It was too late to go to the Admiralty when they arrived in London, so they went to the town house and remained there overnight. Next morning, Wilkins drove them to the Admiralty where the pair went inside. Spencer had to stand against the wall with the other nobodies, but Phillips was offered a seat right away. He noticed Thomas Lynch standing near Spencer. Lynch’s uniform was rather frayed and looked as if it were about time to be replaced. When he had recounted his tales after their initial meeting, he had not mentioned any recent employment.
After only an hours wait, a warder came out and asked Phillips to follow him.
*****
Sir Richard Bickerton, Bt. rose to greet him. “I am very pleased to meet you, Sir John. My predecessor was most complimentary about you. He assured me that he had learned you could handle most any naval duty that was required.”
Bickerton went on, “As it happens, at the moment, I have nothing on my plate that requires a captain of your abilities to handle. However your ship HMS Resolve is now ready and will be released for general blockade duties with the Channel Fleet.”
“If you would like to remain with the ship, we will be happy to have you. If you would prefer to avoid blockade duty, perhaps you may wish to return home to await something more exciting.”
“Sir Richard, I just want to get to sea. If blockade duty is what is on the platter, then I am satisfied.”
“Very well, my secretary will draw up the necessary orders. When you have read them and are satisfied, you may wish to post down to Portsmouth as soon as possible. Have you any people you wish to take with you?”
“I do milord. Midshipman Spencer and Lieutenant Lynch out in the waiting room would be welcomed aboard HMS Resolve. I have a list of other names I could give you if there are any vacancies in the wardroom.”
Bickerton waved off this complication. The port admiral in Portsmouth now is Sir Roger Curtis. He would be the one to discuss this matter of officers with. However, I will tell Dithers to add your two young men to the orders.
Going back to the waiting room to wait for his papers to be drawn up, he saw the porter approach Lynch. Thomas had been avoiding his glances since he had arrived. When he came back, Thomas wore an effusive smile and showed his orders to Phillips.
“Sir John, I am told I must thank you for an appointment to your frigate. I am most grateful for the chance. I understand I am also to find a Midshipman Spencer and deliver him to the ship.”
“No problem, Thomas. You will find Spencer standing against the wall in the rear. He is the one with the new coat. I have a carriage I will ride down in. You may accompany me with Spencer, if you wish.”
The trip would be a long one. It could be travelled faster going post, but much more comfortable in their own carriage, taking their time and resting when necessary. In the event, the part took two full days to arrive. They changed horses halfway there; Wilkins would need to change back on the return trip. Phillips paid the charges in advance so Wilkins would not be tempted by carrying extra funds.
At Portsmouth, they stopped at the George Inn and the party shared the single room that was available. Next morning, Lynch and Spencer left to report to the ship, now moored in the harbor. Phillips gave Thomas money to hire a shore boat to take them out to the ship, rather than having them signal for a ship’s boat. He had no idea how much of a crew was on the frigate, or indeed whether any of the crew could be trusted with a ship’s boat close to shore.
Phillips reported to the port admiral. Sir Roger Curtis had just taken over that position and greeted Phillips with a firm handshake. Curtis told him the crew had been raided several times since his departure and most of the old crew had been drafted aboard other ships.
Mister Hastings, the only officer aboard when Phillips departed, had been offered command of a gun-brig and accepted, so at the moment, the sailing master was in charge. Sir Roger had a list of officers needing ships and he said he would send three lieutenants out immediately.
Phillips protested, “Sir Roger, I have a lieutenant in my party that came down from London with me. Sir Richard Bickerton put him on orders to accompany me. Thomas Lynch has served with me before and I would very much like to have him aboard Resolve.”
Curtis grunted and looked over some lists he had. “Very well, take him on. I will send out two more for you. If either doesn’t suit, let me know as soon as possible, since it will take some time to get another one down from London. You will need to sort these fellows out by date of rank to determine who is senior. My clerk omitted to put that information on my notes.”
Phillips hired a shore boat to take him out. Approaching the ship, she seemed to be unusually neat, coming right from the dockyard. Lieutenant Lynch and Mister Andrews were waiting at the entry port to welcome him. The Marines had not yet reported aboard and the crew was rather thin. He saw a few familiar faces, but they were mainly landsmen, rather than the able bodied seamen he needed to get the ship to sea.
Terror was hoisted on deck with a sling, which he did not like one bit. The ship was strange territory to him and he had trouble navigating around the first few days. Soon however, he found about the resident rat population below decks and made it his mission to thin out their ranks.
Crewmen began arriving in dribbles over the next few weeks. Lynch worked himself to a nub, until the promised two lieutenants arrived. One was newly promoted, having been a master’s mate on his previous ship. This one, Mister Harding was to be the third officer. The next officer to board was Lieutenant Wilson. His date of rank was only a week earlier than that of Lynch, which made him senior and the first officer.
Lynch took his demotion with good grace, saying he was happy that someone else was to do all the work now.
Wilson had commanded several small craft himself before and was wise in the ways of obtaining seamen. One night he took the longboat and cutter out into the roads and came back with eighteen seamen he had taken from the decks of Indiamen returning from a voyage to India. It was forbidden to impress seamen from outbound East Indiamen, but permissible to do so with ships returning to port.
A captain could still ruffle feathers if he did not have friends in high places, but it was reasoned that before anyone of importance could take notice, he would be out to sea, out of reach of any bailiff.
He had two petty officers aboard ship that he trusted. The captain of the maintop andrew Higgins and gunner’s mate Samuel Fletcher. Fletcher was actually the de facto gunner, since their warrant gunner, Mister Wilkins had gone home when the ship went into the dockyard and had never returned.
Phillips had requested Fletcher be given Warrant rank, but thus far this had not happened. Fletcher had already told his captain that the villages around his home had many young men who had a hard time finding steady farm work and several had asked him about signing on with the Royal Navy.
Phillips hired a good wagon and team and sent Higgins and Fletcher out on a recruiting mission to the villages Fletcher had mentioned. Midshipman Spencer went along with a purse to disburse what funds were needed. About ten days later, the recruiting party had returned, with over twenty sturdy farm workers tramping behind the wagon. Aboard the wagon, sitting in style on benches with Higgins and Fletcher were a half dozen seamen.
These men had been found in a seaside tavern and after spending all their money, had succumbed to the tales of the petty officers. All in all, a successful venture. With the added manpower, HMS Resolve started loading stores and Phillips had to reply to daily questions from the shore of when he would be able to return to sea.
He now had enough landsmen, but still lacked sufficient skilled seamen. Phillips believed he would soon be ordered to depart with the crew he had. It would be possible to train some of his landsmen to handle some of the more skilled task on board, but it would take a long time and the ship would be vulnerable to the weather and enemy action before that happened.
He was elated, when he learned that a third-rate that had just came in to have some lengthy repairs mad
e in the dockyard and Admiral Curtis ordered fifty of her seamen ordered aboard Resolve.
Phillips knew well these men would be ones the liner’s captain thought he could well do without, but still HMS Captain had just completed several years at sea and he could expect most of those fifty would be well trained.
With the new seamen aboard and settled into their watches, Phillips thought he was now ready to proceed to sea and signaled the flag to that effect.
Admiral Curtis wished his good fortune and ordered his departure.
Phillips called his officers aft and told Mister Wilson to win the anchor and asked Mister Andrews to take the ship to sea and set a course to join the Channel Fleet off Brest. HMS Resolve was going to sea.
HMS RESOLVE: A John Phillips Novel Page 13