The Aphrodite under full sail rounded the northern coast and approached the first of the bays suggested by the Master, Parham Harbour, which was a wide bay and although they cruised slowly round no ships of any sort were found. They moved on to the next target, Guiana Island which formed the southern side of a long, wide anchorage open to easterly gales but with smaller bays and inlets off it forming more sheltered anchorages. All had to be investigated and Merriman was beginning to have doubts about the possibility of finding anything there but he kept up his pose of confidence, strolling round the ship and talking to members of his officers and crew. Back on the quarterdeck he looked all the officers gathered there and then, pacing up and down he made up his mind. He turned to the First Lieutenant. “Colin, from Mr. Cuthbert's revised chart I think that this is the most likely place to will find what we are looking for. I'll have the men on their toes so beat to quarters and take the courses off her. Have the guns loaded with solid shot but not run out, keep the port lids closed.”
Standing amidst the sudden noise and bustle, Merriman again doubted if they would find anything, but, he reminded himself, he must appear confident to all. Aphrodite entered the bay under the reduced sail, passing Guiana Island to larboard with extra lookouts aloft viewing every inch of the coast of the island and had nearly reached the further end of the bay and Merriman was about to order the ship to go about when the boom of a canon was heard and a spout of water rose just off the larboard side. “Somebody there doesn't want us any closer,” said Merriman, “Did anybody note where that shot came from?” “Yes Sir I did, I was looking at the shore and I saw a puff of smoke from among the thin trees just to the left of that small headland Sir,” said Oakley, one of the midshipmen.
“Well spotted Mr. Oakley, did anybody else see it? Did you Mr. Cuthbert?” “Yes Sir I did and took a bearing on it. We could find it again.” The Aphrodite had not yet turned and as they passed the small headland two small ships were revealed at anchor in line astern in the narrow passage between the island and the mainland with a small boat carrying men out to one of them. Musket fire could be heard on the mainland and hardly had they been seen when more cannon fire erupted from the trees. Most shot either went wide or short but one ball struck the fo'c'sle railing, shattering it and sending hail of small splinters among the crew there and killing one man. Merriman was told later that it was one of the pressed men, originally very fat, who had been involved with French agents in England in a plot involving Irish rebels.
“Mr. Grahame, I think you and your uncle should go below,” said Merriman. “No Sir, I want to stay on deck to see what we have caught. Anything I can learn about these fellows could be valuable.” “As you insist Sir. Mr. Laing,” said Merriman formally “have the guns run out. We'll go about and give those gun positions a broadside. Mr. Andrews, you have seen where the guns ashore are, so for’ard with you ready to open fire as your guns bear, Starboard battery only, and tell Mr. Gorman his turn will come.” “Aye-aye Sir,” Andrews replied, his face alight at the prospect of action. Mr. Laing bellowed the orders and the ship almost turned on the spot thanks to a keen crew, the weeks and months of training and the continual practice they had grown so used to.
Approaching the small headland again, the site of the gun position revealed itself and Andrews roared out “As your guns bear – fire.” The blast of shot seemed to cut down most of the trees concealing the cannon, two of which could be seen tumbling through the air. “Mr. St James,” ordered Merriman, “as we go about you will take the cutter and half of your marines and investigate ashore. If there are still any usable cannon you will spike them and bring any men you find alive back to the ship.” Under closely reefed topsail and a jib sail Aphrodite crept slowly towards where the two small ships were anchored until the man in the fore chains with the lead bellowed “By the mark five.” “Shoals rapidly here Sir” called Mr. Cuthbert from his place by the wheel. “Very well Mr. Cuthbert, Mr. Laing, stop her and anchor here” called Merriman. Laing shouted the orders and the topsail was swung into the wind to press against the forward motion of the ship and act as a brake. Once the way was off her the anchor splashed down. Merriman blessed the forethought which had made him keep the anchor ready for quick use and it had been prepared and lashed to the cathead ever since leaving English Harbour,
“I can see redcoats ashore Sir, on what I suppose we should call the mainland,” said Laing, peering intently through his glass. “Indeed you can, I see them too” remarked Merriman, they are pushing a group of men with them, must be the spies and agents they have captured and I see that more men are trying to go aboard the nearer of those two ships lying ahead of us so I want to stop them. Have one of the bow chasers put a ball close to the side of the first ship.”
That single shot and the waterspout which followed drenched the men in the boat - the implied threat of more stopped them rowing towards their ship and immediately turn to row back towards the shore - the sight of a line of redcoats with levelled muskets stopped them again. “Mr. St James and his party are coming back Sir, with prisoners I think,” said Midshipman Shrigley. “Very well, Mr. Laing have another ball put into the water on the other side of that ship, I don't want any of those men escaping to the island.” That ball raised another great splash which either killed men in the water or drenched those thinking of jumping in.
The cutter came alongside and St James and his men climbed aboard with three other men. “The guns are all destroyed Sir,” he reported, “and we have only these three prisoners. All the others must have fled into the forest Sir, we couldn't find them and I judged it wiser not to follow with the few men I had. These three were stunned but otherwise unhurt and gave us no trouble. Only one of my men was slightly wounded.”
“Thank you Lieutenant, you have done well. Now have the prisoners taken below and have all your men ready to go with the party assembled here and board those ships ahead. Use only the force necessary to control them as all of them will have to be questioned. I will go ashore and meet the army fellows.” On stepping ashore accompanied by two seamen - Matthews and Jackson - and leaving his Bos'n Owen in charge of the boat's crew, Merriman was met by a sergeant who took him to Colonel Shawcross who was sitting down against a tree with his leg stretched out before him; one of his men fussing over a bandage.
“I'm glad to see you Mr. Merriman, I would stand but I got too close to the action and got a musket ball in the leg, damn it.“ He extended his hand and gingerly shook hands. “You arrived at the right time Sir, We caught some prisoners and I was wondering how to deal with them, My lads are worn out and if I tried to march the prisoners back to English Harbour I think we would lose more of them.”
“I see no difficulty over that Sir, we now have three ships which should be enough to take all your men and the prisoners aboard. Of more concern Sir is your wound. Has your man dealt with it well enough?” The bang of cannon fire made him break off and he returned to the beach to see one of the two ships already moving with more sail being set as he watched. A second cannon fired and the ball bounced like a smooth pebble on a pond and crashed into the stern of the moving vessel but not doing anything to slow it down. “Damn and damn it again,” Merriman said as he realised that from where Aphrodite was anchored the second ship masked the escaping ship from any more shot. It soon had more sail set and was making swift progress, Merriman knew that there was nothing more that could be done to stop it. It was cutter rigged and must have been of shallow draught to skim over the shallows as it did.
He returned to Colonel Shawcross and said “I'm sorry Sir, we have only two ships now. My men boarded the first one but before they could reach the second one it sailed.” He explained why they could do no more. “A great pity that Mr. Merriman. I wouldn't be surprised if the leader of all these troublemakers was aboard and we will not catch him now, Damn them all Sir, damn them all.”
“Well Sir we have a good many prisoners, both yours and mine and between us we should be able to extract more informati
on from them.” He stopped as he saw Shawcross grimacing with pain and clutching his leg. “Colonel, did your man manage to get the ball out?” “No, it will have to wait until I can get to a competent surgeon.”
“I have a very competent doctor aboard my ship Sir, he is well used to dealing with such injuries. I'll have him brought ashore right away and look at it.” “He will do more than look at it I hope,” gasped the soldier with sweat running down his face. “Jackson, back to the boat and tell Owen to go and fetch Doctor McBride here as fast as possible. Quickly now,” ordered Merriman. A brief “Aye-aye Sir,” and Jackson was sprinting to the boat.
He returned to the colonel to find two junior officers gathered round him looking down helplessly at their commanding officer. “You can't help him and my own doctor will be here in a few moments. Have you any more seriously wounded here?” asked Merriman. One officer stepped forward, “I am Captain Blythe Sir. We have several minor injuries, cuts and bruises and one broken arm but nothing serious Sir except for the Colonel although we have two dead men. Is your man a good doctor?”
“Indeed he is Captain, he is the best I have met in all my seagoing life, your Colonel will be in good hands.” He paused a moment, thinking, then “How many of your men and prisoners do you have Captain? We will have to find space for them all in the two ships for the journey back to your base at English Harbour.”
“It would have been three ships if you hadn't let one escape” muttered a Lieutenant. “Bloody carelessness if you ask me...........” “Shut your mouth Lieutenant Orson” snarled Captain Blythe. “You will apologise to this officer, now.” The Lieutenant stalked off after a brief but grudging apology. “May I also add my apologies Sir. That officer has been a useless soldier ever since he arrived here and a complete nuisance to me.” “Think no more about it Captain and if I'm not mistaken I believe Doctor McBride is here.”
He was and appeared carrying his bag of instruments together with one of his assistants, a loblolly boy, carrying a larger bag. “Move away Gentlemen and allow me to do what I was summoned to do.” He raised the leg gently as the assistant slid an old sheet beneath it and then he removed the blood soaked bandage. “I am sorry Sir but I will have to cut your breeches to get to the wound, you boy, pull off his boot, gently now you fool” he said as the Colonel groaned in pain. Swiftly he slit the breeches leg and cut it off completely. He examined the wound out of which blood was seeping, raised the leg to feel the back of the leg, all the while murmuring as doctors do “Hmm, aha, thought so, hmmm. The ball didn't penetrate right through Colonel, I shall have to probe for it.” He turned to the watching men, “Have you got any clean hot water here?” “Yes Doctor, the men have a fire going to brew tea of a kind, I'll tell one of them to bring a canteen of freshly boiled water.” The water soon arrived and McBride gently swabbed the wound with hot water while Shawcross writhed in pain. “Now, if somebody can lift his head a little I will give him something so that he will feel no pain.”
“One of Doctor Simpson's magic potions Doctor?” whispered Merriman as the doctor tipped a small draught of something into his patients’ mouth. “Yes James, it is, he taught me a lot as you know, you will see the result in a moment.” He dropped some of his instruments into a small bowl and tipped some brandy into it and rinsed them about.
The result of the 'magic potion' was amazing; the colonel stopped writhing and subsided into unconsciousness. “Now then Gentlemen, if one or two of you will hold him down I'll begin. Unconscious though he is he will feel something.” He took his instruments out of the bowl, looked regretfully at the brandy before throwing it away and turned back to Shawcross with a long probe in his hand. Thrusting it gently into the wound he probed around until he felt resistance then drew it out. With a pair of long forceps he again probed then pulled them out with the bloody musket ball firmly gripped by the instrument. “Ha, there it is Gentlemen, the subject of all the man's pain.” He dropped the ball into the bowl and again he probed with the forceps and pulled out a scrap of blood soaked cloth, then rummaging in his bag he produced a small glass vial and tipped a few drops of a liquid into the wound. The assistant was ready with padding and bandages which McBride deftly used to bind up the wound after he put a stitch or two in to close it up.
“Another of the Doctor's potions Mr. McBride?” queried Merriman. “Yes it is Sir, the Colonel will be alright in good time but he will need rest with his leg supported. He can't travel overland so I think we shall have to convey him by ship.” “Right you are Doctor, take him back to the ship and put him in my cot.” A makeshift stretcher was made and the injured man was quickly carried aboard with McBride fussing about him all the way.
“Captain Blythe, I was asking you how many prisoners you have and how many of your men will we have to find room for?”
“Ten prisoners Sir, including four Negroes, we should have had more but many men ran before we could catch them. They would have alerted more of the villains ahead of us before the infantry could get there. There are fifty three of our men and two dead men and three horses too Sir, including the Colonel's favourite mare.”
“Thank you Captain, If you could arrange with my officers for all of them to be divided into two groups ready to be taken out to the ships and if your Colonel would agree I will bury the two dead at sea. We have many prisoners as well so they must be counted in. As for your horses perhaps we can manage to find space for them on deck. Now I must get back to my ship and make preparations to receive all our new passengers. I will send the boats to pick you all up.”
Back on board to the usual ceremony beloved by the navy, Merriman was surrounded by his officers with Mr. Laing eager to report what had happened whilst he was ashore. “I am sorry one of them got away Sir, our boarding party had only just reached the first of them when the other started away. We could fire only two shots Sir before she was hidden behind the one we captured.” “I thought that would be the case Mr. Laing. How many prisoners did you take?” “Twelve Sir, a miserable lot, three that the marines caught ashore and nine aboard the ship we captured, all of them white men. There are three Negroes as well, probably escaped slaves Sir, but none of them put up a fight. And one of our two shots did hit the stern of the other ship but with what damage I couldn't say Sir.”
“Thank you Colin. There will be more prisoners coming aboard and redcoats too. We can split them between both ships so space must be found for them. There will be some discomfort but it is not far back to the harbour so it won't last long. Another thing, we must try and get three horses aboard as well, so have the carpenter build some temporary stalls for them.” An appalled Laing stuttered “Hor -horses Sir, must we? Think of the mess on your decks, how can we bring them aboard anyway without a jetty?” He broke off as Merriman grinned at him, “Spoken like a good First Lieutenant Colin, I know how much you love a clean deck. How will we do it? Well they can swim out behind a boat after all the men are aboard and then swimmers can get a strop under them and then they can be hoisted aboard, a straight forward business I think. Now I must go below to see the Doctor's patient for a few minutes.”
In his small cabin Merriman found McBride sitting on a chair looking into the small sleeping space at his patient in the swinging cot. “How is he Doctor, has he come round yet?” “Yes Sir, briefly but I assured him all was well and arrangements were in hand to bring his men and prisoners aboard. He smiled, started to say something but fell asleep. He will recover Sir, he may limp a bit for a while but there should be no lasting damage I am sure.”
Back on deck Merriman found Captain Blythe talking to Lieutenant Andrews, asking what he could do to help. “Frankly Sir not a lot, the prisoners will be confined below with our marines on guard and your men put wherever we can find room for them so that they won't get in the way of our men sailing the ship. What you might do Sir, is to see that your men do as they are told by my warrant officers and have one or two of your own officers on the other ship to do the same.” Merriman listened, making no attempt to
interfere until Andrews had finished speaking. “I think that is the best plan Lieutenant, do you agree Captain?” Blythe smiled and said “We are in your hands Sir, none of my people know anything about ships so they will do as you say if they know what is good for them.”
And so it was all arranged. A little over half the passengers were brought aboard Merriman's bigger ship together with the horses. That procedure brought a mixture of curses from the seamen doing their best to control the frightened animals and laughter from the men watching until one of the soldiers asked his captain if he could help. “Used to be a groom before I joined the army Sir, I know a thing or two about the animals Sir.” On being given permission he removed his jacket and jumped overboard with it. Then he climbed astride one of the struggling horses and draped his jacket over its eyes whereupon it stopped struggling and was lifted easily on to the deck and put into the temporary stall. The same thing was done with the other two and they were also secured in their stalls.
“All aboard and secure Sir.” reported Lieutenant Laing, finally. “The prisoners below in both ships with our marines guarding them.” Most of the soldiers are asleep, worn out with all that marching and running I suppose.” Indeed most of them were, squeezed in between the guns and any other corner they could find. “Well done Colin, signal the other ship to get under way and follow us out. Carry on.” Fortunately the weather was fine with only a strong breeze and his seamen divided between the two ships managed to cope, although Merriman could see some redcoats helping to pull and haul. Once out of the bay the ships encountered a pronounced swell and soon there were wails of discomfort from the soldiers. “Not on the deck, not on the deck you men, overboard if you must, blast you,” yelled Laing and soon a line of red coats were lined up along the side where they could find room.
Merriman's servant Peters appeared on deck. “The Doctor's compliments Sir and he asks you to come below. The Colonel is awake and wants to see you.” In his cabin he had to step over some of the army officers fast asleep on the deck. He found Shawcross wide awake with McBride at his side. “Ah, Lieutenant Merriman Sir, I am told that all my men and the prisoners are on both ships and we are on our way back. I can't thank you enough and your good Doctor McBride here is as marvelous as you said. I can't feel anything but slight ache and soreness in my leg.”
The Threat in the West Indies (The Merriman Chronicles Book 4) Page 7