Old Glory

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Old Glory Page 20

by Christopher Nicole


  The boat shuddered and jarred, her planking being torn by the sharp outcrops, and there came a grunt of alarm as one plank stove in, and water began seeping into the bilges.

  ‘Bail,’ Harry commanded, ‘And keep your powder dry. It is not far now.’

  A moment later they were through, and in the comparatively deep water of the lagoon, with only the white sand beach in front of them. Now the boat was sinking rapidly, but they drove at the shore with a will and grounded. The men leapt out, carrying their firearms above their heads, and crouched on the beach, already slapping at sandflies and mosquitoes. Moments later the second boat grounded as well; she had got off lightly and was not even holed.

  ‘Stay on the beach,’ Harry commanded. His sailors were no backwoodsmen, and would sound like a herd of elephants crashing through the trees, he knew. But the sand was noiseless, and in single file and close by the trees, there was little chance of their being discovered. He went first, leading them for nearly a mile, before they heard voices and saw the raised platform on which the six heavy cannon were mounted. He looked at the sky, but there was yet no trace of any lightening of the darkness.

  This actually was the most difficult period of all. His men had to kneel on the sand and wait, conscious of the coming action, unable to speak or even to slap the sandflies which attacked them — and he had to use his best judgement as to timing: to assault the battery too soon would be to risk exposing his force to a counter attack from the garrison of the town, while to leave it too late might mean their discovery. But he knew, from his West Indian experiences, that the period between utter darkness and full daylight in these latitudes was a brief one, and at the first sign of grey in the sky he passed the word to be ready. When he was assured that every man was awake and alert, he drew a deep breath and a pistol, and fired it into the air.

  With a cheer the Americans leapt from the beach and swarmed up the side of the platform. The redcoats were taken utterly by surprise. The sergeant in command swung his staff at Harry, who was leading the charge, and Harry swept it aside with his sword, sending the man tumbling off the platform to the roadway beneath. A soldier lunged at him, but Harry knocked him down with a blow of his left fist, which still held the empty pistol. By then the platform was theirs, and the sleepy reserve gunners, emerging from a tent pitched some yards away, readily raised their hands in surrender when they confronted with the muskets of the seamen.

  ‘They will have heard the shot,’ the carpenter suggested.

  ‘I doubt it, with the wind where it is,’ Harry said. ‘And one distant pistol shot is unlikely to alert the town. But this will.’ Two of his men were already rolling a ball into a cannon’s mouth, and another was applying powder to the touchhole. The slow match was already lit and glowing in its bucket, proving that the gunners had been on a war alert, however inefficiently, and without hesitation Harry applied it to the powder. There was an explosion, the cannon roared and leapt, and seabirds wheeled into the sky above the dawn.

  ‘Now drive those spikes home,’ Harry commanded the carpenter. ‘The rest of you, form a defensive perimeter in those bushes, to either side of the road. We must not allow the redcoats to regain the battery at least until our people are inside the harbour.’

  He personally checked to make sure that the surviving gunners were securely tied, with their own belts and braces, attempted to relieve the pain of the sergeant, who had broken his shoulder in his fall from the platform, and then left two men to watch the prisoners. From above his head there came the steady thud of the hammers driving the spikes home, and he joined the rest of his force — the Americans had suffered not a casualty — and looked along the rough roadway leading to Nassau. The town was not more than a mile distant, and had certainly been awakened. Someone had fired a rocket into the air, no doubt to alert the shipping in the harbour, and on the south easterly breeze he almost thought he could hear the sound of a bugle, as the garrison was called to arms. They would know what had happened, and would seek to redress the situation as rapidly as possible. All now depended on how fast the squadron could make sail and gain the harbour.

  He walked up and down, recharging his pistol, slapping his thigh, watching the trees change from indistinguishable shadows to sharply etched outlines, and listened to the tramp of feet and the occasional jingle of equipment.

  ‘They’re coming,’ someone muttered.

  ‘Aye, well,’ Harry said. ‘Here we are, and here we stay.’ Because the redcoats would be able to remove the spikes, were they allowed the time to do so. But of course the seamen had little chance against regulars, especially if, as he did not doubt would be the case, they were outnumbered. He wondered he was not afraid. In fact he was, but not of the coming action which would in all probability involve his death; his fear was of not succeeding in his mission to open that entrance until the fleet got through.

  ‘Halt!’ came a call, clear to the waiting men, and Harry peered down the road at the officer riding a horse, and behind him, at not less than sixty soldiers in column. They had to be nearly the entire garrison, he was sure. And they had their bayonets fixed, a sight which was causing some restlessness amongst his men.

  ‘Steady, boys,’ he muttered. ‘Steady …’

  ‘There they come!’ cried the carpenter, still on the platform.

  Harry turned his head, looked at the six ships, in line ahead, rounding the western end of Hog Island and making for the passage, their flags flying and their gunports opened. ‘Hurrah!’ he shouted.

  The officer commanding the soldiers had seen them too. ‘Back,’ he shouted. ‘Back to Nassau.’

  The carpenter jumped down to stand beside Harry. ‘They’ll not make it,’ he remarked. ‘Not in time.’

  *

  ‘Lieutenant McGann, I commend you,’ Ezek Hopkins said, shaking Harry’s hand. ‘Be sure your exploit will be entered in the log. A famous victory. Oh, indeed, a famous victory. And accomplished without the loss of a man.’

  Paul Jones also shook Harry’s hand, but looked less ebullient. ‘A famous victory,’ he muttered. ‘An empty harbour, a derelict town?’

  So it seemed. The American fleet had sailed in by the western entrance to the harbour, and the several ships at anchor had promptly sailed out by the eastern, clearly possessing local knowledge of the passages through the reef. The Americans had not followed, both because they had no such knowledge, and because the eastern fort, Montagu, was still in the hands of British soldiers. On the other hand, they had come to capture Nassau, not shipping, and this they seemed to have accomplished with great ease. The seamen had been landed, and Fort Fincastle had been rushed, long before the lieutenant commanding the garrison had been able to regain the town, and thus the redcoats had been left with no option other than surrender. If the Americans could now obtain a large supply of powder and ball to add to their victory, then the campaign would indeed be a triumph. But the captured lieutenant, the only prisoner of importance so far taken — for the citizens of Nassau had, at the first shot, fled into the bush and low hills behind the town, as they had been doing for generations, whenever raided by Spaniards or Frenchmen, or even pirates — was shaking his head. ‘Powder, sir? Ball? Why, sir, we have not sufficient to exercise our own guns.’

  ‘The man is lying,’ John Barry declared.

  The lieutenant glared at him. ‘I am an English officer, sir.’

  ‘Well, then,’ Paul said, ‘we must obtain something. A ransom from the town. You, sir.’ He pointed at the lieutenant. ‘Detail one of your people to inform the inhabitants that we demand the payment of thirty thousand English pounds, or we will burn their houses to the ground.’

  ‘Mr Jones,’ Hopkins protested. ‘This is a fleet of war, representing the Continental Congress. Not a piratical venture.’

  ‘You’d sail away, having accomplished nothing more than the spiking of six cannon?’ Jones demanded.

  ‘You will raise no ransom from the people of Nassau, sir,’ the lieutenant said. ‘There is not that
much money in the whole Bahamas. Besides …’

  ‘We’ll not take your money,’ Hopkins said. ‘Accomplish nothing, you say, Captain Jones?, Why, sir, we’ll hold the port. Aye, that’s what we’ll do. We’ll garrison the port, and use it as a sally into the very side of the British.’

  ‘You will take possession of a British colony, sir?’ Barry inquired.

  ‘For God’s sake,’ Jones shouted. ‘Are we not holding thirteen British colonies of our own? Garrison the port and deny it to the British. Now there is a brilliant concept. Aye, we can yet accomplish something worthwhile. That’ll divert their strength. They’ll seek to regain Nassau. Oh, indeed.’

  He was, as usual, being carried away by his own enthusiasm. Harry could not for the life of him see why the British should be anxious to regain Nassau, which was of no importance to them at all, or how, if they did decide to reclaim their property, they were going to be prevented from doing so with the meagre resources at the Americans’ command. But before he could offer an opinion the English lieutenant had cleared his throat. ‘Ahem, gentlemen. I doubt that is a practicable proposition. I was about to say that rather than pay a ransom the people of Nassau will put their faith in the force now marching upon you.’

  ‘Force, sir? Marching upon us? What force?’ Hopkins demanded.

  ‘Why, sir, you do not imagine that you have encountered and bested the garrison? Or even a part of it? My men were but a guard. Colonel Brian and the main force have been on manoeuvres over on the south side of the island. I have sent a messenger to acquaint the Colonel with the situation here, and he is undoubtedly on the march now.’

  Hopkins stared at him. ‘With how many men?’

  ‘Ah, sir … there will have been some sickness, I fear,’ the lieutenant said dolefully. ‘And perhaps injury … He left here with seven hundred and fifty men three days ago, but I doubt there will be more than seven hundred at present fit to bear arms.’

  ‘Seven hundred regulars?’ Hopkins whispered, his face ashen; the combined crews of his six ships did not muster more than half that number.

  ‘Oh, regulars, sir. And twelve pieces of cannon. Of course, I doubt they will have been able to contact the frigate …’

  ‘Frigate?’ Hopkins gasped.

  ‘She was off the south coast of New Providence when the exercise commenced, three days ago. It was all part of the manoeuvre, you understand. Where she is now, I have no idea. But I understood it to be her intention to victual in Nassau before returning to New York. Why, gentlemen, she could come through that channel at any moment.’

  ‘By God,’ Hopkins snapped, rising to his feet. ‘We have entered a trap. Make haste. We must evacuate the town.’

  ‘On this man’s say so?’ Jones cried. ‘How do we know he is not lying? By God, sir, I say that he is.’

  ‘Were you a gentlemen, sir,’ the lieutenant said, ‘I would see you down the barrel of a pistol.’

  ‘And were you not a liar, sir, I would slice that head from your shoulders,’ Paul shouted.

  ‘Ah, cease your quarrelling,’ Hopkins said. ‘I cannot afford to take the risk that he might be telling the truth. I could lose my entire command.’

  ‘You will lose your command, if you turn tail and run from shadows,’ Jones bellowed. ‘I will see to that.’

  ‘Beware, Captain Jones, lest I put you under arrest for insubordination.’

  ‘You are welcome, sir,’ Paul said. ‘But for God’s sake, at least fire the town before leaving. Do something.’

  ‘I am not a pirate, sir,’ Hopkins insisted.

  ‘Then I wish my dissent entered in the log, sir,’ Jones said. ‘Indeed, my disgust with the way this whole operation has been mismanaged, beginning with the decision to attack this place rather than the Chesapeake. The only man of this fleet who has accomplished anything worthy of the glorious flag beneath which we now sail has been Fighting Harry McGann. The rest of us are a disgrace to our country.’

  Hopkins squared his shoulders. ‘Your dissent will be entered in the log, Captain Jones,’ he said. ‘As will my opinion of your insubordination. And now, gentlemen, my orders are that we rejoin our ships and evacuate this trap as rapidly as possible, else we are dead men.’

  *

  John Paul Jones entered the Philadelphia tavern, stood in the doorway, his hand resting on the hilt of the sword while he looked right and left through the smoke-filled haze. The tap room was crowded, the atmosphere genial. The rebellion might slowly be taking on every aspect of a total disaster, but here on the Philadelphia waterfront, where the Delaware River bubbled past the docks on its way to Cape May and the Atlantic Ocean, life went on very much as normal. There was hardly a suggestion that the town was aware that it had become the centre of the colonial government, even if the apparently perpetual session of Congress which had commenced two years before had brought considerable prosperity to the community.

  It took Paul several minutes to discern the huge figure he sought, then he hurried across the room.

  ‘Well?’ Harry asked, handing him a mug of ale.

  ‘Censured, but retained in command for the time being,’ Paul said, his face grim.

  ‘Well, there is a relief,’ Harry said. The debate over the Bahamian fiasco had lasted for months, with charge and counter charge being levelled, while the squadron had remained at anchor in the river and accomplished nothing.

  ‘You think so?’ Paul demanded, and drank deeply. ‘The man is a disaster and should have been cashiered.’

  Harry frowned. ‘Of whom are we speaking?’

  ‘Why, Hopkins, of course.’

  ‘By God, I had supposed you were reporting on your own fate.’

  ‘Me?’ Paul Jones laughed. ‘Oh, I have been censured too, for speaking ill of our commanding officer. And then privately congratulated. There was no frigate, of course. There were no men on that island, beyond those we captured, and the garrison of Fort Montagu, which has been reported as twelve men. Oh, we were properly hoodwinked. That lieutenant was the most accomplished liar I have ever met.’

  ‘And also a bold and resourceful man,’ Harry pointed out. ‘Who deserves a medal for saving the town.’

  ‘I will not argue with that. Ah, well, if the affair serves to reveal Hopkins’ true worth, as I hope it has done, then our humiliation was worth it.’

  ‘Meanwhile, we sit around the Philadelphia taverns and rot,’ Harry said angrily, pushing his tankard across the counter to be refilled by the buxom barmaid.

  ‘Maybe. It is a situation Congress means to remedy. Harry …’ he lowered his voice. ‘They are to build ships. Frigates. Think of it, man. An American frigate. And not just one. As many as can be afforded. But one to start with. She will be called Ranger. Now tell me, Harry, is that not a name to conjure with? It tells its purpose, to range the oceans and bring death and destruction to the British.’

  ‘An American frigate,’ Harry said, ‘There is a happy sound.’ He glanced at his friend. ‘Who will command?’

  Jones gazed at him, face solemn. ‘Now, who would you suppose they might choose? Not Hopkins, to be sure.’

  ‘Well … I imagine Biddle would be next in line.’

  ‘That boy? Who is the most experienced seaman these colonies possess?’ Now he was smiling.

  ‘You! John Paul …’ he seized the Scotsman’s hands. ‘I do so heartily congratulate you.’

  ‘I congratulate myself. I can hardly believe it. But you … are you not interested in your future career? The only man to have returned from Nassau with any positive credit attached to his name?’

  ‘I am interested,’ Harry acknowledged, heart pounding.

  ‘Well, firstly you are confirmed as First Lieutenant. I am made Captain. I sought a captaincy for you also but they would not agree to more than one step at a time. Although a captaincy is promised. And a command. So you have a decision to make.’

  Harry waited.

  ‘As I have said,’ Jones went on, ‘it is the intention to build as many frigates a
s can be afforded, manned, and armed. But this will of course take time. Why, it is estimated that even Ranger cannot be made ready for sea in under a year.’

  ‘A year?’ Harry cried. ‘Will we still be under arms, in a year? Will we still be alive?’

  ‘Hush,’ Jones admonished. ‘’Tis a confidential matter. As to being alive, we have kept so for the past year, have we not?’

  ‘Aye, the first flush of rebellion maybe, but a year of little accomplishment.’

  ‘Agreed, but a year in which opinions have hardened, rather than weakened. Have you met Richard Lee?’

  Harry frowned. ‘I think so, if he is the Richard Lee from Virginia. I met him in your house.’

  ‘My house,’ Paul mused. ‘I wonder if I shall ever tread those floors again? Ever see the widow Jones again, dear old soul. Yes, by God, I will.’Tis of that victory I speak. I happen to know, in confidence, that it is Lee’s purpose to ask Congress to make a declaration of independence.’

  Harry’s frown deepened. ‘Independence? Us?’

  ‘The thirteen colonies. And why not? That will make us a nation, and Britain will have to deal with us as such. And are we not already a nation?’

  ‘Presuming the British will recognise such a declaration.’

  ‘That matters nothing. The French will recognise it. And others, too. Oh, it will change the entire situation. Which is already changing. There is a rumour that General Howe means to evacuate Boston. Washington draws too tight a noose around him, even without any assistance from our gallant fleet.’

  ‘You do not mean Howe will take his people back to England?’

  Paul gave one of his savage smiles. ‘No, I do not think he is likely to be that accommodating. It is said he means to make New York the base of his operations; there are more Tories in New York than in Boston, that is certain. But I am digressing. If things are happening, and in our favour, we have still a long way to go. And you have a longer way than most, to your own command. Biddle and Barry are before you, and there are others. You will get it, Harry, never fear. But in time. Until then … I have been authorised to invite you to sail with me, as First Officer of the Ranger.9

 

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