HMS Hector: A Charles Mullins Novel (Sea Command Book 6)

by Richard Testrake

  Using oars, the pair got the boat out into the trade route and were spotted by several ships. Most wanted nothing to do with this suspicious looking open boat and steered well clear of her. Eventually, a hired cutter out of Antigua saw her and investigated. The naval lieutenant commanding the cutter took the survivors to English Harbor where they told their story.

  The brig taken by the pirates became well known in the Caribbean. It already had a pair of six-pounders when it was originally captured. More guns were taken from prizes. With added crewmen taken aboard, she became a serious threat to the local trade. The pirates were able to refit at various former French island ports and escaped notice since there were few British officials or forces available to take action.

  Although the ship’s boy that survived sailed on a merchantman home to England, the bosun was still available. After interviewing the man, Mullins signed him aboard Hector as an able seaman. Seth Aikens was familiar with these waters and thought he had recognized one of the pirate’s crew, a renegade Englishman.

  He related, “John Billings, if that is the same man, ran from Tremendous back in ’97. Fearing to be taken up by the Press, he made it to Martinique. When that island was taken, he began sailing on pirate craft.”

  “Aikens, could you testify against this Billings in a court martial, if we manage to take him?”

  “Maybe sir, if I could get a good look at him. On the brig, I didn’t have a good look, it was dark, and I didn’t want him to notice me. We were shipmates once for a year and I can’t say we were good friends. He had a reputation as a thief, but none of us could catch him at it.”

  Mullins wondered, “Aikens, just how did you learn that Billings went to Martinique?”

  “Seamen talk sir. Back on Antiqua, I nattered with some old mates and asked them what they knew of Billings. That is where I found out where he disappeared to. Then too, I understand some of that French lingo. I hung on to that brig’s rudder for hours waiting for them to up anchor and sail.”

  “We kept quiet and I could hear a lot of what they were saying. Some of them were from Martinique, although I couldn’t hear anything of what that Billings, if it was him, had to say.”

  “Very well, Aikens. You have been a great help. Hopefully, we can find this man and you can look him over more carefully.”

  “Sir, you will understand that I would hate to inform on an old shipmate. If we take him on a pirate craft, won’t he be up for the high jump anyway, never mind this business of his running?”

  “Aikens, that will be up to some people ashore who have much more to say than I do. If it can be proved that he is a British seaman who has deserted to the enemy in time of war, he might well receive a little more ceremony during his execution.”

  Hector began her search up the chain of islands, stopping ships and listening to what their crews had to say.

  Off Barbuda, several ships were sighted sailing in convoy but without an escort. Upon identifying a British frigate, the ship Horatio Nelson hauled her wind and waited for Hector. Her master readily came over on Mullins’ request and the two conferred with each other in Mullin’s cabin.

  The ship’s master, David Johnson, told how, on his last voyage, he had been traveling this same track when he found a strange brig off his port beam one morning. The ship was one he had seen before, but the state of her rigging concerned him. The brig’s master that he had known was a particular person who took great care of his brig’s appearance. Now, her rigging was all ahoo, with repairs to the rigging made by knotting, rather than seamanlike splices.

  The Nelson sheered away from this vessel, but the brig gave chase. It was not able to keep up, but before the brig was left behind, she fired a salvo at the ship. One ball came aboard and Nelson’s commander had the very ball on his desk back aboard Nelson.

  He assured Mullins it was a six-pound ball, of apparent British manufacture. Johnson said much of his trade was inter-island cargo and he had difficulty finding a King’s ship to escort him.

  Therefore, when he could recruit other masters to accompany him, he did so, seeking safety in numbers. He did have a thought…

  “My ship is fairly well-armed, with a dozen long twelves aboard. My problem is, I do not have enough crew to both handle the ship and man the guns also. I expect this pirate brig you are pursuing is swarming with men and would have little difficulty taking this ship if she could only get alongside and put some men on-board.”

  “If the pirate had been able to take this ship, I am sure he would have kept her, transferring his crew and guns aboard and using her to take more powerfully armed ships”.

  Chapter Ten

  After leaving the Nelson, Mullins continued his patrol, looking into small island ports suggested by Johnson. Nothing suspicious was seen and he decided to return to English Harbor to see if any more information regarding the pirate had been learned there.

  A day later, the masthead lookout reported an object off their starboard bow. As they neared, the object became a ship’s boat. Four men were aboard, all dead. All of them had been either shot or slashed with edged weapons. Doctor Burns reported the men had likely met their demise within the last few days.

  Mullins and Mister Cummings sat together for hours, poring over the charts, trying to determine where that boat had drifted during that period. Finally, the exasperated sailing master, drew a large circle on the chart and stated, “Sir, that is about the best guess I can come up with.”

  Looking within that area, off to the northern portion of that circle, could be seen a group of three small islands. “Forty years ago, when this chart was made, these islands were uninhabited and only one had water.”

  Mullins considered, “With nothing else to go on, I believe we will pay these islands a visit and see what we find.”

  There was some difficulty in finding the islands since they seemed to be in a different location that where the chart put them. Eventually, after searching the area for several days, one was spotted, then there were the others.

  Since one of the small islands was listed on the chart as having water, Mullins decided to visit that one first. It appeared to be a rocky islet, of no great size. Where the rocky terrain had collected a bit of soil, there was vegetation. A stream ran down from the center of the island to the shore and there was a small sandy beach there.

  Just offshore from the beach the charred bones of a ship were visible. Not wishing to take his ship closer to the island until any hazards had been identified, Mullins hove to, well offshore and sent Mister Sawyer in with the launch to investigate. He specifically ordered Seth Aikens, the former bosun of the brig taken by pirates earlier, to go ashore with the party.

  From his perch in the mizzen top, Mullins used his glass to observe. Sawyer with most of the boat crew scrambled over the wreck, while three others explored the island. Aikens, with his bald head covered with a red bandana to protect it from the sun, was especially visible. At some length, the men finished their inspection and boarded the launch.

  Midshipman Sawyer reported to the quarterdeck, accompanied by Aikens. “Sir, the wreck was a brig that was stripped clean, run aground and set afire. Aikens says it is the Lord Sandwich.”

  Mullins turned to the seaman and asked if he was sure.

  “Yes sir, it is the Lord Sandwich alright. I found her old heaving line and Bob Barnes’ knife.” He held up a filthy length of line, with an intricate, weighted knot at the end. In his other hand he displayed a rusty seaman’s knife.

  “I tied the monkey’s fist on the heaving line myself and Barnes carved his initials on the hilt. It’s the old Lord Sandwich.”

  Midshipman Sawyer broke in again. “Sir, I think they found another ship they liked better than the brig. They took the brig’s guns and some of her gear and burned the rest,”

  Mullins consulted with Drummond and Cummings when they returned to the deck. He ordered a search now be made for the new pirate ship. They knew it would probably be a hopeless task, with no knowledge of what ship
the pirates were now using.

  In the months-long search, Hector visited many of the Caribbean islands and called on San Juan, Puerto Rico twice. Although Spain was now allied with Britain because of imprisonment of the Spanish king and crown prince by Napoleon, the Spanish official that came aboard the frigate on the first visit was none too sure of these English heretics and answered few of their questions.

  On the next visit, weeks later, matters were more civil and Mullins received an invitation to visit the captain-general’s palace for discussion of the piracy problem.

  He was given a splendid greeting, although the interpreter allotted to him hardly knew any more English than Mullins knew of Spanish. Luckily, after he was passed on to the military and naval officials who were to discuss strategy with him, he found one of the naval officers had been taken prisoner and placed on parole in England earlier in the war. Señor Alvarez spoke English fluently and assisted Mullins until Mister Cooper joined the discussions. Cooper was the British consul in San Juan and was familiar with the piracy issue as it affected both British and Spanish concerns. Fluent in the Spanish language, both he and Alvarez were able to discuss the issue intelligently with Mullins.

  Cooper brought some new information to the table. It seemed a Spanish importer in Puerto Rico had been expecting the arrival of a large Spanish merchantman, the Corpus Christi. She never appeared and it was feared she had met misfortune by storm or other disaster. The ship, Corpus Christi, was a former ship of the British East India Company. On a voyage to the Orient, the Indiaman was captured off the African coast by a Spanish frigate earlier in the war and put into service transporting needed trade goods around the Spanish colonies.

  On this most recent voyage she had been transporting a cargo of salt beef from the Argentine when she went missing. Both Cooper and Alvarez feared she had run afoul of the pirate brig that had been terrorizing the area for months. Alvarez explained that, while she had been armed, the missing ship carried a minimal crew that may not have been able to fight off the pirates.

  Continuing the hunt with no results, HMS Hector was finally forced to return to English Harbor to replenish. There, he found every ship that could be pressed into service was diligently searching for the buccaneers. One new piece of information was furnished. HMS Grappler, commanded by Commander Harris, was a brig-sloop escorting a small convoy, that came into contact with a ship near Guadeloupe.

  Commander Harris believed her to be a John Company ship sailing without escort and at first suspected nothing. When she failed to answer signals though, he brought his brig to quarters and approached the ship from her stern, giving her a gun as they neared.

  The stranger, sailing on a light wind under reefed topsails, came around so as to present her beam to Grappler. Not amused, Captain Harris followed her around and the two antagonists were beam to beam a long musket shot apart. At that time, the supposed Indiaman opened her ports and commenced a sudden bombardment of Grappler. While Grappler was severely damaged, the pirate’s gunnery practice was none too accurate and the British brig was able to return the fire with gusto. Her carronades were especially devastating to the pirate, which was forced to sheer off. The chase fled off to the west to escape the intolerable fire from the brig.

  Captain Harris left his convoy and set out after the chase, but a shot had severely wounded the foremast and she could carry little sail. Fearing to leave his convoy alone in these waters, and unable to keep up with the chase, Harris returned to his duty and escorted his flock into port, where the news was spread.

  Necessary stores were put aboard Hector and she resumed the hunt, by herself again. The warships that had concentrated in this area, were once again hunting individually. Mullins sought the ideas of his senior officers and all felt if the pirate had indeed been badly damaged by Grappler’s fire, she was likely seeking a refuge to repair ship.

  Grappler had sighted the ship near Guadeloupe, and Mullins considered this would be a good place to begin their new search. While the island had had a convoluted history, and had been seized by Britain several times over previous decades, at the moment the island was in turmoil.

  When the Revolution broke out late in the last century, many of the wealthy planters declined to support the new Revolutionary government in France and attempted to maintain their loyalty to the Monarchy. When Revolutionary leaders came to Guadeloupe to take command and a slave revolt broke out, the Monarchists eventually asked for British assistance.

  For a time, Britain attempted to resume control over the island. The turmoil continued when the French Republican governor was able to force the surrender of the British troops. This governor freed the island’s slaves who then turned on the Monarchist planters.

  Later, when Bonaparte came to power, he restored the practice of slavery to certain of France’s colonies and sent troops to suppress the slave insurrection. At this moment, the island was divided into spheres of influence of groups with varying interests. Monarchists, republicans, slaves, all had their own priorities and demands. Mullins thought a band of pirates, hunted by the navies of the area, might well find a refuge there to repair the damage that Grappler had caused.

  Cruising slowly around the circumference of the island, it was difficult to see any evidence of a hidden ship. There were myriads of small coves and inlets where the pirate ship could be hidden.

  Mullins spent much time with Cummings, huddled over the sailing masters’ charts. The theory was, the ship could ignore any hiding spots with water depths too shallow to take the former East Indiaman. This plan did not prove acceptable in practice. Their charts were copies of old French and Spanish plots and many of the inlets sighted from the masthead, were not recorded.

  Several times, a landing party took the launch to look closely at a suspected site, but these efforts stopped when a band of armed, refugee slaves hiding in the vegetation opened fire. With two men badly wounded, Mullins decided he would not repeat that idea,

  Matters took a turn, when a battered looking ship’s boat emerged from its hiding hole and came toward Hector. There were only a few oarsmen, but the boat crew soon set a lugsail and came cruising toward them at a good speed. Mullins could not believe this boat with its few crewmembers could offer his frigate any harm, but he did have the gunner prepare a few guns in case these people might need reminders of good behavior.

  The midshipman of the watch hailed them and one of the boats’ passengers answered in barely understandable English that he was Monsieur Cambon, a planter of this region. He stated he was a monarchist, hiding from revolting slaves as well as republican troops. He and his party wished to seek refuge with the British Navy.

  The fugitives were welcomed aboard, where they revealed more of their people were ashore, women and children, as well as a few sick males. Cambon stated the group had possession of a schooner-rigged fishing boat, but none of them knew how to sail her. With the guidance of Cambon, the ship was put about and retraced her course to a heavily forested section of coastline.

  Mullins would have wagered there was no place behind that curtain where a vessel could hide, but Cambron led another landing party in the launch where the encampment was found. The people there were in a sad state, sick and feverish. They did have a schooner moored to trees onshore. Cambron explained the small crew that sailed them here in the schooner were the first ones to fall ill and die. No one else in their band could sail the craft.

  The launch crew boarded the schooner, pumped her out and loaded the refugees. In short order, they sailed her out. Hector took the launch in tow behind.

  The recovered monarchists were put under the care of Doctor Burns who was pessimistic about the survival of several. Monsieur Cambon was healthier than many of the others and Mullins entertained him in his cabin. Mullins placed a selection of wines on his desk for Cambon to choose from. The gentleman wisely passed over those bottles Mullins had paid a pretty price for back in English Harbor, selecting instead one of a few dozen bottles taken from a French merchantman b
y another captain and presented to Mullins.

  Both men took the opportunity to consume a brace of bottles each and both were rather cheerful when their discussion began to explore Hector’s presence in the area. When the topic of the former East Indiaman came up, Cambon knew exactly of what he was referring.

  “Ah yes, the former ship called Lord Chester, taken by the Spaniards and renamed Corpus Christi. Of course now she is under control of Jean Martel, a notorious pirate in these waters. One of your warships gave her quite a beating and she is now here, her useless crew unable to make repairs. At this minute, I think she is aground with some of her old crew watching over her. The remainder have taken a small schooner to sea, hoping to catch a larger ship that they can use to resume their craft. Depending upon their success, they may, or may not return.”

  “Monsieur Cambon, I would be in your debt if you were able to explain where I might find this ‘Corpus Christi’ and her people.”

  “Captain Mullins, I myself am not quite familiar with the location of this ship, but I believe at least one of my people may well be. I will make inquiries and tell you what I learn. I should tell you though, she is moored deep into a narrow inlet and some of her guns have been taken ashore to defend the entrance. I am told it would be a risky business to go in after that ship.”

  One of Cummins’ charts showed the suspected inlet, although the marked depths were much too shallow to take a large Indiaman.

  The schooner that had carried the refugee out to Hector was manned by seamen and Marines with Mister Drummond in command, seconded by Midshipman Sawyer. This schooner would lead the way to a location near the inlet. One of the refugees told them of a path through the forest which would lead them to the ship.

  With her sailing master suspicious of the rocks and shoals of this uncharted bottom, Hector hove to, well off the coast. The schooner continued on her way, guided by the launch, with leadsmen sounding the way. When she was as close to the beach as she dared, the schooner was anchored fore and aft and her crew carried into shore by the launch, leaving a few crewmembers on the schooner. The path was right where they were told and the party prepared for the mission.