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

by Richard Testrake

  Captain Phillips was now at the scene and listened to the man without comment. While Harkins ordered the man chained in the orlop, the captain pondered what to do with the terrified woman. He had abandoned his own cabin and sleeping quarters to some refugee women and slung a hammock in the tiny nook where his clerk and servant had slept. These men being relegated to a single hammock jammed into the mess deck which they shared, watch and watch.

  The offender, now in custody and unable to cause further trouble, he looked to the woman. She was sobbing uncontrollable and shivering in the cold. Her hands were blistered and bloody. The bosun said in an aside the woman had spent hours pumping ship. Ever since the repair after the battle with the pirates, it was necessary to pump at least an hour of every watch and the refugees now did most of that labor.

  An inspiration came to him. His own food pantry was available and while now well stocked, was still capable of stowing a person of slight stature. He told his two youngest midshipmen, boys of twelve and thirteen, to take her there and to rearrange such stores as to allow the slinging of a hammock.

  He ordered them to take the woman into his cabin, already occupied by women refugees and show her the quarter gallery; a private privy, normally used only by the captain and his guests, now serving only the women guests. While giving the orders in front of the woman, he never dreamed she could understand his English.

  She had stopped sobbing and as the midshipmen started to lead her off, she spoke in upper class English, with a delightful hint of French accent. “Captain, I am dreadfully sorry to have been such a bother. I am very grateful for your compassion and courtesy.”

  Next morning, while discussing plans for the day with the first lieutenant, the bosun came before him on the quarterdeck, asking whether a cat o’ nine tails (a whip used to punish defaulters) would be needed for the prisoner. A fresh punishment device was made up for every miscreant being admonished and it took a fair bit of time to make a new one. Mister Harkins also wondered just how much deck space he might need to clear.

  “Mister Harkins, much as I would like to have the prisoner tied up to a grating and given a hundred lashes, I think that is not in the cards. Since he has not been entered on the books, he is not subject to the articles of war. I think we have a choice. We can take him to port in irons and turn him over to a magistrate, to be charged with assault and attempted rape, or perhaps we could simply hand him over to a French fishing boat. Perhaps Mister Mullins could explain to them he is of noble birth and will expect to be treated accordingly.”

  “But sir, won’t the Frogs chop off his head?”

  “Well. There is that, Mister Harkins. But I am sure they will do it with the proper ceremony.”

  The sometimes mentally slow Boatswain, suddenly saw the light and grinned. He said, “My men will keep a good lookout for fishing boats, sir.” After all, the magistrate would merely charge the man with attempted rape, ensuring the hangman’s noose. On the French shore, he would be undoubtedly be sent to the guillotine as a suspected royalist. In the meantime, Legrand was dragged below, where he was shackled into leg irons bolted to the orlop deck. It would be better for all, this way.

  The frigate and liner made their way toward Gibraltar. The canvas aboard Franklin was in very poor condition and had to be husbanded wisely. The Franklin’s main masthead was higher than Vigorous’, so she was the first to signal “Sail off my starboard bow.” Mullins was sent up with a telescope and he soon reported a ship rigged sail ahead, hull down.

  A few minutes later, he reported a second. Phillips ordered some kegs of British gunpowder lowered into the launch, along with some 36 pound ball they used for their carronades. When the mid came sliding down a stay to the deck, he sent him into the boat to deliver the ammunition to Burns in Franklin. Before Mullins dropped into the boat, he handed him a note to be delivered to Burns.

  In the event of combat, he listed some signals for various maneuvers that might be attempted. He advised Burns to charge all his guns with powder, but to delay loading shot until it was determined what side of the ship would fire. The Franklin had very few balls for the big thirty sixes, so they had to be used wisely.

  As the ships approached, it soon became evident the oncoming ships were French and one was a big forty gun frigate, the other a smaller twenty eight. They approached in line astern, the big fellow leading. As they approached, Phillips was concerned about Franklin.

  That ship did not have the ammunition or the gun crews to defeat either enemy ship in a drawn out engagement. Her only hope was to overawe the enemy. If the French could be made to believe Franklin was a fully armed battleship, both would likely flee.

  He imagined the enemy had recognized the Franklin and perhaps suspected she had been partially or fully disarmed to carry passengers. And what of those passengers? Many of those aboard the 74 were serving as gun crew or at unskilled seaman jobs. Phillips had known his share of British warships that were as badly manned when leaving port.

  Gun captains were cautioned to fire only as each gun bore on their target. The French were not shy; they were approaching on the windward side at long pistol shot. At that range, a steady crew should be able to make every shot count.

  As the leading ships approached, Phillips saw Lieutenant Granger, his former third, now serving as second officer standing just clear of the bow gun.

  When Granger’s arm dropped, the gun fired. This was one of the thirty six pound carronades and it made its mark on the forty gun frigate. Then the eighteen pounders started going off, before the French ship fired its broadside.

  When it did, twenty guns of its guns fired together. A dozen of them were eighteen pounder weapons. The rest of the guns were the of the French eight pounder caliber. Many of its guns were not bearing on Vigorous, so those were wasted. Every one of the Vigorous’ shots hit and by the time the after carronade did its job, some of the forward guns were firing again.

  When the French ship passed them, heading toward the Franklin, she was almost a wreck. The mizzen chains had been ruined and the shrouds were loose. The mizzen was swaying. The name on her counter showed her to be the Imperieuse. Phillips saw men called from the guns of the enemy ship to make repairs. It looked like four of its eighteen pounder guns had been dismounted. Perhaps it could not harm Franklin too badly. As the after guns of Vigorous no longer bore on the big French frigate, her forward guns were now bearing on the next ship.

  Again the big carronade smashed a ball into the smaller frigate. She was too small and her scantlings too light to see such punishment and it soon showed. The other guns did incredible damage on the frigate. As before, this ship waited before she was almost completely abreast of Vigorous before she fired her broadside. Evidently the French captains did not trust their crews in independent fire.

  While he was looking for damage aboard his ship and his opponent, he heard an almighty crash from the Franklin. All her big guns had gone off and savaged the already damaged Imperieuse before she could fire a shot herself. The mainmast started leaning, then came down. The mizzen soon followed, leaving that big ship with only her foremast standing.

  The smaller frigate trading blows with Vigorous, due to face that broadside herself in a few minutes, apparently decided it could not take such punishment and bore away to port to try to escape out to open sea. Unfortunately for her, this left her in position to be raked from her quarter, a position from which she could not effectively reply and the real damage started.

  This ship proved to be the twenty eight gun Nymphe, a twelve pounder ship. Most of Vigorous’ guns had already fired, but the last few eighteens near the stern were still loaded, as was the after carronade. By the time the balls of these guns finished smashing through the ship, the forward guns were loaded and beginning to fire. Her flag came down immediately. Phillips looked to the forty gun frigate. With only one mast standing, many of her guns were masked with fallen canvas and she had lost too many of her crew. When the reloaded thirty six pound long guns of the Franklin cam
e out through the ports, the Imperieuse hauled down her flag.

  The Vigorous had received her share of enemy shot and many people were down, both crew and refugees. There was a crescendo of screams as many civilians, as well as hardened crewmen, faced the knife and saw of the surgeon. More from cowardice, than any other reason, Phillips had his barge brought up from where it had been towing astern and was pulled over to the Franklin.

  This ship was remarkably untouched. She had received some twelve pounder balls from Nymphe as she tried to bear away, but they were from relatively long range and the thick scantlings kept most from injuring passengers and crew.

  He discovered one of the refugees, a former Major of Infantry in the French royal service, had been training some male refugees of military age.

  They had few arms themselves, so mostly made do with the few muskets aboard the Franklin, as well as improvised weapons made from swabs. They managed the best as they could, sharing the weapons in turn. The major, an English speaker, believed they could stand and fire in volley soon, if only they had muskets.

  Phillips gave orders for the retrieval of the refurbished muskets stored aboard the Vigorous and commended the Major on his initiative. He replied it was to his people’s own benefit; if they came into the hands of the revolutionaries, they could soon expect to find themselves a head shorter. He had tried to impress on his men that it was better to die with a musket in hand facing the enemy, than to face a jeering mob from the tumbril on its way to the guillotine.

  Phillips then collected seamen and Marines and was rowed to the Nymphe, where he discussed matters with the remaining surviving officer, the second lieutenant, who had been an aspirant recently; the French navy’s version of a midshipman. The man spoke English well and the overwhelmed officer agreed to all of Phillips demands. He ordered all French crew members to go below deck and remain there until advised otherwise.

  All officers would remain in the wardroom. All small arms except the officer’s personal weapons were to be tossed up on deck. Any man, officer or crewman, offering resistance would be controlled by whatever means were necessary. Phillips left his Marine corporal and six men, as well as a dozen seamen on the Nymphe’s deck, while he took his boats to Imperieuse where he went on board.

  There was no ceremony at all, merely a glowering captain with a bloody arm glaring at him, as if to say for a sou, he would gladly open fire again. A French aspirant did the honors with translation. The French captain refused to acknowledge any orders, so Phillips ordered his sergeant of Marines to escort the captain to his cabin and post guard. He was authorized to restrain the officer, if necessary.

  He spoke to the crew member’s close by, using the aspirant as translator, “Sailors of France, you have fought honorably and were defeated by superior force. After we reach safe harbor, you will be offered to your government in exchange for British crewmen held in France. With no delay from your government, you may expect to be sent home shortly.”

  When an excited crewman began screaming at him, Phillips ordered a party of seamen to take him in custody. A man who had gone through the ship, reported there were irons bolted into the orlop deck. The men took him there, where his cries were at least muffled.

  Back at the Vigorous again, he found the arms had been distributed and nearly two hundred men drawn up in ranks on deck. Every man was armed with an old Brown Bess musket and a cartridge box of ammunition.

  These men were ferried over to the captured ships. The French major went aboard Imperieuse with 100 men. A former magistrate who had served as a junior officer under Lafayette back in the American War was offered command of another 75 men going aboard the Nymphe. Mister Mullins was given overall command of that ship.

  Placing Granger in command, of Imperieuse, he went back to Vigorous to make arrangements for towing the captured ships. Not having enough men or material to repair the damage, he felt towing was the last resort. Should that not work, he would be forced to put the enemy seamen into the boats and fire the ships.

  The bosun, placed in charge anticipated no problem, as long as the weather did not kick up. Vigorous, being in better condition, with good canvas towed Imperieuse, while Franklin towed Nymphe. The sole sail maker’s mate sent to Franklin rifled through Imperieuse’ stores of canvas. His intents were to reinforce some of his own mildew damaged sails with better material.

  He was able to convince some of Nymphe’s sail maker’s crew to volunteer to assist; assuring them if they failed to make Gibraltar before the next storm hit, they would all be in trouble.

  They were in sight of the ‘Rock” when the first ship came out to investigate. After mooring, the prisoners were marched away by soldiers, while the refugees were given shelter until it could be determined what to do with them. Since Sarah Forsythe was a British citizen, Phillips kept her on board, when he found he was to convoy the captured ships to Portsmouth.

  Phillips had not consciously noticed the young woman since her trouble on the deck of Vigorous and he was astonished at her new appearance. It seemed the women housed in the captain’s quarters had at first been jealous, imagining Sarah to be the captain’s toy and treated her at first meeting with great reserve.

  With her living below them in the very cramped pantry though, it soon was apparent the captain was paying no attention to her and the women relented. It seemed one had been a ladies hair dresser back home, while the other was a dressmaker.

  Taking pity on her ragged appearance, they soon cleaned her up and when the Vigorous sailed into Gibraltar, she appeared as a lady of fashion, beautiful and graceful. Her injuries had healed, along with her spirit. When she appeared on deck, the crew was struck with wonder. She was given Phillips’ sleeping quarters, while absent the other women, the captain resumed occupancy of his office.

  There were no problems with Legrand. A fishing boat crewed by radical revolutionaries had been overhauled earlier on their voyage to Gibraltar and the sullen crew persuaded to return him to France. Mullins had told them he was a noble in disguise and wished to return to take back his barony, by force if necessary.

  The boat crew was told in confidence; he was trying to pose as a radical republican to avoid being taken. The fishing boat crew promised he would be returned to the land of his birth without delay.

  The ship made port in Portsmouth and Phillips was dined out more than once by envious officers. For a frigate to use her prize to capture two more frigates was most unusual. There was some confusion of the status of Franklin, because of the circumstance of her taking. However, there was no doubt at all of the Imperieuse and Nymphe and it seemed assured government would soon buy those frigates into the navy.

  Phillips posted up to London, taking Forsythe with him after finding that some of her father’s relatives lived there. He was reluctant to appear suddenly on her relatives’ doorstep with a strange young woman in tow. When reporting to the admiralty he left her in the waiting room, with dozens of young officers in attendance on her. After discussing business with the official interviewing him, he asked that official, a man named Jordan, how he should handle matters.

  The elderly, long married man came to the mark. He had an also elderly sister, who would gladly assume the position of duenna to the woman, until she was introduced to her family.

  With the man protesting, Phillips imposed his purse upon him, to cover any unforeseen expenses.

  Told it would be a matter of weeks before repairs could be made to Vigorous, it would be necessary to disperse the crew to other, more readily available ships coming out of ordinary. Skilled seamen were now a valued resource who must not be wasted on a ship unable to sail for perhaps weeks or months.

  Phillips decided to take rooms in the city until he found what the Royal Navy had in store for him. With Vigorous to be out of action for weeks or months, his officers would either go into other ships needing officers or be put on half pay while the crew would be sent to the receiving ship.

  With trained crew at a premium, he knew it would be
but days before all were scattered to the wind, transferred to such ships that might need them. He asked about Mullins, his acting lieutenant. He was told since the man had not taken his Board, it was unlikely he would be made.

  If Phillips was concerned, when he was offered his next ship, he was told he could take the man with him and repeat the promotion at the next opportunity. In a few years, Mullins would be old enough to take the Board and possibly obtain his commission.

  A messenger had been sent out and a few hours later the official’s sister and a male cousin arrived at the establishment where Phillips was lunching with Sarah and young Mullins. She was a delightful dining companion and he was sorry when the carriage pulled up and she left with her new companions.

  Taking Mullins with him, he engaged a cabriolet to take them to an inn. Not remembering any others, he told the driver to take him to the ‘King’s Arms’. He told himself he had been away long enough for the memories of his past presence in Mary Harkin’s life to have dissipated. He decided to take Mullins with him, stop off at the bar and order a meal for the two and just see what developed.

  After the pair arrived, they went in. The inn was mostly empty and there was plenty of room. Phillips saw a new serving girl was present, so they were able to sit down with no notice. Steak and kidney pie was chalked on the board, so that is what they both ordered, along with a quart of beer each. The food was good and the beer refreshing, compared with what they were both used to on the ship. After their meal, Phillips ordered port and Suffolk cheese to settle their palates.

  As they were enjoying their food and drink, they heard an impassioned “John!” Phillips turned and saw an excited Mary running toward him, her arms outstretched. She put them around him and nearly crushed the life from him.