Fortune And Glory (The Duty and Destiny Series, Book 5)
Page 4
“It was possible to come to an accommodation with the Active’s captain – a course I was reluctant to follow, but the sole means by which I could protect his officers. But it means that I cannot possibly promote his First into his place, and he is a very young man still, so your Mr Backham takes the rank and a sloop in rather bad order and needing to be pulled together. The best thing for her is a long cruise, so she will be yours, Sir Frederick, a consort. Twelve of nine-pounders and a pair of carronades, twelves is all we have for her. As well a chase gun, a brass nine-pounder, and a plethora of swivels, their origin unclear.”
Backham was almost the last man he would have chosen to be captain of a small ship in such a circumstance. He would have to speak with him, at length.
“The First of the Active, sir – might it be better to transfer him to Trident? No doubt you can find a junior lieutenant for Mr Backham, and I shall need another watch-keeper and it might avert any number of difficulties.”
“Are you not inclined to expect him to be resentful, Sir Frederick?”
“Probably, sir, I would be! But Trident has an exceptionally steady crew, well used to my ways, and a good set of officers, and they will be able to handle any little difficulties that might arise.”
“I do not know the date of his commission, but he might well not be Senior in the Trident.”
“Then easier still to keep him in line as Second or even Third, sir.”
“So be it, Sir Frederick. Now then, orders…”
Fortescue had word of rebellion in the Islands, of Greeks seeking independence and Turkish governors attempting to create their own little kingdoms. There was nothing new in this, but additionally he had been informed of a small French garrison landed at a port of one of the islands to the north of Rhodes, a harbour surrendered, possibly in exchange for French protection of a Turkish rebel.
“No certain word of where or when, Sir Frederick, but the opportunity is one that should not be missed. Was you to take a store loaded with recently captured small-arms, and ancient field guns, to the island, you could, after defeating the French, leave it in a state of effective independence, a base for further activities. The local populace would no doubt supply soldiers to carry the arms we gave them.”
Frederick thought for a little while, slowly smiled.
“Our job is to aid our friends, the Ottomans, by destroying the French invaders and Turkish rebels who have usurped power on the island. What happens after we have restored the proper authorities to their seats is outside of our control – very unfortunate!”
“That is certainly so, Sir Frederick, but you must remember that if the Ottomans do return then you must not hamper them in their efforts to regain control of what is legally theirs. The absolute most you will be able to do is to give succour to those seeking refuge, civilians, that is – those under arms must seek their own salvation. There may well be peace very soon and we must not prejudice the attempts to form alliances or enforce neutrality that will ensue.”
“The greater good, sir.”
“Precisely so, Sir Frederick. You will retain the services of my Mr Murray, a most valuable man, and you will be very well advised to listen carefully to his advice on delicate matters.”
Book Five: The Duty and Destiny Series
Chapter Two
“Captain Backham – the title suits you, sir! I am very pleased for you and even more pleased that you and your Active will be in my company for at least the next few weeks. We shall be sailing into the Aegean, the waters to the east of the Greek mainland, and, if all is as we suspect, we shall be taking back from the French an island they have conquered from the Turks.”
Backham showed a little puzzled, he having understood the Ottomans to be more or less neutral and the French to be courting them as allies.
“Lieutenant Murray assures me that a minor matter of a military adventure can be blamed on a treacherous Turk, or on Greek insurgents, or on the Emperor of Morocco, or on the man in the moon for that matter. The Ottomans are discovering that they are in decline and that they must accept the occasional insult if they are to have any chance of growing great again. They have no such chance, in fact, but they will not believe that for many years yet.”
Backham was still puzzled, but hoped that other, more politically alert, folk might know what they were doing.
“Your Active will be in close company for a few weeks and that will give you the opportunity to bring her round. You know the story and are aware that there is a problem to be resolved.”
“The men did the right thing, sir, yet the captain was permitted to request relief from his post without court-martial and the First Lieutenant has been made Second in Trident – as if he were being punished. They will be resentful, and I do not know quite what will be the thing to do.”
“Talk to the master, on the quarterdeck, where the steersmen and the mizzenmast hands cannot help but overhear. Mention that Lieutenant Lucas had to be Second because of the date of his commission, but that you are sure he will be given a very early chance – command of the boats when cutting-out, or leading a landing party, because he is known to have been poorly treated. The men call it a ‘raw deal’, for some reason. Just say in passing that their previous captain had been able to get lawyers on his side and that while a court-martial might have hanged him it would certainly have found against Mr Lucas, and he would have been dismissed the service, at least. This is the best that could be done for him; it is, too.”
Backham thought he could do that, the word spreading that Lucas was to be looked after by Sir Frederick and the admiral.
“My new lieutenants are of little experience, sir. The Active was short of one who had died of some sickness or another a few weeks before, had a master’s mate acting who has been made. The new First is fresh from the Port Admiral’s staff in Mahon and has less sea-time than one might have hoped for.”
“Watch the master as well, I presume, and look to make another master’s mate as soon as you can. What of your midshipmen, is either ready?”
“Two of them, sir, and both seem to be able, four and five years in and pulling their weight, but I will need to weigh them up over the next few weeks. The senior is close to time and should be master's mate as soon as possible, if he can be trusted to keep a watch, which I don't yet know.”
“Good – a pair of trustworthy youngsters will be useful when it comes to hard sailing and establishing your way of doing things. A good discipline, that goes without saying, but the cat hardly to be seen. What is your purser like?”
“Old, sir, which is unusual in a small ship, I am told. He does not appear on deck, but the men are dressed within reason well, which you have told me is a sign of a good man.”
“Ask after his family, Mr Backham. If, just possibly, he has no living kin then he has no reason to retire from the service and none to leave a fortune to.”
Frederick raised an eyebrow to Bosomtwi as Backham left.
“Maybe he be a good captain, isn’t it, sir. He spend all his days watching what you do and why you do it. Maybe he learn.”
“I hope so. Pass the word for Lieutenant Lucas, please. He has been aboard an hour, long enough to have changed his clothes.”
A new officer would expect to report in his best uniform and then to change it for working rig as soon as he possibly could. It was too costly to spoil, particularly for a man living on his pay.
“Mr Lucas, welcome aboard, sir. I presume you have met Mr Merritt?”
“Yes, sir. The First Lieutenant welcomed me into the wardroom, sir.”
“As he must, indeed. Your commission is two weeks junior to his, I understand. Unfortunate, but the rule is inflexible, as you know – I have not the power to break it. Mr Merritt is also aware of the circumstances, I would add, but it goes without saying that you will respect him in his rank, sir. That said, your experience makes it only right that you should be given the opportunity to advance yourself. Your actions recently showed you to be a brave man, sir, and
you have my respect. My sympathy you do not need. We shall be very busy in the next few weeks and you will need to know your gun crews, and the landing party which will be in your charge.”
The landing party would provide opportunities for a bold lieutenant to distinguish himself, or for an overambitious one to die.
“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. May I enquire, sir, whether certain threats that were made still have any power to disturb me?”
“Wholly off record, and not to be mentioned under any circumstances, Mr Lucas, you may forget the threat of a court-martial. Strictly speaking you broke the laws we live by, but there will be no further action taken. I have written a letter home – to whom exactly you need not know, but a figure of political prominence – that should ensure that your late captain will be known in London for what he is. The admiral has done the same – again in confidence, sir. I would add, as well, that the masters and crew of the two hired merchantmen will return to England before too many months pass, and there is no way of silencing them, nor any desire to.”
“Thank you, sir.”
“Should any further problems eventuate, Mr Lucas, and I can see no reason why they should, then speak with young Mr LeGrys, who has my ear, and we shall take an unofficial course to solve them.”
Lucas had no great influence of his own and his family had no money – the father a three hundred pound rector – so he was dependent on his career. Even an acquittal on a charge of mutiny would do him harm and a formal exoneration by court-martial, while not impossible, would cause comment in the service.
“Mr Plumb, has the dockyard come up with anything for us?”
As the Gunner knew, Frederick was actually asking whether he had to pay his bribes and sweeteners to the yard.
“Eight musketoons, sir, all old but well reworked in the last week or two, and heavy shot for them. Six two-pound swivels with boat mountings, sir. Chips is working on the boats just now, sir, setting ‘em up so as they can be put to either broadside or a pair in the bows besides the little carronade.”
Small change from twenty guineas, he suspected, but well worthwhile. A boarding or assault on a battery or a cutting-out was much the easier for the presence of the musketoons – giant shotguns in effect, with a broad spread of heavy slugs and a great big loud bang that could terrify a crew into instant submission. People discounted the effect of noise, Frederick mused, remembering the grenadoes Bosomtwi had thrown on the Hercule – they had scattered shards of cast iron very effectively, but they had made a startling flash and a ringing explosion right under the matelot’s noses which had been enough to discourage many otherwise ordinarily brave men. They said that grenadoes were outdated as weapons, too random, uncontrollable in their effects, and to an extent the theorists were right – but the answer was not to do away with them but to improve them so that they could be cast accurately over a longer distance. It should be possible in this modern age of Science and Industry to devise new weapons, not merely improvements but innovative in concept, though he had not the slightest idea where to start. Perhaps Lieutenant Murray would have suggestions to make – he was a thinking man who would not be locked into the habits of the past.
“Our ships are wooden, sir, so we should be considering fire – an improvement on the Greek Fire of the ancients. A weapon that could throw fireballs over half a mile of sea would be a fearsome thing, I believe.”
“Utterly vile, as well, sir. What have you in mind, a catapult powered by steam?”
Murray thought that was a wonderful possibility. England seemed to stand on a massive layer of coal, it could be found all over the country, much easier to access than sulphur and saltpetre.
“A truly English weapon-of-war, sir, with the sole drawback that one would have to place a steam engine in the bowels of one’s ship, with its fire and stores of fuel. In a wooden ship that could present difficulties, I suspect.”
Frederick supposed that he might not prefer to be captain of that particular ship, but he did not doubt that there would be volunteers in plenty – there always were.
“You have read the written order, Mr Murray. I would welcome your comments.”
Murray did not like the placing of a comma in the second sentence and believed that ‘assault’ took an ‘a’ before the ‘u’ rather than after.
“I was thinking rather of the military aspects, Mr Murray.”
“Ah, yes, of course, sir… The arming of the indigenous population should be simple, the local people are used to pistol, fowling piece and often musket from an early age. It would be less easy to collect the firearms back again afterwards, I believe, and I would not wish to be the person who attempted it.”
“A pity, but I had not really supposed it to be practical. We could, I presume, rely upon the islanders to join us in the liberation of their kin elsewhere in their archipelago?”
Murray laughed and shook his head.
“No, sir, a most unlikely eventuality. The islanders are much given to the practice of piracy, preying upon Turks if at all possible, but quite happy to take Venetians or Spaniards, or English if they are available. When all else fails they will attack each other with great gusto. They only do so as a last resort because the other islands tend to be equally poor, with little to loot other than their women, and the local priests tend to discourage the keeping of concubines.”
Frederick was surprised, having vaguely heard of the Greeks as very civilised chaps, inventing geometry and such.
“I think those were a different sort of Greek, sir.”
“Then we must take each opportunity as it arises, it would seem, piecemeal rather than in a carefully thought out plan.”
Lieutenant Murray assured him, not for the first time, that planning was an excellent exercise for the intellects, but tended not to be of much practical use in the Eastern Mediterranean.
“To have a plan, sir, one must first know what is happening at the moment and then make informed surmises about the immediate future. Unfortunately, one can only guess at what is actually going on at any time, and for the future, starting some five minutes from now, even guesses are futile, for no man has imagination sufficient to encompass all that might happen in these waters, sir.”
“What do you suggest I should do, Mr Murray?”
“As a beginning, attempt to carry out the order given, it may well be practical. Then, having secured the primary objective, try to discover what you have actually done. I can be of assistance there, speaking with the local leaders and priests and merchants and fisherfolk. As a possibility, sir, we may discover why the French took the island in the first instance. Knowing that, we may be able to predict what they will do next and decide upon a sensible course for ourselves.”
It had not occurred to Frederick to wonder why the French had chosen to capture this particular island out of the hundreds available.
“Can you suggest why they might have done, Mr Murray?”
“No idea at all, sir. It seems very foolish to me, but there may be a perfectly logical reason – or then again, there may not. The admiral thought they might have a relationship with a disloyal Turk, but I am inclined to doubt that, because I do not see how it would have been formed. For the governor of an island to make contact with Venice and the French there and actually to negotiate an alliance seems highly unlikely, and certainly a long, tedious process of negotiation must take place, in perfect secrecy. I do not believe it to be possible, sir. People like to think of conspiracies, sir, but in my opinion, accident is far more common."
They sailed in company with a small polacca, a local trader chosen not to look out of place. Most of the three thousand captured French muskets were aboard her, together with French powder and ball and the four small field pieces. It had seemed an excellent idea to the admiral that any Greek insurgents captured by the Turk should be carrying French weaponry rather than English; cheaper as well, the prize court having valued them at fifteen shillings each rather than the nearly three pounds of a Sea Service musket.
“Loyal to their Turkish masters? Loyal to the cause of Greek independence? Loyal to a local bandit chief?”
“Loyal to His Britannic Majesty, Mr Murray?”
Murray looked blank, then ventured to suggest that was an unlikely event in the Eastern Mediterranean, though not necessarily impossible, experience suggesting that anything could happen just here.
“There was mention in London of embassies from the Emperor of Morocco, carrying sums of gold. Might they have reached this far?”
“Probably, and I am sure that their gold will have been well received, but whether it will have actually bought anything is another matter. Fraternal gifts are an excellent tradition, and always very popular, but most of the Greeks will have no knowledge of Morocco, certainly not to the extent of wishing it to replace the Ottomans, and they will regard one bunch of Musselmans as much the same as any other. Russians, now, would be another matter, they being, to an extent, Orthodox – but not necessarily reliable.”
“Well, then, shall we disregard this matter of ‘loyalty’, Mr Murray? Who should we give the muskets to?”
“Greeks.”
“Which Greeks?”
Murray shrugged, it would take a better man than him to tell one set of Greeks from another. He could not distinguish between a Greek patriot and a Greek pirate with any degree of certainty, was not at all sure that they could either.