On the King's Sea Service: A John Phillips Novel (War at Sea Book 1)

by Richard Testrake

  He was swaying too much from the motion of the ship, so went over to the mizzen and leaned against it. Aiming the rifle again, he realized the whole crew was watching. His target, seeing he was going to be fired on, hurriedly snapped off his shot. The ball disappeared, coming nowhere close.

  With the sights lined up on the target, he began squeezing the trigger. At the last moment he realized the weapon would strike a little high, so aimed at the red sash the man had about his middle. Almost simultaneously with the distracting flash from the weapon’s pan, he felt the silver butt plate slam into his shoulder.

  The breeze immediately blew the smoke away and he saw the figure crumbling to the deck. The entire crew cheered. By now the other musket man had finished reloading and fired. This ball nicked the starboard rail. As Phillips reloaded, the new target frantically began the reload drill. Phillips was squeezing the trigger when the man threw his musket over the side.

  He almost sent his shot into the blue, then remembered the drowning oarsmen chained to their benches. He sent the load right into the man’s chest.

  The galley was in bad shape. Its bow had been smashed in and the hull was awash. The vessels had drifted together by now, with no further resistance by the pirate crew. Seamen and Marines were swarming over the wreck.

  The ship’s armorer was attempting to break the chains on the slaves with his hammer and cold chisel. Slaves were alternately screaming in terror and laughing as they realized they were free of the pirates.

  One of the pirate officers, a short, fat man with a magnificent set of whiskers on his face protested when a Marine tried to take his sword. In exasperation, the pirate pulled the scimitar free of his sash and attempted to slash the Marine across the face. The leatherneck parried the blow with his bayoneted musket, drew the musket back and smashed the butt plate into the man’s face. As the fool sank to the deck, the Marine pinned the screaming brigand to the gangway with the bayonet.

  Phillips, by this time on board the galley’s deck with his Captain of Marines commented, “Captain Jones, I surely wouldn’t want to go up against your men when their blood was up.”

  A slave, trapped in his chains at their feet, with his face barely above water spoke, “Sir, that fat bloke your Marine just run through has the keys to these chains.”

  A word to the Marine sergeant soon had men searching the dead pirate’s bloody body. One came up with the ring, heavy with keys. “Your Honor, if you’d stick that big iron key in this lock here, some of us might get out before this scow goes down.”, the now spluttering prisoner spoke.

  The key was turned in the lock and the man was free. He accepted the keys with a nod of thanks and began freeing the others. Barring those who had been killed during the cannonade, the drowning men were all saved. There would be much work for the surgeon and his mates among both the freed slaves and the wounded now aboard the Vigorous.

  After Phillips went back on board the frigate again, the carpenter reported. “Sir, the shot that pirate gave us right up in the bow, did a lot of damage. I’ve got a sail fothered over the hull and extra hammocks plugging the hole, but we’re still taking on water.”

  Phillips saw his officers, without bothering him, had got the pumps going and water was now gushing from the scuppers.

  He could see they were going to be in serious trouble if they could not get the leak stopped. It appeared more water was entering the ship, than was leaving.

  Taking stock, Phillips found he had rescued two dozen former galley slaves, with better than half without serious wounds. There were also ten pirates aboard, under Marine guard. Again, about half were free of disabling injuries. He spoke to the Marine’s officer and asked him to put the healthy prisoners to work pumping ship.

  While discussing solutions to their problem with his sailing master and Lieutenant Burns, a rescued prisoner approached. He informed Captain Phillips he knew of a nearby island where the leak could be repaired.

  “Well, please enlighten us, sir”, Phillips asked. The men explained there was an island just to the southeast a few leagues that had a good bay with a sheltered beach on the eastern side. “The pirates pull their galleys up on the beach when they have repairs to make.” He explained.

  “What about people?” asked Burns?

  “Jus’ a few shepherds and the like and nobody pays ‘em any mind.”

  Phillips asked, “Just how familiar are you with this island, sir?”

  “Lord Captain, I ain’t no sir. I’m just plain Bill Jenkins. I been chained to these galleys ten year now. I’ve been to that island upwards of a dozen times.”

  “What about warships, Mister Jenkins. Do any call there?”

  “Never seen none, captain. All the Moor’s warships belong to the Bey and he don’t let ‘em out too much. Liable to go pirating on their own account.”

  “Have you ever served aboard a King’s ship, Jenkins?”

  “Yessir, I was a gunner’s mate aboard the old Raccoon, on the America station during the last war. Happened I signed on a collier when the brig paid off and a pirate came up the Channel first voyage and took us. I been pulling on oars ever since.”

  “Jenkins, speaking as a former gunner’s mate, do you think it would be practical to land some guns and make a battery to protect us while we work on the ship?”

  “Yes sir, no problem at all.

  “Well Jenkins, I’m not going to press you after your ordeal. But, if you’d like to volunteer, I’d rate you gunner’s mate.”

  “I’d be pleased to make my mark on the ship’s book Yer Honor.

  The master went through his meager supply of Mediterranean charts, but found nothing in the area indicated by Jenkins. The ship’s officers questioned other members of the galley’s crew, both former slaves and the Muslim masters. While none of the officers spoke any variety of Arabic, most of the freed Christians did spoke some dialect, or at least the lingua franca of those parts and questioned their old masters. These worthies were indignant to be questioned by their former slaves and uniformly refused to answer any questions.

  The former pirates were put to work pumping ship, with former slaves armed with bosun’s ‘starters’ standing by to ‘encourage’ them to greater effort. The ship was put to the wind and lookouts ordered to look for any sign of land. It soon became apparent it would be necessary to reduce the influx of water.

  Another sail was prepared and fothered over the area of the hull that had been penetrated. The crew began to remove the forward guns from their carriages and placed them on mats, which were dragged to the stern. When ‘Land Ho’ sounded from the main mast head, they had made a good start in lifting the bows.

  Jenkins repeated the beach was on the eastern side of the island. It was of volcanic origin and the cliffs were high and jagged. When they found the beach, it was in an indentation in the cliff. The beach had apparently formed ages ago when a portion of the cliff collapsed and the beach was formed from the rubble. Jenkins said there were only a few people left on the island, since the pirates enslaved any of the locals they could locate without too much trouble.

  A bit of the beach, flat and surrounded with earthen dikes, was filled with water. Jenkins said these were salt pans. The locals used them to evaporate seawater to produce salt, which they used themselves and sold to itinerant coastal traders.

  As the ship approached the beach, Phillips was anxious to get as much weight off the bows as possible. Empty casks were roused out of the hold and used to make anchor buoys. Bending on lines, they were fastened to the bitter end of the anchor cables and the anchors, cable and all, went overboard.

  The master and two lieutenants went out in ship’s boats and surveyed the bottom close to shore, finding no gross irregularities. With just a scrap of the fore topmast staysail showing, the ship crept closer to the beach until she touched. Now it was necessary to weigh down the after parts of the Vigorous. It was thought that sinking the stern, might bring up the bow a bit.

  The bow now touching bottom, was a bit
higher than it had been earlier and the gash in the bow was now slightly above water. Now the constant pumping was making an impression. The bows were rising a fraction more. Boat anchors were wedged in rocky crevices on shore. Using the capstan, it was possible to pull the ship shoreward a few more feet, raising the bow a little more, in turn causing some of the flooding water in the bows to flow to the stern.

  The hull damage was now mostly above water level and the carpenter and his crew went to work on the damage. Cutting away the damaged wood, he fabricated timber in his stores to fit. While the carpenter was working, Phillips had six guns hoisted over the side and used them to establish a battery on shore, enclosing it with rocks and rubble.

  One morning, a pair of Marines on sentry duty ashore spotted a boy clambering down the cliffs. Pretending not to notice, they cut him off when he became alarmed and tried to climb back up. The boy, perhaps fourteen or so spoke no language Phillips was familiar with, but one of the freed galley slaves was able to converse with the lad. Phillips gave the boy a silver sixpence and told the translator to inform the lad he wanted to purchase cattle, sheep, or goats, as well as salt to preserve the meat.

  Freeing the boy, Phillips suspected they would never see him again, but that afternoon, two more people came down the goat path. One was an old woman, thin and strong, looking as if she were made of dried rawhide. With her was a man of twenty or so, but also looking very capable.

  The translator listened to them and reported they would sell many sheep or goats. Each would cost two of the silver coins the boy had been given. Phillips had few sixpences left but held out one of the golden guineas given him by Ambassador Hamilton to buy beef. The woman was stunned. She knew what gold was, of course, but apparently had never dreamed of possessing any.

  His men had roused out all the meat casks from the ship’s hold and the surgeon and cook had inspected the contents of each. Only six more beef casks were foul. The rest of the beef was still good. The foul meat was discarded and the casks scrubbed out with seawater and sand.

  With these six casks to fill, besides the two already emptied, he told the woman he wanted the casks filled with meat, either sheep or goat. He also wanted the necessary salt. She agreed to sell the needed meat and salt for the guinea plus a Spanish dollar she had seen in Phillip’s purse. This made her day.

  The man ran up the cliff and soon animals started coming down. More natives descended the cliff face and assisted in butchering and cutting up the meat. There was pandemonium as animals were frantically fleeing in one direction or another.

  A few managed to escape up the vertical cliff, but most ended up being stretched out on the beach. Phillips left his butcher’s crew to their bloody work and returned to the ship.

  The carpenter had the hole patched and now the caulkers were pounding oakum and pitch into the crevices. There were no copper sheets to nail over the new wood, but that could wait ‘till they reached a proper shipyard. With the ship as light as she could be, it was necessary to get her at sea, before a gale came up that could destroy her on the beach. When the ship was ready to leave, Phillips asked his interpreter what the natives would like as a gift for their help.

  The answer was weapons. It seemed that whenever pirates came ashore, some would climb the cliffs and try to capture women and young children. Formerly, they had possessed a musket to discourage the pirates, but that was now broken.

  Phillips ordered the gunner to release a dozen of his surplus muskets and bayonets with ammunition. The woman representative thanked him and assured Phillips the natives could now defend the cliff paths to the summit.

  The longboat was sent back to look for the large bower anchor. The cask marking the location was soon found and its line was carried back to the ship and brought in through a stern port. It was pulled in until the large anchor cable on the sea bottom took the strain. Then the line was sent to the capstan where it was pulled in until the cable came off the sea bottom, reached the stern port and entered the ship.

  With the huge anchor cable at the capstan, the line was cast off and the cable fastened to the messenger cable with a short length of line called a nipper. The messenger was a closed loop between the capstan and a big block up forward. Men at the capstan put the capstan bars to their chests and heaved.

  The anchor cable was fastened to the messenger with more nippers. As the capstan turned, the cable was drawn along. When the end of the cable had been drawn forward, the first nipper was loosed and the cable directed to dive down into the cable tier.

  Eventually, all the slack in the anchor cable was taken up and now the strain was now between the capstan and the heavy bower anchor on the bottom. With the men heaving on the capstan bars the cable rose from the water, water squirting from the twisted hemp.

  At first, the men strained with seemingly no effect, then a wave a little higher than normal slapped at the stern, which was almost afloat. As the big ship rocked, it also moved back a few inches. Phillips stationed an officer at the stern to watch for waves. When he saw a large one approaching, he called out ‘Heave’ and again and again the ship slid backward. It took the rest of the day, but finally, the ship was swimming free.

  The ship was hauled sternward by brute force until it was up to the anchor. Now, the boats were employed in bringing aboard all the stores that had been landed. When enough weight had been brought aboard to give it some ballast, the ship was moved out to deeper water. The guns were brought aboard finally and the tackle and breeching rigged. With everything brought aboard that had been landed and the newly refilled meat casks stowed, the ship was ready to put to sea.

  The rules and customs of the Navy stipulated the crew would dine on beef every Tuesday and Saturday. On Wednesdays, no meat would be issued, but the men were allowed cheese, dried peas, oatmeal and a little butter instead. On other days, pork would be on the menu. Because of the difficulties, with much of the original issue of salt beef being corrupt and discarded, the use of pork issued in lieu had nearly finished that article. With full casks of salted mutton and goat flesh aboard, Phillips arbitrarily decreed that mutton equaled beef, while goat was now pork. The cook was ordered to plan accordingly.

  An apprehensive captain entered ‘La Petite Rade’ of Toulon harbor on 15 December. He was of course, weeks overdue and an encountered British sloop of war gave the news that the occupation of Toulon had failed and the forces were expected to withdraw soon. His signal went unanswered for an hour, when he was finally ordered to report aboard the flag.

  Arriving there, he was told Admiral Hood was now onshore and Phillips should proceed to the military headquarters.

  Hood appeared harried and sleepless. He remained though, the same courteous officer he had been at their earlier meetings. He ignored the reports Phillips offered and just asked what Phillips had been ‘up to’.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  Toulon

  Phillips gave his account of his reception at Naples and Hamilton’s regret a more senior and knowledgeable military official had not accompanied him. He reminded Hood of the problem with his stores and the inability of Hammond to re-supply him. The account of the encounter with the pirate galley was given and the recovery of the enslaved Christians. Finally, Phillips recounted the damage inflicted upon the Vigorous and the repairs undertaken.

  Hood nodded, then shook his head over the report of the missing copper that Phillips had not been able to replace under his bows. He said, “Have an officer and a party of men report to the shipyard here and remove as much copper and whatever other supplies you may need. I must tell you that we will not be able to hold the defenses here much longer. Everything on shore that cannot be taken must be destroyed before we leave.”

  “My staff will give you a requisition for anything you ask for, but there will not be time to do any repairs. Take your materials aboard ship and prepare to leave. Already, French civilians are clamoring for refuge aboard ship. You have my permission to load as many of these people as may be possible.”


  “My Lord, what about the party of men I landed when I first arrived? May I take them with me?”

  “Captain, I am afraid these parties have been so mixed with other working parties and defense units, that at this point, it would be impossible to locate them. I give you my word though, that all forces, both military and naval, will be withdrawn before we sail. Seamen especially, will be invaluable to crew such French ships in the harbor that we take with us.”

  At the dockyard an hour later, all was confusion. A frantic bosun’s mate said his civilian crew had all left and were now mobbing the various British offices trying to get passage out. Phillips told the mate that he would offer transportation out of Toulon to such shore workers with their families, who would help move his supplies.

  By dusk, an increasing crowd was clamoring at the gates. Phillips selected those people as they appeared to transport the material. Some articles were carried on men’s backs, while others were transported on carts or wagons. Wheeled vehicles were available, but not the draft animals. Drag lines were attached to the vehicles and humans, both men and women were put to the lines, the vehicles being dragged down to the docks in a rush.

  After the news spread, more people had volunteered than could be accommodated, so he allowed the French workers to board ship after completing just one trip. By this time, nobody was bothering with requisitions or records. Whatever a British officer or petty officer wanted, was just carried off.

  With all the supplies aboard that he could foresee needing; he brought his people back to the ship. There he saw Captain Jones had the Marines barricading the gate. Desperate citizens crowded the path begging passage away from the port.

  The party had to force their way through the crowd. The launch was stationed off the pier, where desperate townspeople could not pelt them with filth.