Should an unforeseen event happen though, perhaps a lucky ball from an opponent crippling the ship, there could well be a possibility that it would be the Blanche who would be the prize. In that case, his career would likely be in ruins if his subsequent court martial decided he had been remiss.
Without explanation, he told Raines to evade the approaching corvettes. There were some glances exchanged among the officers on deck as he said this, but Raines put the ship about. The wind on her beam, the ship was now sailing for the North African shore, a course she could not hold for too long. Phillips considered that if he must come about, no one could fault him then for engaging the enemy. However, the enemy did not pursue and altered course themselves to a northerly direction. Days later, her voyage proceeding without event, Blanch entered Gibraltar Harbor and fired off her salute.
After sending the dispatch pouches and mail ashore, Phillips remained on board to see to oversee necessary shipboard maintenance. He wished to see the ship would be properly stowed with the stores to remain at sea for a lengthy period, without the need to return to port. While observing the sailing master directing some bosun’s mates where to store some newly arrived supplies, a shore boat came alongside with a message for the captain.
It was a note from Captain Hancock inviting him to a repast at the Convent at two o’clock. Phillips donned his best coat and hat and took his gig ashore some hours before the appointment. He spent his time wandering through the little shops and made some purchases for his family back home.
With the appointed time approaching, Phillips went to the Convent and was admitted. He was accompanied by a servant to Captain Hancock’s office where he was announced and admitted. He was then informed the Acting Governor would partake of the promised collation with them. Over a variety of local specialties prepared by the Gibraltar cooks, Phillips found he was expected to comment to Governor Rainsford on the reasons why the French fleet had managed to escape.
Phillips tried to beg off, saying that as a very junior captain, it was not for him to criticize the tactics of Admiral Hotham. Captain Hancock agreed, and said, in any event, they had the report of Captain Nelson.
Grumbling, Rainsford let the matter drop, and the rest of the meal was spent discussing fox-hunting back home. As he left the building, Hancock wished him luck on his cruise and said he would give up his other leg if only he could have one more similar foray against the foe.
Mister Harrison had the ship ready when he boarded and pronounced Blanche ready to sail. Mister Baker, on a visit to shore, had returned with two new members of the crew. He had boarded ship with a small, young dog. No particular mention was made of this until his exasperated captain wondered just who was going to follow the cur around cleaning up after him. Phillips hated to deputize a crew member to do the honors, since that might lead to ill-feeling.
Baker had the answer. Pointing over the side to the boat that had brought him to the ship, he indicated a small, undernourished Gibraltar lad. He looked much the size of an English boy of ten, but was told later the urchin was almost fourteen. His parents dead from the fever which had struck Gibraltar recently, Baker had taken the boy, Pedro, in and would give him the task of caring for the animal. He could also function as one of the ship’s boys.
Shaking his head, Phillips reluctantly agreed to the plan. With the wind, the ship loosed her headsails and they slowly eased their way from the harbor. Seeing Mister Raines had the ship on course, Phillips watched the new additions to the crew scampering about the deck. He had Pedro summoned and tried to tell him what would be expected of him, but found the boy spoke no English. “This was going to be a trial”, he thought as he entered his cabin.
Once at sea, with lookouts posted, the men, who had learned of their cruise, were avidly awaiting a sighting. Some men on their watch below, nevertheless came up on deck and lined the rails, hoping to see a prospective target. As they began interfering with the working of the ship, Mister Harrison sent them below. Sails were indeed sighted in plenty, but only of small fishing craft.
As they passed a covey of Spanish vessels, some men petitioned their division officers to implore the captain to attack them.
While Britain was at war with Spain, thus making the Spanish fishing fleet vulnerable, Phillips felt taking the war to those small craft would not be an economical use of his power. First, the individual boats and their perishable cargo would be worth little, and it would not be practical to dissipate his crew to man the prizes in order to sail them back to Gibraltar. The only other course would be to burn the vessels, which would cause unnecessary outrage in the Spanish fishing ports. It would be better to just save their energies for the merchant craft that surely would appear.
Cruising up the Spanish coat north-easterly, the first vessel spotted that Phillips thought was worth-while was a tartane, flying the Tricolor. An old-fashioned looking small craft with its lateen mainsail, it came to as a gun was fired. Loaded with Spanish olive oil, it was destined for Toulon, and was a legitimate prize. When asked if any of the crew would like to volunteer to serve in the Royal Navy, all but one refused. This one, a native of the Balearic Islands, accepted the offer and was sent aboard Blanche. The other crewmen were secured, and the vessel set out for Gibraltar under command of a midshipman and some hands. This capture would not alter the course of the war, but would earn a little prize money for the crew and keep their minds occupied.
Now up into French waters off-shore, a fore and aft rigged schooner type vessel sailed into their arms one morning. She was of a type Mister Raines called a goélette. She was also flying the French flag. The sailing master went aboard to see what they had caught. With a cargo of Sicilian raw sulphur, she was a valuable prize and would be an easy sale at a prize auction.
Phillips did not wish to entrust the valuable prize to one of his mids, so asked the sailing master if he would take the prize in. This was, of course unusual, but it so happened he had a master’s mate who was almost as well versed on the Med as Mister Raines was. He considered giving command of the prize to the lad, Mister Landry, but considered him a little too young to handle the responsibility, so Raines would have to handle the chore.
Parting company with the prize, Blanche left the coastal waters and went out to sea, hoping to find bigger prey. Searching for a week with no worth-while sightings the maintop lookout reported a sail off the port bow at three bells in the forenoon watch. Hearing the hail, Phillips went out on deck to see for himself. There was no sign of the ship from deck level, but Mister Atlee, a nimble midshipman, scampered up the shrouds with a glass and reported a ship-rigged vessel hull down.
Remaining on deck, the captain was rewarded by another hail, hesitant this time. Atlee, searching with his glass, thought he had spotted another sail just behind the first, climbing over the horizon. By the time for noon sights, it was definite, two ship-rigged vessels were ahead of them, and Mister Peabody, with his sharp vision, thought they were corvettes, very possibly the same ships they had encountered on the voyage out.
The strangers, at first separated, now began coming together, as well as aggressively closing Blanche. At two bells into the afternoon watch, there was no longer any doubt. These were the same corvettes they had met before and they were serious. Hands were called to stations and the frigate prepared for battle. The officers were called aft, and Phillips explained his plans.
“I intend to put the ship about and see if we can entice those corvettes to give chase. We will do what we can to give the impression that we are fleeing, but will try to allow them to overtake us. I have no doubt we can overcome both corvettes at once, but I think we will have fewer losses if we can fight one ship at a time. If one corvette closes earlier than the other, we will turn on that ship and smash her, before engaging the second.”
As the pursuit continued into the afternoon, one of the corvettes did prove to be just a little speedier than the other. Landry, the master’s mate temporarily replacing Mister Raines, was informed of the plan and s
oon showed he had a flair for the drama. Landry was busily employing himself on deck by explaining to the seamen how to be just a bit lubberly in their sail handling. It was easy enough to trim the sails to spill a little wind. At one point, Landry asked if he could tack ship. This was not necessary, since she was sailing on a soldier’s wind, but by altering course, it could be seen as an attempt to sail closer to the wind than their pursuers.
Accordingly the course was slowly changed to allow the ship to sail closer to the wind. The corvettes had no difficulty in following and gradually crept closer. The sight of an island up ahead, one of the Balearic’s, gave Blanche a reason to tack ship.
With forewarning of the proposed maneuver, Phillips sent messengers to the gun captains on each beam. On his signal, he wished four guns only on each beam to be run out. Two forward guns and two aft were to be run out. The other gun ports were to remain closed. On the next signal, all ports would be opened and the remaining guns run out.
Sometimes frigates were used as transports or store ships and under those circumstances, guns were often left on shore to provide extra space. Phillips aimed to give his pursuers some extra drama by posing as one of the lightly armed transports.
At the proper moment, Mister Landry went through the motions of putting the ship unto the other tack. The ship missed stays in the apparent cack-handed maneuver and did not come around, her sails all aback.
With the leading corvette coming up with a bone in her teeth, Landry got some way on the ship and then brought her around sweetly to meet her pursuer. As she prepared to meet the corvette, Phillips signaled and the four guns of her port battery emerged from her ports. The entire port battery of the corvette emerged in turn.
The trailing corvette, seeing her sister about to engage a nearly unarmed frigate, backed her tops’ls, and hung back to give the leader room to maneuver. The leading corvette fired a gun, as if to give her opponent fair warning. With the two ships about to come together, Phillips gave the order to open the remaining ports. As the corvette closed, she saw her opponent transformed from an almost unarmed transport into a well drilled thirty-two gunned fifth rate frigate. Her twelve pounder guns protruding from her ports ready to wreak havoc upon the corvette.
As the ships came together, the guns began their work. The corvette’s guns fired simultaneously with the frigate’s, although the broadside from Blanche far outweighed that from the French ship. Almost immediately, the superior firepower from the British frigate began to tell as guns and men aboard the corvette were negated. The ships closing rapidly, Phillips ordered the guns to fire off their present loads then recharge with grape or case shot.
The guns fired their deadly charges in an almost instantaneous, deafening crash, just before the ships came together. Crews on both ship tried to board the other, but the frigate deck was higher than that of the corvette. Men from the Blanche merely had to jump down to their enemy’s deck. The men of the French corvette Indomptable had to climb to the frigate’s deck in the face of cutlasses and pikes wielded by the Britons. One more broadside from Blanche, almost unanswered by Indomptable, and the British gun crews were freed to join the boarders.
The fighting was over in a moment as the halyard for the colors on the corvette was severed and the tricolor came fluttering down.
At that very moment, Phillips was in deadly combat with a burly French petty officer wielding a heavy cutlass. Phillips was concerned about his old sword, an ancient blade purchased in a pawn shop years ago. Hanlon, his servant, armed with a half pike some distance away, hurled the pike, which beyond all odds, pierced the opponent’s leg and brought him to the deck.
The fighting gradually ended as the crews of both ships became aware of the surrender. The second corvette, standing off from the fighting, went about and sailed for the coast. Phillips dismissed any plans to pursue the ship. It was important to secure the Indomptable before haring off after the other ship. By the time the enemy crew and been secured and the prize corvette was under control, the remaining corvette would be in coastal waters, probably safe from pursuit.
CHAPTER TWENTY ONE
CONTACT
Dismissing thoughts of further pursuit, Phillips boarded their prize. The blasts of grape and case shot had created horrible carnage on the decks of the corvette. After the remaining healthy enemy crewmen were struck below, the wounded had to be collected and cared for. The corvette had a surgeon and a few assistants. When Blanche’s surgeon could leave his own patients to the care of his own assistants, he went to help on the corvette. The hopeless patients needed to be segregated. Those that were capable were given as much rum as they could drink. Those with a chance of recovery were given the best care as possible, whether they were British or French. The dead were unceremoniously given to the sea.
Tomorrow, with more time, those men succumbing to their wounds would have a proper funeral. Now, there was not the time.
The men set to, making the necessary repairs on both ships. There was little important damage on Blanche. Indomptable did have some bad damage to her hull, as well as much of her standing and running rigging to repair, but the bosun reported she could be ready to sail before dark, earlier if necessary.
There was the question of manning the corvette. Hands sufficient to sail the ship were sent aboard, under command of Lieutenant Harrison. Although nearly half of the corvettes crew were casualties, either dead or wounded, there were still nearly a hundred fairly healthy captives that could cause trouble if given a chance. All of the surviving officers and petty officers were brought aboard Blanche, as were any other members of her crew that looked troublesome. Those remaining were secured in the corvette’s foc’s’le, after anything that could possibly be used as a weapon was removed.
Half of the Marines under their lieutenant were sent aboard her while the remainder were left aboard Blanche to control the prisoners there.
As predicted, the ships set sail near dusk, the prize in trail behind Blanch, both on a course that would take them back to Gibraltar. With time to see to his ship and crew, Phillips had Mister Peabody, now acting as first officer, call the hands. Peabody, followed by some petty officers went down the lines of men, speaking to most individually, trying to give each man some indication of his satisfaction. At length, he came to the gaggle of ship’s boys, under the control of Able Seaman Atkins, excused from heavy work because of his rupture. Atkins had children of his own back home and Phillips thought his selection to mentor the lads was apt. The new lad, Pedro, was probably the elder of them, but was also the smallest. Nevertheless, as he became able to communicate better, he gradually assumed authority over the other boys.
Phillips spoke to each boy as he had the seamen. When he came to Pedro, he complemented him on his appearance, not expecting him to understand a word he was saying. The boy surprised him by thanking him in English, although the thanks was followed by ‘Señor’ instead of ‘Sir’.
The boy had been seen doing yeoman work delivering charges to his assigned gun as well as a neighboring weapon whose own powder monkey had been wounded. Harrison said he was considering offering the lad employment as wardroom servant. In the few weeks the lad had been aboard ship, he has learned an impressive vocabulary of ‘Seaman’s English’.
Phillips was about to ask where the dog was, until he heard its muffled barking down below, up forward. Despite its small size, the dog had shown a remarkable affinity for killing rats, although the larger ones had inflicted some painful appearing wounds on the animal. Some of the officers attempted to keep the dog away from the rodents, but he would actively seek them out. The first officer had announced him to be the rat control petty officer. By now both Pedro and the dog Killer had become accepted members of the crew.
The ships were having difficulty finding a slant of wind that would take them to the entrance to the Med. At one time, they found themselves almost on the African coast before they were able to beat to the westward. They found themselves back out in the Med before the wind began to
die. Fitful most of the day, it stopped during the night, during which a thick fog blanketed the sea around them and the stars overhead. As the morning came, a very slight breeze came along, just enough to put some wind in their topsails and ghost them along. Sometimes the fog would clear for a bit, blown away by the slight breeze, but it soon closed in again. Sailing blind as they were, much of the time, the Indomptable was often hidden in fog so Phillips ordered the firing of a swivel gun every few minutes, so the ships might keep from running afoul of each other.
The Indomptable was also firing a gun so it was possible to have an idea of her position regardless of the fog. After an hour or so though, another gun was heard in the distance. It seemed to be a larger gun than the one the prize was firing, so Blanche’s gun was ordered to cease fire. Soon, Indomptable did the same, but now there was a steady chorus of guns firing, some near, and some far away. Ships bells also were sounding. It seemed the pair of ships was in the middle of a fleet, with many of the ships making noise so others would not close them.
From the sounds, it appeared the bulk of the fleet might be to their east, so when Indomptable came in view again when a patch of fog opened, she was signaled to sail west. With the very light airs the ships were in, neither was making much way and it was a shock when the fog opened and revealed a two-decker line-of-battle ship off to port a cable’s distance away.
For the Honor of the Flag: A John Phillips Novel (War at Sea Book 2) Page 15