HMS RESOLVE: A John Phillips Novel

by Richard Testrake

  For a week they cruised, seeing nothing but small craft that immediately ducked into whatever shallow cove or fishing port they could make. Resolve did encounter two fishing boats, their crews too occupied with pulling their nets to be looking for danger. The French fishermen’s only difficulty though, was having their catch confiscated but paid for with British shillings.

  The boat crews had nothing to say about military or naval matters and they were released, each with a pint of Royal Navy rum as a gift.

  Perhaps this brought them luck, since the next day, early in the afternoon watch, the maintop lookout reported a sail off the port bow. Resolve was put on course to intercept, but for a time Phillips thought they would lose her. The quarry’s lookout must have been asleep, since she sailed right by a port defended by a battery of guns. When Resolve drew too near to ignore any longer, she tried to go about, but the British frigate came up from behind and fired her forward starboard eighteen pounder.

  The brig, of about 300 tons burden gave up and the big frigate come alongside. The brig only had a couple of neglected four pound popguns, with not enough crew to man them. Mister Baker went aboard with a boat’s crew and a file of Marines. The Susanne Celeste was heavily laden with a cargo of cast iron gun barrels, being shipped from a foundry to the port of Toulon.

  The brig herself was in excellent condition, so Phillips decided to send her home. His cruise was about to expire, so he thought he could spare a few men and an officer to get her Gibraltar.

  After condemnation by the prize court, the brig and guns would be sold. The French made guns would not likely be put into service with the Royal Navy, but they might be purchased by ship owners to serve as armament in cargo vessels. Or, they might be melted down and re-cast to Navy standards.

  He left Baker in command of the Celeste, but now had a recurring problem back on Resolve. He needed another deck officer and was fast running out of midshipmen, old enough and experienced enough to take the deck of a warship.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Phillips had not intended to promote his son. He thought the lad should have a few more years training before being given added responsibility. However, try as he might, he could not find a better person to take the deck. He went over what he knew of the individual seamen, hoping to find one who had served as a mate on a trading craft, but no luck there.

  Finally, he called for Mister Scott, the first officer and Mister Andrews, the master and told them what he was about. Neither had a better idea, so Mister Midshipman Phillips was called to the quarterdeck and informed he was now Acting Lieutenant Phillips and the new third officer.

  “Mister Phillips”, his father said, “you will understand this acting promotion will never be confirmed. You are too young and you don’t have the necessary sea time. The fact that I am your father will probably count against you. However, this will be a good chance for you to gain experience and training. Perhaps, the next time you are granted an acting commission, it will be confirmed.”

  Young Phillips nodded gravely, as if he had already known this. He did ask, “Sir, shall I continue to carry my dirk, or must I buy a sword?”

  This was a puzzler. It would seem a waste to spend good guineas purchasing a blade the lad would be unable to wear once he reverted to midshipman rank. However, a sword was a badge of rank and in the unlikely event of hand to hand combat, would be a much better weapon than a midshipman’s dirk.

  Phillips still wore the old sword he had bought in a pawnshop, back at the end of the American War. However, he did have two swords in his quarters he had appropriated from enemy officers who had surrendered to him. Mapes, his servant, had lately been spending most of his time polishing the things.

  “Mapes, bring me those two blades you spend your time shining!”

  They were both expensive and deadly weapons. One seemed almost to be too delicate for Phillips taste. He suspected it had once been a court sword carried by some dandy who had lost his head during the Terror. The other however, while it too was a finely made weapon, also seemed to be much sturdier, perhaps capable of holding its own in a shipboard melee. He handed the sword to his son and asked him to try a few passes with it.

  Phillips had spent a pretty penny on fencing lesson for Timothy before he had entered the service. Since entering the Royal Navy, various officers had contributed their skill and knowledge. Lately, Captain Basel had been doing the instructing.

  Young Phillips demonstrated his skill with the weapon and his father decided. “Son, you may wear this weapon while you are serving as acting lieutenant. Just as soon as you are relieved by an appropriate officer, you must return the sword to me. At the time you are confirmed as a naval lieutenant, I will present the sword to you as my gift.”

  The other officers kept an eye on the new deck officer. The men, as was usual when a new officer took over a watch, would try their little tricks on him. The new acting lieutenant by now had learned all the tricks. As a midshipman, he had little recourse when the hands would try him on. He had weapons now. Many of the tricks had already been played on him before. After several of the men found their inappropriate antics would cost them extra hours at the pumps, or perhaps their daily pint of wine, they found it better to treat the lad with respect.

  The warship returned to the rendezvous position a day early, but the waters were empty. Resolve patrolled back and forth another day and HMS Shark was sighted. Mister Haslet was still commanding her and Admiral Collingwood had confirmed his acting rank. Lieutenant Haslet came aboard Resolve personally bearing the mail bag.

  Phillips invited Haslet into his cabin with Mister Scott. He congratulated the new captain on his promotion and wanted all the details. “I should tell you now, Mister Haslet that I thought surely another candidate with more influence would be found to assume command of Shark.”

  “I thought so, too, Captain. A mid on the Ocean was being groomed for his lieutenancy. He had taken his boards before and had failed. His father was an important member of Lords and was putting pressure on Admiral Collingwood to promote him. Ocean’s captain had the master and one of the more intelligent of the ship’s officer’s tutoring him, so he could not help passing. The mid with the important parent had been all but been promised the Shark.”

  “Since the captain did not want it to look as though the proceedings were truly rigged, I was allowed to take the boards, along with a few mids from other ships. Three of us passed, the intended commander of Shark did not. Since I had the most sea time, I was given command. I hear a complaint was sent to Collingwood, but he seems to have ignored it.”

  “Sometimes the Navy does get things right Captain Haslet. In the meantime, is there anything official for me in that mailbag?”

  “Oh pardon me, sir!” Hazlet pulled a packet wrapped in sailcloth from the pouch and laid it on the desk.

  A quick perusal of the paper led him to re-read it again, He looked up and addressed Lieutenant Haslet. “Congratulations again on your promotion and appointment, Captain Haslet. If you would hand the mail to Mister Scott, I am sure he will see that it is properly distributed.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  Haslet went out the entry port and was pulled back to Shark in his gig. Phillips then turned to Scott. “Mister Scott, we have orders to report to Admiral Cotton off the mouth of the Tagus. These orders are secret and are not to be bandied about.”

  “As I understand, the situation is as follows. The Portuguese Army seems to have let their service decline. So much so that when the French and Spanish Armies marched in, there was little to stop them.

  “Many of the people we would have expected to lead a revolt in Portugal have left for Brazil with the royal family. However, the common folk were outraged by their treatment from the invaders and many of them rose. Then, the French seized the Spanish king and crown prince earlier this year. All of Spain then erupted! The whole Iberian Peninsula is now in revolt.”

  “Admiral Sidney Smith was sent to Lisbon last year to prevent the French from seizi
ng the Portuguese fleet. He succeeded in convincing the Prince Regent to order that fleet to sail to Brazil, escorting the Royal Family and those supporters who wished to travel with them.”

  “Sir Sidney was ordered back home, but Admiral Cotton had been commanding some ships patrolling the seas off the mouth of the Tagus River. With the French invasion, he began supporting those Portuguese units near Lisbon and preparing the way for General Arthur Wellesley’s incursion with British troops.”

  “We are ordered to join Admiral Cotton and assist his efforts and safeguard the General’s supply ships from French warships and privateers.”

  Coming in sight of the British line of battle ships off the Portuguese coast, Resolve was ordered to fall in astern of the flag and her captain ordered to come on board. Phillips was greeted by the stamp and clash of the flagship’s Royal Marines and the cordial greeting of the flag captain of HMS Hibernia.

  Ushered into the great cabin, he reported to Sir Charles Cotton. Over wine and cheese, he listened to the vice admiral expound on the foolish transfer of the defeated French army under the command of Jean-Androche Junot back to France by the Royal Navy, under the terms of the Convention of Sintra.

  General Arthur Wellesley had thoroughly defeated Junot at Vimeiro and cut his Army from retreat. Wellesley, however had been superseded from command and General Sir Hew Dalrymple elected to give Junot most generous terms and allow his army transportation back to France in British bottoms.

  Wellesley and Dalrymple were both called back to Britain to answer questions and Vice Admiral Cotton’s fleet remained off the mouth of the Tagus River to blockade some remaining Russian ships that remained in harbor.

  “One task I have for you, Captain Phillips, is to see what you can do with some small craft the French have been sending to gather intelligence. These are fast, lightly armed vessels under the French national flag. Their normal method is to sail south at night, laying up in daylight hours in shallow, defended harbors where our frigates have a difficult time reaching them.”

  “Recently, the French have lost control of most of these secure retreats, but they do have a foothold on an uninhabited island up the coast. There is a shallow, narrow inlet on the eastern side, which will harbor small craft in most weather. Reports from Portuguese fishermen say they have four guns mounted, eight pounders we think.”

  The Admiral reached across the desk and took the pouch of documents that Phillips had brought, breaking the seal and cutting the cords with his pen knife. Among the papers were Phillips’ written orders, statements of condition and the like.

  After a few moments of silence, Admiral Cotton remarked, “I see you have had to fill some officer vacancies with midshipmen. As it happens we have a young lieutenant aboard who needs to gain some practical experience aboard a frigate. He is my sister’s boy who wants him to have a command of his own. It is still early days for that, but a spell as a ship’s officer will serve him well.”

  “Yes sir; may I inquire what the young man has been doing since he was commissioned?” wondered Phillips.

  “Well, he has been my aide for much of that time and I am afraid he has not gained much experience at that task. Feel free to use him as you would any other young officer. I will likely be called back home shortly, so you will not have to be concerned about my looking over your shoulder.”

  The admiral added, “You should know, Mister Hollingsworth is a poor small boat handler. My fault there. He was promoted too fast and then not given the training he needed.”

  *****

  Normally, Phillips would have given Hollingsworth the command of the launch for the pull over to Resolve, but if there were any mistakes to be made, he thought it better to wait until they were away from the rest of the fleet.

  Back on Resolve, he took Mister Andrews into his quarters and they examined the chart together. The island the Admiral had mentioned did not seem to have a name, at least on their chart, but the tiny inlet on its east coast was portrayed.

  With the ship put to the wind and on course to the island, Phillips called his son into the great cabin. He introduced him to Hollingsworth as the new second lieutenant. Mister Goodyer would go down the ladder to the position of acting third officer. Being junior to the others, young Mister Phillips would be turfed out of the wardroom and take up his hammock in the gunroom.

  Timothy was philosophical about it and took the demotion without comment. He had known before that this was just a trial and he would likely go back to midshipman status soon.

  Hollingsworth impressed not a soul on board ship. He had obviously used his time as an officer for supervising the polishing of silver and the opening of wine bottles. He could toast the King properly at wardroom meals, but had no idea how to win the ship’s anchor when it had been time to sail.

  A full day after leaving the fleet on the journey to their destination. Mister Andrews changed course to the east a trifle, allowing the frigate to pass between the island and the mainland. Andrews had the lead going, as this was shoal water and he had no idea of how accurate his chart was.

  The ship barely making steerage way through the channel, every glass on deck was aimed at the island. Mister Goodyer was in the maintop with Phillip’s own glass, the best telescope on board. When he came down, he reported there was smoke coming from a hut at the head of the inlet. Further, he thought he could see a few gun emplacements, although stone rubble had been piled in front of the suspected positions and it was hard to be certain.

  Goodyer gave an intelligent synopsis of his observations to Phillips. The captain asked him whether, in his opinion, it would be practical for the ship to bombard the battery and put the guns out of commission by that means.

  The acting officer answered, “I just don’t know, sir. The inlet is very narrow and we would have only a short time to fire on the guns. Then, it looks to me as though the French have piled boulders around the guns, with rubble over that. There is only a narrow slot where the gun’s muzzle could protrude and that is the only time a hit could be made.”

  Phillips thought. “Very well, we must find another option. Thank you for your efforts, Mister Goodyer.”

  Phillips called the sailing master over. ”Mister Andrews, I propose we continue sailing northerly up the coast, as if we have seen nothing unremarkable. We will reverse course at a time that will permit us to approach the seaward side of the island about dawn tomorrow. I want to see what things look like there.”

  At dawn the next day, the island was just visible in the morning haze. Mister Scott called away a landing party of seamen and Marines to approach the shore and see if there was a practical landing site. Sergeant Pike was to command the dozen Marines going ashore. He would have liked to have Hollingsworth to go on the landing party to gain experience, but he was superior in rank to Goodyer and Pike. He definitely did not want to trust the command to someone with as little training as the new second officer.

  The launch and cutter set out in the haze. Just as the sun started burning it off, the boats reached shore and discharged the landing party. The boats were pulled up as far as they could go on a rising tide and were covered with brush. A half dozen boat keepers remained behind while the rest of the party began scaling an impressive rocky rise.

  Nothing more of the party was seen for the remainder of the day. With the sea and weather beginning to become too boisterous, Phillips signaled the boat keeper ashore that he had to remove the ship, but would return a day later.

  As they sailed past the inlet at midafternoon on the next day, the weather in the lee of the island had improved. Phillips took a chance and sailed closer to shore than he had before. The seaman in the tops reported a flag flying from a mast by the battery.

  Hollingsworth was ordered to get up to the maintop and report what he saw with his glass. When he descended, he reported two flags, British over French. After discussing the sighting with Hollingsworth, he ordered him into the longboat with more Marines and an armed boat crew. Captain Basel of the Marines w
ent along and would take command when the boat touched the shore.

  One of the boat’s crew members was Midshipman Phillips, with a selection of signal flags. A boat carronade had been mounted in the longboat and the men bent to their oars. Nearing shore, the boat stood off for a few minutes then dropped the boat’s anchor near what appeared to be a floating causeway.

  A few minutes later, both British and French flags were lowered from the flagstaff and signal flags rose. Mister Scott, slowly read them off, referring to the signal book frequently. “Port in British hands”, the first officer read off. “Garrison captured. No casualties.”

  Phillips asked Mister Scott to reply, “Send Officer”.

  A few minutes later, a strange launch, probably belonging to the former garrison set out for the ship. Mister Hollingsworth commanded the launch, crewed by seamen unknown to any of the ship’s crew. After reporting. Hollingsworth said they were from several British merchant ships’ crew captured by French privateers and imprisoned on the island. He said there were over fifty such seamen there. Some were suffering from inadequate food and others had incapacitating wounds, but most could be considered available for duty.

  Phillips ordered the men below where they were to be the first fed the noon meal. Then he had Hollingsworth come into his quarters with Lieutenant Scott, where he read the report that Captain Basel had sent.

  It seemed a difficult crossing of the central rugged peaks of the island’s center had been accomplished with only minor scrapes and bruises. They had come down behind the battery when the garrison was lined up to receive their food ration. The Royal Marines charged with fixed bayonets while the seamen followed with their cutlasses. The French troops immediately broke and ran to the harbor, where they all tried to get into the single launch moored there.