A Continuing War_At Home and at Sea, 1803-1804

by John G. Cragg

  As they were about to mount up to leave, Daphne turned to Griffiths.

  “Mr. Griffiths, I would like to see the accounts of the stud farm.”

  “Yes, my lady, I can have them delivered to your man of business.”

  “No, I was thinking of looking at them myself.”

  “Yourself, my lady? Oh, yes, of course. I can have them brought over to Dipton Hall tomorrow if that is convenient. Keep them as long as you need to.”

  “Thank you, Mr. Griffiths.”

  The three companions rode off. As they turned onto the road that would lead them to Ameschester again, Lord David broke into laughter.

  “Lady Daphne, you could charm the birds from the trees.”

  “Whatever do you mean?”

  “Mr. Griffiths. Mr. Griffiths. The poor man has never been called that before by any of his customers. He expects to be called ‘Griffiths’ by such as us, if we can remember his name at all.”

  “I don’t see why I shouldn’t call him Mr. Griffiths. He holds a position of responsibility. He may not be a gentleman, but he is certainly a man with a profession.”

  “I don’t disagree. It is just that calling him ‘Mister’ quite overwhelmed the poor man. Especially since you are ‘Lady Giles’, not just ‘Mrs. Giles’.”

  “Well, I’m not going to change my ways, even if they cause you to laugh.”

  They stopped for tea in Ameschester, in the tea rooms that had been doing record business since Lord Moresby’s Regiment had encamped in the area. Indeed, they met Captain Hicks just leaving as they entered.

  “Lady Giles. Thank you for the kind invitation. I am sure that I speak for Lieutenant Charles as well when I say that we look forward eagerly to the evening.”

  As they sat down, Lord David again broke out laughing. “Lady Daphne, I see that your lure has already hooked a trout. Now your only problem is to land it.”

  “That is the most difficult part, Lord David. I am assured by several ladies who thought you might have taken their bait, that it takes more to land a trout than to hook it.”

  Night was falling as they left the tea-shop. It was cold, but clear, and a gibbous moon gave them plenty of light in which to ride to Dipton. Daphne realized that she might feel uncomfortable recounting the day’s adventures in choosing horses to those with whom she would dine. They could hardly expect Captain Giles to buy expensive special-purpose horses for their use when he had already done more than they might reasonably have expected in providing horses for each of them to ride. She concentrated, instead, in recounting how she had seen a man sell his wife. It turned out that Lady Marianne had heard of the custom in the North, though she had never known of an actual instance and had doubted that it ever occurred. Daphne also stressed how eager Captain Hicks had been to visit Dipton Hall.

  The girls again performed in the drawing room, and there was evidence that they must have spent a good part of the day in practicing on the piano-forte. Daphne also noted that they showed much more interest in their needlework than they had in the past. A little hope, she reflected, seemed to go a long way.

  Daphne took great care in writing her letter to Giles that night. She wanted to prepare him in case she felt that establishing a stud farm would be a worthwhile venture. It would be a large change in the estate that belonged to him. As she was preparing her thoughts on how best to phrase her reflections on the subject, she wondered if her sudden interest was actually wise. She knew little about breeding horses, but she did know that it was a business with substantial risks. On the other hand, farming itself had considerable risks from bad harvests. Would the risks offset each other?

  Then her thinking took a different direction. She remembered that these decisions were rightfully her husband’s, not hers. She did not want him to feel that she was always pushing him. She regarded him more as her partner than as her master, but that was not the usual relationship in marriage. She wasn’t really sure that Giles would not automatically assume that he, himself, would take all the important decisions and that she would be lucky if he even bothered to consult her. That was how decisions were made in all the better houses in the neighborhood. Indeed, she was discovering that much of the conversation among married women was about how to get their husbands not only to agree to something the wives wanted but also to get the men to think it was their idea in the first place.

  Daphne hoped she would not sink to that level of duplicity, but she really should make sure that Giles felt he was in charge, at least to the extent that he wanted to be. The memory of the man selling his wife in the market place at Ameschester came back to her. Of course, at her level of society, husbands did not sell their wives, but she never wanted Giles to wish he could. Gentlemen were certainly known to take mistresses, presumably when their wives were unsatisfactory. She had had broad hints from some of her visitors that one could hardly expect a naval captain to be faithful, and the shocked, but intrigued gossip, about Admiral Nelson’s scandalous doings with Lady Hamilton was used to reinforce the point. He had openly taken a mistress when he visited Naples. Amazingly, the strumpet’s action occurred with her husband’s apparent concurrence, even though he was the British Ambassador to the Kingdom. It was even alleged that Admiral Nelson had said that all men were bachelors east of Gibraltar, or so the whispered reports maintained which were given in drawing rooms while the ladies waited to be joined by the gentlemen after dinner.

  Daphne did not know her husband all that well; she still had facet after facet of his character to explore and she should not presume that they would always agree on how things should be ordered. Indeed, exploring their differences as well as their shared interests was something to which she was looking forward eagerly. How to make decisions that affected both of them was a subject that they had never considered. There would be more to married life than what had occurred on a brief and ecstatic honeymoon and Daphne would be wise to go slowly on presuming that they would make decisions in unconventional ways that suited her entirely.

  After these reflections, Daphne modified what she was going to write so that she only mentioned in passing that the horse-breeding aspect of the farm was for sale. She added that it would be a pity if the breeding moved far from them, since it was so convenient to be able to ride over to Salton Masham to inspect their horses. She finished the letter by telling him again how happy she was that he had encouraged her to buy a hunter and how much she wished he was in Dipton to share her activities and help her in her choice of a horse.

  Chapter XI

  Admiral Gardiner had given up admonishing Captain Giles for returning to the fleet without being summoned. This time the Captain had returned with a Dutch frigate as a prize, albeit a small one, and an obviously damaged Impetuous. The Admiral did not pretend indifference to having his own wealth increased by one-eighth of the value of a small frigate. As always, the interview took place with the admiral seated in front of the stern lights of his cabin while Giles faced him standing across the table.

  “Captain Giles. Another prize, and more damage to Impetuous, I see. Tell me about how you captured your prize and the rest of your doings.”

  “It’s is all in my report, sir.”

  “I am sure it is, but it will be quicker if you just tell me now.”

  Giles outlined his actions in destroying the fort and most of the landing craft rafted in front of it. This was met with approving grunts from the Admiral and a distinctly unfriendly glare when the captain had to admit that Impetuous had gone too close to the fort in the dark. The reduction of the fort was applauded, and Giles mentioned that the Dutch frigate had been hidden from them by a rain shower and its arrival could not have been anticipated.

  “You know as well as I do, Captain Giles, that if Medea could see you, you should have seen her,” the Admiral objected. “But the encounter seems to have ended well. It sounds as if your Lieutenant Kirkpatrick was responsible for his own death. It does neatly solve one of your problems, does it not? Now you need a new lieutenant.”


  “I have promoted my senior midshipman into the position of acting lieutenant, sir. He will need to take the lieutenant’s exam, but he is ready for the promotion.”

  “I see. Well, you will have to go into Chatham for repairs and supplies. I am going to order that a lieutenant’s exam be held at the Nore* in the next few weeks and he can take it there. If he passes the exam, I will confirm the appointment. If not, there are several lieutenants in the fleet who would welcome the position on Impetuous. I suppose that you are also low on supplies.”

  “Gunpowder and shot, primarily, sir.”

  “Yes. Well I have a small job I need you to do with Impetuous before you go to Chatham. It will only take a few days.”

  “Sir?”

  “You remember Captain Hoxley and Bountiful or, maybe, for what I have in mind I should say Capitaine Couchetard and Généreux?”

  “Yes, the pirate captain and spy.”

  “I don’t know where the idea came from – the Warden or the Admiralty – but they want to send him into Boulogne one last time, allegedly to deliver the latest reports and to get any new instructions.”

  “How can you trust him?”

  “The Admiralty seems to think that they have enough of a hold on him that he can be relied on.”

  “Won’t it be known that I took his ship?”

  “We hope not. It was after all sailing under the British flag, so they may believe that her true purpose was not discovered. But it may not matter. The scheme will be to send him in with false reports, and then use Bountiful as a fire ship to burn the landing craft that are already jammed into Boulogne.”

  “But won’t the French then know that we had discovered Captain Hoxley’s duplicity?”

  “That is the beauty of the scheme. The report will actually give fairly accurate information on our defenses. We suspect that the French have other ways of discovering what they are and must be puzzling over which set of reports to believe. Sending in an account that they will believe is our work, designed to confuse them, will make them give more credence to the earlier reports brought by Captain Hoxley – and most of them were actually false. Where the others were true, they will be given misleading information that could be taken as a reasonable change in our plans.”

  “And my role?”

  “Impetuous will supply the men to crew Bountiful in this venture. Captain Hoxley will appear to be in charge, but we don’t want him disappearing with his ship if left to his own devices. We have various levers over him to secure his loyalty for this one voyage, or so I am assured. Bountiful, commanded by one of your officers, will take him to the quay in Boulogne and wait a limited amount of time there for him to return. If he takes too long, or the French realize that Bountiful is no longer what she seems, she will immediately assume her role as a fire ship and abandon Captain Hoxley to what I presume will be a quick termination caused by a meeting with the guillotine.”

  What is Impetuous’s role in all this?

  We intend her to approach Boulogne from the south while Bountiful – disguised as Généreux -- approaches from the north. There are batteries along the coast between Calais and Boulogne. If they open fire on Généreux, we will know that she has been discovered, and she will sheer off and go into Boulogne after dark. Otherwise Impetuous will arrive from the south and appear to chase the French ship into harbor. In either case, it will also be Impetuous’s task to pick up the boats with the crew after they have set the landing craft on fire. If all goes well, Captain Hoxley will go to the house where he meets the French agent, give him the reports that have been prepared for him, designed to confuse and mislead the enemy, and return with new requests for information. Captain Hoxley’s – or should I say Couchetard’s? – treachery will be revealed when Généreux attacks the landing craft, but that should cast doubt not only on the report which he brings, which includes several items that are true, but on others they may have received from other sources.

  “So good luck, Captain Giles. You will have noticed that Bountiful is in the center of the fleet. She only has a skeleton crew on board under a midshipman. Select the men to man her from among the members of Impetuous’s crew and similarly the officers, and have them taken over to her so you can get away as soon as you can. Report back to me when you finish, before going into Chatham.”

  “Aye, aye, sir.”

  Giles returned to Impetuous to organize the foray. He selected a small crew for Bountiful and took them over to the brig together with Midshipman Stewart. They were replacing a rather lackluster crew selected from the men who had been forced to serve in the Navy by being caught by the press gang. That collection of misfits were able to man the prize while the Admiral decided what to do with her, but would not be suitable for a serious mission.

  The Admiral’s written orders had not been very explicit about Giles’ assigning the command of Bountiful to one of Impetuous’s lieutenants, though Giles knew that the Admiral had presumed that this was what he would do. However, commanding the brig in carrying out their plan would be far more hazardous than commanding the frigate and it would require better judgment, or so Giles told himself. He also was reluctant to send an officer into danger if he could assume the role himself without jeopardizing his command or the mission. Memories of his guilt over Lieutenant Kirkpatrick’s death, groundless though he knew it to be, made him reluctant to assign the command to either Mr. Milton or Mr. Miller. He would captain the brig himself.

  Giles realized that there was one major problem with the crew he had picked. They were proud of Impetuous and dressed smartly. They looked like navy men, not like the sailors one would expect on Généreux. They certainly did not look like the slovenly crew who had been manning Généreux when he had captured her, whether one supposed her to be a privateer or a smuggling ship. It would be even better if somehow they looked like a French crew. Probably, Captain Hoxley had had his crew dress as Frenchmen when he entered French harbors.

  Giles wondered what had happened to the clothing that the original crew would have worn when going into a French port. When he mentioned his problem to Midshipman Stewart, the lad stated that he had found out where they had been kept when he had explored the ship after it was first captured. He dashed off and returned to report that the clothes were still there.

  Giles returned to Impetuous with Mr. Stewart to pick up clothes more suitable to their own disguise. Giles would look like a rather ineffective mate for the ship while Mr. Stewart would impersonate a ship’s boy. After checking that Mr. Milton thoroughly understood his role, Giles went on to the flag ship to pick up Captain Hoxley. He returned to Bountiful to find that the ship appeared to be manned by about as tough and surly a crew as one could want. Some of them even seemed to delight in spitting on the deck – a flogging offence on most British ships of war. Giles had picked for the mission some of his Cornishmen who, he knew, spoke passable French and some others from Kent. In both cases the French, he expected, had been learned in the smuggling trade before the seamen had been induced to serve in the Royal Navy. Those of the crew who did not speak French could growl in a sufficiently terrifying manner that their true origins could be hidden from casual observers when the brig was tied up in the enemy port.

  The two ships made their way across the Channel on an easy broad-reach using a wind from the west. Soon after midnight they separated so that Impetuous could take up her position to the south of Boulogne while Généreux would steer so that dawn would find the ship a few miles to the north of Calais.

  Généreux was just where Giles wanted the ship to be at sunrise, with the coast of France north of Calais just off their bow. The wind had stayed steady, and they shook out a couple of reefs in the sails in order to reach the rendezvous with Impetuous at the right time. Giles could only hope that Mr. Milton and Mr. Brooks had been equally successful in positioning the frigate.

  After they passed Calais, Giles chose a course that would bring them within range of one of the coastal batteries. It would be the test of
their disguise. If the fort opened fire, Giles would have to do his best to get out of range and vary his course so that the brig would not be destroyed. He would then have to take the brig out of sight of the shore batteries and try to sneak into the harbor after dark. He stationed several hands so that the boats they were pulling behind them could be dragged up to his ship as quickly as possible if Généreux were damaged seriously by cannon fire.

  The fort remained silent, though Giles could see officers studying his ship through a telescope. He wondered if he should dip his flag as a greeting to the fort, but Captain Hoxley told him that that was not their custom. As Généreux neared the next fort, Impetuous appeared from the south west. Giles ordered that the course be changed to bring Généreux under the protection of the battery. Mr. Milton, he saw, had been over-eager. Impetuous would come up with Généreux before she was safe. However, Impetuous would have to tack before she could catch the brig. The frigate turned into the wind. Giles wondered if somehow Mr. Milton had received a message to call the expedition off, but that did not seem reasonable: surely he would have just signaled in that case. The puzzle was resolved when Impetuous missed stays and was taken all aback. By the time the frigate had sorted itself out and had gathered enough speed to try again to tack, Généreux was safely close to the fort. Since Impetuous had never missed stays since they first determined how the ship handled, Giles realized that Mr. Milton had been play-acting to make their ruse seem more convincing.

  Impetuous turned away, a frustrated hound that had somehow been interrupted just as it was about to catch its rabbit. Généreux carried on to the entrance to Boulogne harbor. “I had better take over here, Captain Giles,” said Captain Hoxley. “I know this harbor like the back of my hand and we need to dock smoothly. With this wind, we can turn and slide into the quay without trouble and be facing the right way to leave quickly. Have the line handlers ready and make sure that those who handle the sails speak French, for that is the language that I will use in my commands.”