but to the coast of New Hampshire, or perhaps that of Maine, was probably correct.

  ‘I
f they are meditating another descent on the lighthouse,’ Lamont continued to argue with increasing conviction, ‘they will waste little time and could have dropped into Plymouth or Portland before returning to raid the Brewsters again.’

  Kite capitulated with a good grace and once again they doubled Cape Cod, this time heading to the northwards, standing inshore towards the Brewster Islands. But here they saw the red dots of British uniforms ashore, and signs of men working on scaffold boards around the lantern of the lighthouse tower. Beyond the hummocks of the islands they could see too the masts and spars of two vessels lying at their anchors. One appeared to be a man-o’-war cutter and Kite thought her the Viper.

  ‘Well, the lighthouse seems secure enough from further attack,’ Kite said gloomily, tucking his glass away and giving orders to put the Spitfire about yet again. He leant his weight to the tiller as the sheets were trimmed and the men milled expectantly in the waist. They were enjoying the relaxed regimen of the three-watch system, but the delay in bringing their enemy to book was beginning to grate. It was almost noon and most of the ship’s company were on deck, either idling in the sunshine or waiting to relinquish or relieve the forenoon watch. He turned and regarded Sarah, Lamont and Harper, bracing themselves as the schooner swooped over the waves and ploughed through intermittent patches of brilliant sunshine.