by Michael Aye
lightly. And he did until the desserts were served. Seeing the orange sherbet, fruit pastries, apple tarts and various puddings the vow was forgotten.
The shrill of pipes were barely out of Anthony's ears when Lord Howe's flag lieutenant greeted him. I'll bet the flag captain is still abed with some obliging woman, Anthony thought. He then introduced his flag lieutenant to Lord Howe's.
Anthony and Hazard were escorted to Lord Howe's waiting area and the flag lieutenant took Anthony's reports to the admiral. Feeling the after effects of last evening's reception, conversation was minimal. Hazard was thinking of the privileges that had come with being Anthony's flag lieutenant. Experiences he'd not encountered before nor would he again unless by some miracle he made admiral.
He was also grateful at the trust that had been given to him to pilot Merlin through the channel at Cayo Hueso. He'd attempted to voice his appreciation but was cut short by Howe's flag lieutenant telling Anthony that his lordship was ready for him.
"Take a seat, Gil," Lord Howe said, creating an informal environment. This meant his lordship was pleased. "Governor Tonyn has spoken very highly of you," Howe started, "You've greatly improved the Navy's reputation after the blunders of your predecessor."
Anthony noticed Howe disdained even to speak Sir Percival's name."
"How is Sir Raymond?" Howe asked.
"He visited the flagship this morning, my lord. He appears to be progressing well. I'm sure he'll be fit for duty soon. He's to be married soon. His visit this morning was to extend invitations to the wedding."
"Speaking of weddings, how is Lady Deborah?" Howe asked.
"She is fine and we now have a daughter."
"Well congratulations," Howe said.
He and Anthony had been sipping on lime juice so he raised his glass, "To mothers and daughters." After the toast, Lord Howe picked up a paper he'd been taking notes on, "Gil, since you came out from England in 1775 you've patrolled the West Indies, the American coast from the Keys to Maine and you've also patrolled the waters of Nova Scotia. You've prevented an invasion, and you've taken some twenty-seven prizes including the sloop you've just brought in. I lost count of the enemy ships you've sank and prisoners you've taken.
Because you've been so successful I've approved Gabe's captaincy as a testament of gratitude for your ceaseless service and success."
"Some will be jealous of the boy making captain, be prepared. He's earned it and I know you would not have recommended him if he'd not the experience to support it. However, some will see it as nepotism. Now do you have a deserving officer for this sloop you've just taken?" Anthony thought of Hazard but said, "Captain Buck's first lieutenant, Mr. Herrod, is who I'd appoint, sir."
"Very well, I'll draw up the papers. Defiant," Howe said. "Is she seaworthy?"
"Aye, my lord. She is as fine a ship as we could hope for."
"And Captain Earl?" Howe continued his question.
"Is he ready to hold permanent command of a forty gun ship?"
Once again, Anthony answered positively, "He has been with me almost as long as Buck has. I have the utmost of faith and trust in him."Very well," Howe replied. "I will confirm his appointment and I've already agreed to purchase Defiant.
Now Lord Anthony, as to yourself. It grieves me to tell you this but you are being sent back to England."
"The entire squadron, sir?" Anthony asked.
"Yes… no, not Defiant. She will remain here at Saint Augustine with the sloop and the little island schooner.
After your success I doubt we'll have to worry much about privateers. Now go home. Your tour has made you a rich man. Spend it on Lady Deborah and the little one. I've no doubt you'll be hoisting your flag again soon so enjoy your time."
Then Lord Howe exhaled deeply, "I wish it were me going home."
All of Lord Anthony's officers including Sir Raymond were gathered in his dining area aboard Warrior.
"Gentlemen," Anthony spoke. "I've important information from our commander in chief. Defiant and the sloop, Ram, are to be purchased. Captain Earl, you have been confirmed to command Defiant and you will receive orders directly. Lieutenant Herrod, you upon Captain Buck's recommendations have been given command of the sloop, Ram, and are promoted to the rank of Master and Commander."
A chorus of cheers broke out.
"Commander Herrod, you will receive your orders along with Captain Earl. Gabe… Captain Anthony, Lord Howe has approved your promotion and command of Merlin."
"Now gentlemen, with the exception of Captain Earl's Defiant and Herrod's Ram the squadron is to return to England."
As the cheers quieted down Buck asked, "When do we sail?"
"Lord Howe has given me a bit of latitude here," Anthony replied, "but I think by the end of the month at the latest."
After the meeting broke up Anthony spoke to Gabe as he was leaving, "Dine with me tonight and bring Caleb, Dagan and Lum."
Later that night after a filling but simple meal, Anthony, Gabe, Hazard, Bart, Dagan and Caleb sat back smoking their pipes and cigars as Lum played tunes on the lotz and then the fiddle.
As Lum played Dagan announced, "Caleb and I are going to visit Virginia."
"Aye, I've been thinking the wind blew that way," Anthony said with a smile on his face. Then turning to Gabe he continued, "I'd not take it amiss if you were to slip into Savannah and pick up a passenger for the trip to England either."
Now Gabe was all smiles. Overhead the ship's bell rang.
"I 'ears bells a ringin'," Bart said, "And soon hit'll be wedding bells I'm a thinkin'."
Appendix
Historical Note
In 1763, the Seven Years' War, or as it was called in America, the French and Indian War came to an end.
Great Britain and her American colonies had won against the combined forces of France and Spain. The armies of Great Britain had conquered Canada and several French-held islands in the Caribbean. They had also stormed and occupied Havana, Cuba, Spain 's principal seaport and administrative headquarters for much of Spanish America. In 1763 a treaty of peace was signed that left Canada to the English, returned several Caribbean islands to the French, and provided for Havana to become Spanish again in exchange for the province of Florida. Great Britain now controlled all of North America east of the Mississippi River.
When Florida was officially transferred to the English, most of the Spanish residents chose to depart for Cuba. Some stayed, especially the very poor, many blacks, and individuals of mixed blood. Even a few of the wealthier Spanish settlers remained to maintain their extensive properties and investments in Florida. At least one stayed to spy on the English.
The English had obtained a great continental peninsula with its eastern boundaries on the Atlantic Ocean, and its western boundaries on the Mississippi River. As the Spanish had done, they divided the new province into two parts. All the lands west of the Apalachiola River, including the very small settlement at Pensacola, became British West Florida and a part of the
history of this region. The eastern lands, basically the Florida peninsula itself, became British East Florida, headquartered in Saint Augustine, home for virtually all of Florida 's residents.
In 1775, when armed conflict commenced, British East Florida 's security rested on the rather inadequate shoulders of a few companies of the English 14th and 16th Regiments of Foot and a handful of artillerymen at the Saint Augustine fort. By October of 1775, drafts of troops sent north had reduced the regular garrison in Saint Augustine to thirty-five soldiers of the 16th Foot and a company of hastily raised and ill-trained local militiamen. In the months that followed, Florida 's new governor, Patrick Tonyn, directed a number of small blockhouse forts to be constructed to help protect the province. Forts were established at Picolata, Anastasia, Matanzas, and Smyrna. A more substantial structure, Fort Tonyn, was built where the King's Road from Saint Augustine crossed the St. Mary's River, the official border separating the colonies of Georgia and Florida.
The
Rebels to the north considered Florida to be a natural, or at least, a very desirable, part of the soon-to-be-declared new American nation. Their first act of war in Florida was the seizure of an English brig, the Betsey, and its load of 111 barrels of gunpowder by a Carolina privateer ship within sight of Saint Augustine. Between fall of 1775 and early spring of 1776, the Rebels raided Loyalist settlements along the Georgia-Florida border.
With fewer than four hundred muskets within its borders, Florida was virtually defenseless by land. Only the sloops, and later, frigates of the Royal Navy protected Florida from seaborne invasion. This essential function of the Navy would continue and prove crucial to the ultimate survival of British East Florida in the violent years ahead.
In the early summer of 1776, the American Rebels assembled a force of more than two thousand men in Savannah, Georgia, under the command of Colonel William Moultrie. The mission of this force was to invade and conquer Florida. Fortunately for Florida, command problems and widespread sickness so crippled this small army that it never advanced farther than Sunbury, Georgia. Even had it actually invaded, Florida was no longer quite as defenseless as it had been a few months earlier. The first contingent of the King's 60th Regiment of Foot (Royal Americans) had arrived in Saint Augustine under the command of Colonel, later Brigadier General, Augustine Prevost.
As important to the future survival of British Florida as the arrival of the 60th Foot, was the arrival of Thomas Browne, formerly of Augusta, Georgia. A man of quite considerable competence and energy, Browne had been tarred, feathered, and partially scalped by Georgia Rebels for his loyalty to King George III. Recognizing his merits, Governor Tonyn commissioned Browne a colonel, and authorized him to raise, equip, and lead a force of irregular militia. This force would be called the East Florida Rangers. Rarely numbering more than two hundred, Browne and his Rangers assisted by a large band of partially red-coated Seminole Indians, were to perform signal services to the crown during the next few years.
American privateers roamed the Atlantic Coast from Canada to the Caribbean Sea, capturing enemy merchant vessels and effectively blockading the east coast of Florida, the Tory residents (British) of Cow Ford (Jacksonville) were unable to obtain supplies and so fled northward into Bullock County, Georgia.
Following this incident, the British Navy would successfully patrol the ocean, intercostal waters, and rivers.
On November 2, 1775 Governor Tonyn issued a proclamation that invited the loyalist to come to Florida and promising them free land. Starting in the spring of 1778 large groups of Loyalist exiles from South Carolina arrived in Florida. The men formed two small regiments'the South Carolina Royalists and the Royal North Carolina Regiment. Other men enlisted in Browne's Rangers.
In the fall of 1776 the first batch of prisoners arrived in Saint Augustine from Virginia. There were twenty-eight prisoners and their slaves sent by Lord Dunmore.
Some were kept on the sloop, Otter that was used as a prison ship. Some including Colonel Lawson and Captain Weltcoat were kept in the fort.
In 1780 the brig Bellona under Captain Harrison from North Carolina drifted on to Anastasia Island. The crew of seventy plus men was made prisoners by the guards in the lighthouse. Some were held there and some were taken to the fort. Some of the European captives entered the 60th Regiment and some joined the British Navy.
Some French were also held prisoners here. They included Chevalier De Bretigny, sixteen of his officers, and two hundred of his enlisted men who were captured by the British Florida Navy. Included in this group was at least one person who would report back to France on the possibility of taking Saint Augustine. There were at least seventeen French vessels taken from the Charleston area with crews to Saint Augustine. These people were originally kept on Anastasia Island in the tower on the lighthouse. However as the group increased in size they were given liberty for the island. These men were finally sent on to the French Caribbean.
Dr. Father Pedro Camps was a Minorcan priest.
Father Camps kept the records of the births, deaths, and marriages in the Minorcan community in a book today
called the Golden Book of the Minorcans. November 9, 1777 in the New Smyrna church was transferred to Saint Augustine. Father Camps lived in Saint Augustine till his death in the 2nd Spanish period on May 19, 1790.
Reverend John Kennedy arrived in 1777 with a royal appointment to the Free Schools in East Florida as schoolmaster up to 1785. The subjects taught, according to a table of fees fixed by the Council in 1775, and included English, writing, arithmetic, Latin and Greek.
In May, 1777 American Colonel Samuel Elbert led an expeditionary force to invade Florida. His force totalled 600-800 men. He divided them into two groups, putting Colonel John Baker in charge of the land-based advance while he took the rest of the men aboard seven vessels to plow the coastal waters to the St. Mary River.
In 1763, the Spanish ceded Florida to the British in a trade for the port of Havana. The treaty was unclear as to the status of the Keys. An agent of the King of Spain claimed that the islands, rich in fish, turtles and mahogany for shipbuilding, were part of Cuba, fearing that the English might build fortresses and dominate the shipping lanes. The British also realized the treaty was ambiguous, but declared that the Keys should be occupied and defended as part of Florida. The British claim was never officially contested but no real government exercised control of the Keys. Most, if not all of the Florida indigenous natives had been killed or driven from their homeland by about 1763.
Key West and the entire chain of Keys provided many shipwrecks, lumbering, fishing and hiding areas, and fresh drinking water for every nation. The deep-water anchorage facility at Cayo Hueso (Key West) permitted anchoring for ships not wishing to stop in Havana or Charleston. It was a frequented by pirates, privateers and fisherman alike as well as those who made
their living salvaging the shipwrecks caused by the treacherous coral reefs and tricky currents.
Age of Sail Glossary
aft: toward the stern (rear) of the ship.
ahead: in a forward direction
aloft: above the deck of the ship.
barque (bark): a three-masted vessel with the foremast and mainmast square-rigged and the mizzenmast fore-and-aft rigged.
belay: to make a rope fast to a belaying pin, cleat, or other such device. Also used as a general command to stop or cancel, e.g., "Belay that last order!" belaying pin: a wooden pin, later made of metal, generally about twenty inches in length to which lines were made fast, or "belayed." They were arranged in pin rails along the inside of the bulwark and in fife rails around the masts.
binnacle: a large wooden box, just forward of the helm, housing the compass, half-hour glass for timing the watches, and candles to light the compass at night.
boatswain's chair: a wooden seat with a rope sling attached. Used for hoisting men aloft or over the side for work.
bosun: also boatswain, a crew member responsible for keeping the hul, rigging and sails in repair.
bow chaser: a cannon situated near the bow to fire as directly forward as possible.
bowsprit: a large piece of timber which stands out from the bow of a ship.
breeching: rope used to secure a cannon to the side of a ship and prevent it from recoiling too far.
brig: a two masted vessel, square rigged on both masts.
bulwarks: the sides of a ship above the upper deck.
bumboat: privately owned boat used to carry out to anchored vessels vegetables, liquor, and other items for sale.
burgoo: mixture of coarse oatmeal and water, porridge.
canister: musket bal size iron shot encased in a cylindrical metal cast. When fired from a cannon, the case breaks apart releasing the enclosed shot. (not unlike firing buckshot from a shotgun shel.)
Cat-O'-Nine Tails: a whip made from knotted ropes, used to punish crewmen. What was meant by being "flogged." chase: a ship being pursued.
coxswain: (cox'n) The person in charge of the captain's
personal boat.
cutter: a sailboat with one mast and a mainsail and two headsails.
dogwatch: the watches from four to six, and from six to eight, in the evening.
fathom: unit of measurement equal to six feet.
flotsam: Debris floating on the water surface.
forecastle: pronounced fo'c'sle. The forward part of the upper deck, forward of the foremast, in some vessels raised above the upper deck. Also, the space enclosed by this deck.
founder: used to described a ship that is having difficulty remaining afloat.
frigate: a fast three masted ful y rigged ship carrying anywhere from twenty to forty-eight guns.
full and by: a nautical term meaning proceed under full sail.
furl: to lower a sail.
futtock shrouds: short, heavy pieces of standing rigging connected on one end to the topmast shrouds at the outer edge of the top and on the other to the lower shrouds, designed to bear the pressure on the topmast shrouds. Often used by sailors to go aloft.
gaff: a spar or pole extending diagonal y upward from the after side of a mast and supporting a fore-and-aft sail.
galley: the kitchen area of a ship.
grapeshot: a cluster of round, iron shot, generally nine in all, and wrapped in canvas. Upon firing the grapeshot would spread out for a shotgun effect. Used against men and light hulls.
grating: hatch cover composed of perpendicular, interlocking wood pieces, much like a heavy wood screen. It allowed light and air below while still providing cover for the hatch. Gratings were covered with tarpaulins in rough or wet weather.
grog: British naval seaman received a portion of liquor every day. In 1740, Admiral Edward Vernon ordered the rum to be diluted with water. Vernon 's nickname was Old Grogram, and the beverage was given the name grog in their disdain for Vernon.
gunwale: pronounced gun-el. The upper edge of a ship's side.