Flashman and the Seawolf

by Robert Brightwell

  “Good God” cries Cochrane. “You killed him? I never knew we had such a cut throat in our midst.” I had neglected to mention how I had been provoked into the act, there seemed little point explaining now. I preferred to be thought of as a dangerous member of the ship’s company, fool that I was.

  A minute or two later Archie was back to report that the top of the tower held an old cannon pointing out to sea but no cannonballs. The room below the cannon held two barrels of gun powder of dubious quality. The room below that was the ground floor room I had been held in but below that there was a very deep cellar, twelve to 18 foot deep that was partly flooded at the bottom and empty. Apart from the tower there was a small empty wooden stable and a cook house that was filthy but had enough food to make a meal for a dozen men and a barrel of olive oil plus three barrels of fresh water. There were also assorted empty wine barrels scattered around the yard, including the ones we were standing on.

  Well I thought, if you can turn this lot of disadvantages into an advantage I would like to see it. Aloud I asked “What will we do, wait until dark and then try to slip away?”

  “Possibly” mused Cochrane. “Although they will have their men closer around the boats then and they may have carbines as well as sabres. We would lose a lot that way. Maybe we would be better trying to get men out in groups through the town at night while they think we are still here.”

  With the courtyard wall ten feet high, only those with a barrel to stand on could see over it. Cochrane ordered the barrels to be evenly spaced around the walls and then the stables were broken down to produce planks that were laid on top of the barrels to produce a fire step behind the wall. He also sent a group of men up to lever the cannon on the tower round to the north. Without cannon balls the best they could do was load it with the powder and a bucket of shingle to provide a stone version of grape shot if the enemy chose to attack. The cavalry showed no inclination to attack however and once they saw a run for the boats was not imminent, most dismounted and a few were sent off with messages. The reason for their relaxed approach appeared just before noon when more uniforms appeared further up the beach. First to appear was a file of around two hundred infantry and then a short while later more horses appeared pulling a cannon.

  Up until this moment I had taken confidence from Cochrane’s calm demeanour. I imagined that come darkness we would find a way of getting away as I was determined not to fall into Abrantes’ clutches again. But now we were outnumbered six to one and it did not look like the enemy were going to let us wait until dark. They were just going to blast a hole in the wall and come charging in. Even Cochrane looked at bit worried at this latest development. The problem he explained was that we only had six muskets from the captured soldiers. The other weapons we had brought were pistols, cutlasses and boarding pikes which were fine for action in the close confines of a ship but not ideal for a land battle. Archie had already returned to me my old pistols that he had found in a search of the tower but I found them of little comfort against the numbers we faced.

  Knowing that the tower could be a target of the gunners Cochrane had the two barrels of gun powder taken outside. Initially he was going to shield them behind the tower but when he saw their size, smaller that the big wine barrels, he hit on a fresh plan. He got the men to put eight inches of gravel from the beach into the bottom of two wine barrels and then put the gun powder barrels on top and pack more gravel around them so that they became large gravel bombs. A couple of the gunners had brought slow match and fuse with them on the mission thinking that some kind of demolition might be required. Lengths of fuse were cut for three minutes and five minutes and the plan was to push these over the wall when a breach had been made just before the enemy advanced into it.

  Cochrane was convinced that the Spanish troops were not as resolute in battle as the French and that if we showed strong resistance they would not press home the attack. I pointed out that their officers would probably be more afraid of Abrantes than us and he would certainly make them attack as he had unfinished business.

  The Spanish gunners in any event were lacklustre. Their first three shots ploughed up three mounds of sand and shingle about twenty feet from the walls. But they soon got their eye in or their gun barrels warmed up and started knocking down the top of the wall in front of the tower and then the side wall of the tower itself which seemed fairly thin. In no time at all the wall in front of the tower was down to just six feet in height and there was a gaping mouth in the tower wall opposite the breach.

  With just one gun and leisurely gunners there was normally a two minute pause between shots and in one of those gaps I explored the damage with Cochrane and Archie. We were standing in the ground floor room where I had been held. I was pleased to see that one cannon ball that had smashed through the tower wall had also smashed to smithereens the garrotte.

  “How deep did you say the cellar was?” asked Cochrane to Archie.

  “Twelve to eighteen feet with about six inches of water at the bottom”

  “Excellent” cries Cochrane “Remember those bug traps we used to build as boys? Well we’ll just build a giant bug trap for the Spanish. Get some men to get these floor boards up between firing, keep them whole as we will need them for the ramp. And if yonder cannon does not do it for us lower the bottom lip of the hole in the tower wall so that we have at least a 30 degree drop from the breach.”

  I had absolutely no idea what Cochrane was talking about but Archie understood and was delighted with the plan. “With the cannon, the bug trap and the mines we will see them off yet.” He rushed off to get some of the men to help build this trap about which I was still none the wiser. As we left the tower and another ball slammed into the wall. I was struggling to share their confidence that something the Cochrane lads built as boys to trap bugs was going to serve here.

  Initially it looked like there would not be much time to build their trap as after a few more balls the gunners seemed to decide that the job was done. The wall opposite the tower now had a breach in it that was eight feet wide and the ten foot wall had been lowered to four to five feet with a rubble ramp on either side for their infantry to climb up. The crew worked furiously to pull up the floor boards and then lower the side of the hole in the tower so that it was several feet below the height of the breach. Cochrane also had several men roll out the mines and leave them hidden from the enemy behind the huge mounds of sand and gravel thrown up the early artillery shots. With each barrel a crewmember was crouching with a piece of burning slow match ready to light the fuse and run back to the tower. When the tower floorboards had been removed they were taken to the cookhouse where they were liberally coated with cooks slush or grease that had built up there in prodigious quantities. The planks were then inserted in the gap between the breach and the tower. There they gradually built up a solid platform starting just below the lip of the breach and sloping steeply into the hole in the tower.

  Throughout this construction I was continually looking over the wall expecting to see the ranks of infantry marching towards us. But it took them an age to get organised and I took satisfaction from seeing Abrantes railing at their officers to get the men into a column. Well over an hour after the artillery had finished, the infantry finally looked ready. The cavalry had also remounted and resumed their former position close to the shore in case any of our men decided to make a run for it to escape the infantry. I looked back to the town and about a hundred townspeople were watching from windows and the ends of streets. Given that word must have spread of what Abrantes had done to their priest it was hard to say who they wanted to win.

  Trumpets now sounded from the infantry and Cochrane responded by asking Archie to send up a signal rocket. “What is that for?” I asked.

  “That is for my last surprise,” Cochrane grinned. “Light the mines, muskets to the ramparts and get ready to catch the mine lighters as they come through the breach. I don’t want them to be the first visitors to the bug trap.” He was all energy now. I
had been doubtful of the effectiveness of the bug trap but when the two crew who had lit the mines stepped over the breach they immediately lost their footing and would have fallen if they had not deliberately come in at the edges where friendly hands helped them down. Cochrane now had the planks doused liberally with the olive oil we had found in the kitchen to make them more slippery yet.

  The infantry eventually started forward at a reluctant slow pace. They must have seen we had been busy, maybe they had heard it was Cochrane who was well known on that coast, but surely they knew that some reception was planned for them. The officer rode his horse at the head of the column and Abrantes, still shouting for them to go faster, rode at their rear. They marched in neat lines until there were within fifty yards of the tower. Then the old cannon at its top fired. The gun had been depressed as low as it would go, packed with a double charge of the suspect gun powder and a bucket of gravel and the effect was devastating. The cannon missed the front of the column which it had been aiming for, instead the stones scythed into the troops several rows back. There was a chorus of agonised screams and a spray of blood could be seen above the column where the stones had hit. The officer screamed at his men to advance before the gun could reload and those at the front surged forward while the rest tried to work their way around their wounded comrades. A desultory crackle of our six muskets rent the air and then the Spaniards roared as they charged up the breach to bring death and destruction to those inside. The first soldiers pushed on by those behind them stood no chance and were off their feet in seconds and sliding towards the trap. Weapons such as boarding pikes while little use in a normal land battle, were ideal now at close range to keep the Spanish troops off balance and on the ramp to the tower. The Spaniards had little opportunity to bring their long muskets to bear and invariably when they fell the swinging musket tangled in the legs of those behind. At least twenty Spanish troops must have fallen into the trap with another dozen dead or dying who had fallen or thrown themselves off the sides of the ramp. Cochrane had concentrated his forces there so that the sides of the ramp were lined with well armed men.

  The Spanish seeing so many men enter the courtyard assumed that it was close to being taken and surged forward again. But the men at the head of the column had heard the screams of those before them and were now climbing the breach more cautiously with muskets raised while a crowd of troops built behind them. As the next wave of Spanish troops appeared warily in the breach a fusillade of pistol shots met them, including one of my own. Only one of the Spaniards managed to get a shot off and a seaman on the opposite side of the ramp from me spun away wounded. Virtually all of the remaining Spanish infantry were now milling about outside the breach, those at the front being pushed by their impatient comrades behind. It was at this moment that there was a mighty roar as the first mine went off.

  One of the tower cannon gun crew told me later that the explosion carved a huge swathe through the attacking troops. By the breach we heard the crack of blasted shingle on the wall outside a then a new chorus of screaming. A bloodied corpse was blown through the breach and slowly slid part way the slippery planks, leaving a trail of bloody stones. It was then that the Spanish troops must have noticed the second mine lying in the sand and realised that it must be about to blow. They started to run away from the mine and then they kept on going. I heard the screams and shouts and leapt onto the makeshift firing step that allowed me to look over the wall. The Spanish troops were running away from us, many having dropped their muskets on the way. The course of the battle could be seen from the carnage, with a cluster of around twenty dead and dying soldiers fifty yards off where the cannon had fired and at least another forty around where the first mine had been. Many of these had been pulverised beyond recognition but I could make out the officer as his body was still partly astride the mangled corpse of his horse. Seeing that prompted me to look to the cavalry who were still standing where they started the battle but were now all staring inland at the defeated infantry running away and the bodies that they had left behind. This meant that they were not looking at the wondrous sight that I now beheld, as round the headland came a dowdy looking small black ship with its gun ports open and its cannon already run out.

  For Parker and his gunners on the Speedy the tightly packed group of horsemen was an obvious target. With only forty crew on the ship to sail and fire the guns Parker had ordered all guns loaded and run out ready immediately after Cochrane left with the landing party. From past experience he knew that when Cochrane sent the signal flare he would want the Speedy there as fast as possible and ready for anything. There were just two men on each gun to adjust the aim and fire, with the rest concentrating on sailing the ship. Parker adjusted the heading of the Speedy so that the guns could bear on the horsemen and a ragged broadside rang out. Four pounder guns might be puny against a battleship but they are devastating on horseflesh. Where they hit they often ploughed through several horses. I saw one trooper have his mount literally eviscerated under him with a cannon ball bursting out of the animal’s chest and then slamming into another animal while the trooper remained astride his mount as it slumped to the ground. In just a few seconds around half of a squadron of cavalry was turned into mangled horseflesh while the rest turned and fled after the infantry.

  I would have watched them go but Cochrane brought me back to my senses by shouting “Flashman get your head down, the second mine is still to go off.” I ducked back down to find the courtyard full of activity. The gun crew on the tower had already announced the Speedy’s arrival and the destruction of the cavalry to the rest of the landing party and now it was all bustle to get away. The cannon crew were shinning down the outside of the tower on a rope as the internal stairs ended in the bug trap. Other crew were tearing away the barricade they had put up behind the gate. The second mine went off with a dull thump and some screams from the wounded outside. As the gate was cleared the men streamed out. Most went down to the beach and the waiting long boat but a few went to the Spanish dead probably to loot the bodies. Cochrane called for them to take muskets and cartridge boxes and hurry. We had only one casualty, a seaman who had taken a ball to the shoulder and he was being helped down to the boats by his mates. I looked back and the ground in front of the breach seemed covered with Spanish dead and some wounded that were still crying out piteously. The last to leave the courtyard were Cochrane and Archie who strolled casually. I tried to hurry them along but Cochrane insisted that he had never run from an enemy and would not do so now. The remaining infantry and cavalry watched us from the edge of the dunes but showed no inclination to interfere. One lone horseman however did ride forward. I could guess who it was and how furious he must be. I fervently hoped our paths would not cross again, a hope that turned out to be as forlorn as the group that first rushed the tower.

  ~~~~~~

  Chapter 12

  Given my earlier problems with sea sickness I have never been more grateful to climb aboard a ship than when I hauled myself aboard the Speedy late in the afternoon after the defence of the tower. After everything I had been through, I knelt down and kissed the deck much to the amusement of the others, but the horrors that had awaited me in that brazier were still fresh in the memory and the relief in being back on a British deck was palpable. Cochrane was keen to put to sea and the crew rushed to get the anchor up and us under sail again while talking excitedly about what they had seen and done.

  As we got underway I stood on the quarterdeck looking back at the beach with Archie. The soldiers and cavalry survivors had come back down to the beach to start to help the wounded and a steady stream were being helped into the town.

  “Poor devils, I almost feel sorry for them, they didn’t really stand a chance” he said.

  “You would not say that if it was your fingers that they were going to cut off with a hot knife.”

  “Aye I dare say you are right. Before we left I opened the tower door to look into the bug trap. They were laying several deep at the bottom but on
e of them even managed to get a shot off at me with his musket.”

  “They probably thought that you had some fresh torment ready to inflict on them, perhaps they thought you would pin them to cards like bugs!”

  It was the disparity in casualties that stunned and indeed delighted me. Looking at the beach and thinking about the men in the tower, we had killed or severely wounded at least 100 and possibly 150 of the Spanish. In exchange we had one wounded seaman who had been able to walk from the beach and who Guthrie was confident would suffer no permanent damage. This turned out to be typical of many of Cochrane’s actions. In September 1808 commanding the frigate Imperieuse, he kept the whole French coast of the Languedoc region in alarm with coastal raids, tied up 2,000 French troops needed elsewhere and destroyed a French cavalry regiment in a similar action to Estepona and the only injuries his crew suffered was one man slightly burnt when blowing up a gun battery.

  As a result the crew loved him. He was daring and audacious but always had tricks up his sleeves to keep them as safe as possible and he brought them a steady stream of prize money. In contrast to his prickly nature with his superior officers, to subordinates he was inspirational. He lead by example, knew all the crew by name and showed a genuine interest in their wellbeing. I saw him once using his sextant and noticing that a ship’s boy was watching what he was doing. Most officers would have sent him about his duties with a sharp reprimand or worse. But Cochrane could see the boy’s interest and as little else was happening at the time he called him over and spent half an hour explaining the basics of navigation. Carter was the boy’s name and he was sharp and eager to learn. I met him year’s later and he was a naval lieutenant then.

  For my part, word quickly spread that I had despatched another enemy agent and that I had been facing torture when I was rescued. I was looked upon with renewed respect. I was no longer viewed as a passenger but as a proven member of the crew. Given that they had been under no obligation to rescue me and indeed I had not been expecting it, I expressed my gratitude as widely as I could. Once we were safely out to sea Cochrane granted a double rum ration on my behalf and I gave the wounded seaman a gold escudo coin from Wickham’s funds.