HMS RESOLVE: A John Phillips Novel

by Richard Testrake

  “Now then, Captain Phillips, what is the status of your ship?”

  “Sir, we have fired away our top tier of powder and our eighteen pounder shot supply is rather low. I can give you a more exact inventory shortly.”

  “Have you any figures concerning your little fleet, Captain?”

  “Sir Charles, thus far the various people commanding the prizes are busy keeping them afloat. I have not bothered them yet with making reports.”

  “My flag captain is over in Sauvage right now. When he returns, I will have a better idea of her state. I would like to send you with the seaworthy prizes into Portsmouth.”

  As they were talking, they heard one of the junior midshipmen hail a boat in his high pitched voice. The reply was ‘Droits du Citoyen’.

  “Sir Charles that would be my son hooking on right now. He should be able to tell us something of the status of the brig and her prize.”

  Young Phillips, after being greeted by his former gunroom mate, Mister Goodyer, came aft and doffed his hat to Sir Charles and his father.

  Admiral Cotton expressed his satisfaction with young Phillip’s activities and asked him to describe the battle. The lad went through it from beginning to end, with Sir Charles occasionally nodding his head.

  “Young man, I told your father I will buy your brig into the fleet and retain you in the command. By rights, the commander of a brig should be a lieutenant, but I have explained to your father why that would be inadvisable. However, you will be retained as a master’s mate and I expect you will gain your commission when you age a little more and get more sea time.”

  “Now then, what is the status of your brig? Would she likely make Plymouth if I send her there?”

  “Yes Sir Charles, with no problem. The sloop may have some difficulty. She was rather beaten about when we took her. My people are now trying to rig her a foremast, after we shot the old one down.”

  “Very well, I shall ask some of my people to visit her to see what we can do to help. We may decide to tow her to Lisbon, if repairs will take too long.”

  The little convoy of Resolve, her prize frigate Sauvage with the little brig Droits du Citoyen made their way up the coast on the way to Portsmouth without incident. Several prosperous looking potential prizes were seen, but Phillips senior decided enough was enough. He did not have men enough to spare to man yet another prize.

  Upon reaching port, Sauvage went into the dockyard right away, to have some bad leaks in her hull tended to. Phillips senior was ordered to report to the port admiral to discuss repairs for all three vessels. Admiral Tyler thought he could have Resolve back to sea within a few weeks. The port admiral wondered how he had managed to get his son appointed to command the brig.

  Phillips explained how matters had evolved and Admiral Cotton’s satisfaction with the ability of Phillips, junior.

  “You do understand Captain, your son will not be sailing in company with your frigate. He must stand on his own now, sink or swim.”

  Of course, Phillips had known he must part company with his son sooner or later. He had not expected it to be this soon. He had his cox’n take him out to the brig. The little vessel’s crew had been working double tides to get the brig ready to sail and she shined like a new penny.

  The pair had a good afternoon, discussing their respective ships and their various problems. Phillips junior was destined for the Baltic, delivering dispatches to Admiral Saumarez. He expected to sail as soon as the pouches were brought aboard.

  Phillips senior had a few weeks in hand while the ship was being put in order. The dockyard had decided to remove the strongroom installed earlier and that itself would take at least a week. He thought he might coach out to the Essex estate to visit his daughter.

  When they parted, each knew it could well be years before they met again.

  Phillips took the coach to London to look at the house there, before going on to the Essex estate. He didn’t know why he kept the place up, since it was such a money pit, requiring vast sums every quarter to pay for repairs and salaries for the help. The help greeted him with enthusiasm, with Cook and his housekeeper telling him he had missed his estranged wife Sarah by just a few days. Apparently she had been living in the house in recent months, but had since left to go to the other home in Essex.

  Phillips wondered about all of this. At last report, Sarah had been living with a bankrupt gambler. Apparently that episode of her life was over. He had no idea of what the servants here knew about her. “Probably”, he thought, “quite a bit.”

  Inspecting the stable, he found the horses long gone, but his good coach was still present.

  There was no longer a stable hand, but the ancient gardener had a young grandson who could be relied upon to deliver a note. He sent the boy to the livery barn requesting they supply him with a driver and team to take him to his Essex estate.

  The livery manager rode over that afternoon and the requirements and costs were worked out. It was decided that Phillips might as well buy a team from the livery. If the horses did not perform to expectations on the trip, they could be replaced by animals that could.

  Phillips left London the next morning. The driver had apparently spent half the night polishing anything on the coach that would take a shine. It was late when the coach pulled into the long drive of his country home. Much of the house was dark, but lights glowed in the kitchen, so he went to that entrance and pounded on the door.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Henry the groom, rather ancient now, came to the door with a huge horse pistol. It took him a second to recognize his master and he quickly put down the weapon. The remainder of the people in the kitchen, all women of various ages, were unfamiliar to him.

  “What happened to everyone?” he asked Henry.

  “Well sir, it’s like this. When the Missus came back, she let everyone go but me and hired new ones. The old housekeeper had told her she couldn’t come back in the house, so the Missus went to the magistrate. He said she could and told her the house was in her hands with you gone to the war, so she just fired everybody but me.”

  “Do you know where my daughter is?”

  “Yes sir, Miss Abigail got mad when the servants were let go, so she came out to the barn, had me saddle her mare and rode off to Charlotte Norris’ place.”

  Charlotte was an old friend he had known since he had originally purchased the estate. She was a wealthy woman in her own right, who did not suffer fools gladly. She cared not a fig about other’s opinions and had had a child by Mister Peabody, a servant of hers, to whom she was not married. Charlotte being both an intelligent and powerful woman, Phillips was not at all shy about asking her for advice, especially concerning his own wayward wife.

  Phillips knew that he had just landed in another mess. How he was going to emerge from it was a mystery.

  One of the maids offered to make a room ready for him. Phillips told her that would not be necessary, he would sleep in the billiard room. He did not play billiards, but a few years ago, faced with an influx of guests, he had put a bed in the room. Hopefully it was still there.

  The bed was there, but it was stripped bare, with no bedding. He knew a closet in the main bedroom held all manner of bedding. He picked up a candleholder from the mantle and lit it from the light burning in the hall.

  Going to the bedroom he had shared with his wife before their troubles, he opened the door and went inside. A single candle was burning and he saw his wife asleep in the huge bed. He quietly crept over to the closet and began removing what he needed. It was awkward trying to carry blankets as well as a lit candle and he inadvertently made a noise. Sarah made a little squawking noise, then a little shriek as she woke and saw him. He held the candle up so she could see his face and she calmed.

  “John, I didn’t know it was you. You should have let us know you were coming.”

  “Sarah, I had no idea you were here. I thought you were gone for good.”

  “Oh, I was just off visiting friends. I was coming
back,”

  “I know you were visiting friends. There was the cavalry officer you were living with, then you went into keeping with a bankrupt gambler. Were there others?”

  “John, please don’t quarrel with me. Why don’t you come to bed?”

  “Well, first I have to make a bed.” He left carrying the bedclothes he had come in for.

  Next morning, before the rest of the house wakened, he went to the stable and looked at the horses. One horse remembered him from better days and nickered. Looking around, he found some carrots that Henry kept to treat the horses. He gave the animal a carrot and rubbed his neck while the gelding crunched it.

  .He threw a saddle on the horse and tightened the girth. Slipping on a bridle and adjusting the stirrups, he was now ready to go. It had been a while since he had been on a horse and he was glad when they arrived at Charlotte’s back door.

  A man Phillips had sailed with before came to the door and greeted his former captain cautiously. “Sir, I am very happy to see you again.”

  This was Peabody, one of the most capable men Phillips knew. He could accomplish almost anything he set his mind to. He was now Charlotte’s factotum, lover and father of her child. Now, he had the task of deciding what he should properly tell his former captain about Sarah.

  Phillips made it easy. “I know about Sarah, Peabody. She’s staying at the house. Could I see Charlotte or Abigail?”

  Abigail was his daughter, a little younger than Timothy. Charlotte had offered to care for the girl after her mother left and Timothy went to sea with his father.

  Peabody answered, “The both of them are behind the house in the garden. I’ll send somebody for them.” With a hail that would have easily reached the foretop of a first rate on a stormy night, he called for the maid of all work. The breathless fourteen year old rushed to the door and was dispatched to locate the ladies.

  Charlotte and Abigail both came around the corner of the house. Charlotte chided him. “John, why ever did you not just come on back? You must excuse us now while we get into something decent.”

  Both were in gardening attire and had traces of soil and green vegetation on their clothing. After they had retired, Peabody said, “We might as well go into the smoking room and wait. It will be a month of Sundays before they are ready.”

  Both trimmed the ends from Spanish cigars and fired them up. An urchin of ten or so crept into the room and began tugging on a cord attached to a spring pole. One end of another drive cord with a turn around the axle of a large fan was fastened to the spring pole. The other end was fastened to a ring bolt in the floor. The fan, built into an outside window, rotated as the spring pole was pulled. The fan, if it did not exhaust all of the smoke to the outside, at least mixed it with the ambient air.

  Peabody explained, “This is an invention of Charlotte’s. She hates the smell of cigar smoke and had this thing put in so I could smoke in the house. Joseph here, is an orphan that Charlotte retrieved from the town council. This is his main job, pulling on that cord. The rest of the time, he is a playmate for Abigail and attends classes with her from the tutor, an un-beneficed young churchman awaiting a position from the bishop.”

  Peabody avoided any mention of Phillip’s wife Sarah, but was very interested in the exploits of the son, Timothy. Eventually, Charlotte came to the smoking room door and insisted he put that stinking rope out and come into the parlor with her and Abigail.

  Both ladies were visions. Abigail was truly blossoming and was well on the way to womanhood. Charlotte too, was a beautiful, mature woman and Phillips caught himself taking a second look or two.

  He spent the next hour telling them about Timothy’s exploits and assured them Admiral Cotton himself had given the lad command of a King’s ship; well, a brig anyway. Charlotte protested. “Oh John, he is much too young for that. Surely there was a mistake?”

  Phillips explained how, while he himself had fought a larger French frigate, an enemy schooner came along. He would have been in an awkward position had this vessel been able to get behind him or on his quarter and pounded away, while the big frigate was occupying all of his attention.

  “Timothy came up with his prize brig and fought that schooner to the end.” He explained to the ladies, “A schooner is a fore-and-aft rigged vessel …”

  Abigail cut him off. “Father, we know what a fore-and-aft rigged vessel is. Timothy educated us while he was here before.”

  Phillips went on, “Well, I am as proud of him as a father can be.

  “Father, I can continue staying with Aunt Charlotte, can I not?”

  “You certainly can, my dear, but I hope you will remain in touch with your mother. She has had a difficult life, you know,”

  “Father, I know what she has been doing with those ‘friends’ of hers. I hate what she has done to you.”

  “She seems to be trying, Abigail. We must give her a chance,”

  The conversation switched to more domestic subjects. Abigail mentioning the little mare pony she had ridden since she was a toddler was having joint difficulties and it was painful for her to get around. She hated to ride her anymore.

  Phillips jumped in. “Well, it’s about time we retired her. We shall give her the job of keeping the grass clipped down behind the house. It’s about time we found another mount for this young lady.”

  Charlotte interjected, “Tomorrow is Market Day in the village. It will be strange if there are not several people wishing to sell horses.”

  “It’s settled then, we’ll take the coach and travel in style. You ladies can dazzle all the young swains in town!”

  Charlotte regarded herself as a more expert judge of horseflesh than Phillips and by afternoon the next day, the women had selected a little four year old mare, healthy looking and quiet. Charlotte said, “Abigail will not be riding to the hounds, or racing with the young bucks. This mare will be just what she needs.”

  Phillips was prepared to commission a saddle-maker to make her a fashionable looking side-saddle, but Charlotte would have nothing to do with that idea. She should have a normal saddle, such as boys and men used. “A seamstress I know will make her riding attire she can wear while riding astride.”

  Phillips was out of his depth here. “I thought” he began, then stopped. Charlotte broke in. “You thought it was somehow injurious to a woman’s health to ride astride. Well, you just never your mind about that. Abigail will be just fine riding astride, as well as less apt to falling and breaking bones. You continue to destroy the King’s enemies. I will take care of your young lady’s deportment.”

  Abigail rode the new mare home, while John and Charlotte discussed matters at the Phillip’s estate on the ride home.

  “I do not like Sarah’s discharge of most of our servants. She did that once before at our London town house and it took me a year to make it right with everyone. Would you know where I could find any of those servants?”

  “As a matter of fact John, I do. I hired Mrs. Hodgkin’s on myself. She was your head housekeeper. I found her sobbing in town, she had nowhere to go, so I took her on myself. I would be glad if you could take her back, since I really do not have a position open for her.”

  “When we get back to your home, please tell her she has her job back and she will not be embarrassed again. Perhaps she can help me find the others.”

  The former upstairs maid was found in the village desperately seeking work and Phillips hired her back at once. The coach was almost full when it returned home to the Phillips estate that evening.

  Tension was high when he brought the two re-hired servants into the dining room. Sarah had spent time on her appearance, but was astonished when two women she thought she had banished returned to the house.

  Phillips confronted her and asked that she sit at the table. In front of the two servants, he told her that he had rehired the women and any further problems with their employment should be addressed to him.

  Sarah was indignant! Pointing to Mrs. Hodgkins, she said, “When I ca
me home, this woman said I could not come in. When she refused to allow me in, I went to the magistrate, he allowed me to discharge these women and hire new.”

  “Sarah, we all know the circumstances why you left. I doubt you wish me to recount those. As far as I am concerned, she had every reason to deny you entrance, after you left on your own accord. I myself will allow you to return to the house, but you will treat these women with civility.”

  “But the magistrate told me I could discharge them.”

  “Sarah, I am telling you that you cannot. I will see the magistrate myself and explain matters to him. If you wish to remain in the house, you will treat everyone in it with courtesy!”

  Matters about the house, tense at first, gradually smoothed out. The maid-of-all-work, when located and given her old job back, was at first inclined to be uncivil with Sarah. Phillips put a stop to that. He realized the servants had some legitimate grievances, so to mitigate the problems as best as he could, he gave each of the women a golden guinea. Guineas were becoming hard to come by since the country had gone off the gold standard.

  He told them this should be considered full recompense for any injury done them.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  The post, when it arrived, brought notice HMS Resolve was nearly ready for sea and he should return to take command. Henry was too old to drive the coach to London and back, but Charlotte loaned him her driver, who did the honors. Peabody went part way with him. Charlotte had foreclosed on the property formerly owned by Sarah’s old paramour and placed Peabody in charge as estate manager.

  As they travelled, Peabody talked about his plans for improving the soil fertility and the attendant crop yield. The place had an abandoned brewery on the premises which had once produced a high quality ale. Peabody had plans for planting barley and resuming the brewing operation.

  After dropping Peabody off, Phillips drove on to London, where he visited the Admiralty to find his orders. He found he no longer was expected to wait hours or days in the infamous waiting room. After a mere twenty minute wait, he was called in to see Mister Johnson, with whom he had had dealings before.