The little boy could not wait to express his indignation at his mother leaving to stay with Uncle Robert. Mullins corrected the boy. The cousin Doris was supposedly visiting was often referred to as Aunt Maud, and there was no male named Robert in her household.
Alfred was adamant however. He knew the household his own mother was visiting! Not wishing to confuse his son, Mullins dropped the subject. Another matter occupied his mind. Before leaving on the expedition to the country, he had given his wife a small, silver pocket pistol for defense against prowlers or assault on the street. He knew his wife to be somewhat absent minded though, and wished to insure she had not left it around the living quarters where their son might find it.
A careful search failed to locate it and Mullins first thought she had probably taken it with her. Then another thought came to him. His wife had recently began sleeping in another bedroom, complaining of various female disorders. A cursory search there failed to find the weapon but two other curious articles did turn up. Thinking she might have dropped the pistol on the floor where it could have been kicked under the bed, he got on his knees and looked.
No pistol was visible, but a silver snuff-box lay on the floor. Picking it up, he saw the ornate initials, ‘RS’ engraved on it. Robert Sanders was the name of the man who had tried to sell him the worthless property and Mullins had seen him using this same snuffbox. Why would this fellow have access to his wife’s room?
He tried to assure himself there was a perfectly reasonable explanation, but try as he might he could think of nothing. With more the need to busy himself than actually finding more evidence, he continued his exploration. Hidden in the back of a drawer, he found an expensive broach, its diamonds gleaming in the afternoon sunlight. He had never seen this jewelry before and since his wife Doris, had been an impoverished maid before the marriage, he knew she had not owned it for long. He was equally certain she had used none of his funds to acquire it.
The urge to stamp on and destroy the delicate objects came to his mind, but in the end, he placed both on her washstand and left the room. HMS Falcon was moored in the Pool of London and he went back to the ship that afternoon. Mister Reynolds was anxiously awaiting him. Sealed orders were awaiting when Reynolds himself returned after the expedition to the country. He had sent several messages to Mullin’s home but they had not been answered and he was beside himself, not knowing if his captain had met with some misfortune. In addition, a nervous youngster stood beside Reynolds, wearing the new uniform coat of a freshly commissioned officer. Leaving the new officer for Reynolds to deal with, Mullins attended to the more urgent matters.
Fortunately, the waiting orders merely required Captain Mullins to discuss Falcon’s armament with the dockyard Ordnance Supervisor. No one would expect this routine matter to be any urgent business, so Mullins escaped any notice of his negligence.
Keeping himself occupied with the needs of his ship and crew, he tried to avoid any thought of his wife’s peccadillos. A few days after returning to the ship, a dray appeared on shore with his personal possessions. No note came with the articles though, and it must be faced that the marriage, to all intents and purposes, must be considered to be over.
Of course, divorce could hardly be considered. Society and much of the Royal Navy might understand should he take a mistress under the circumstances, but taking his wife to court to obtain his freedom was hardly to be considered.
While still brooding over his difficulties, he was summoned to the Admiralty. Ushered into a conference room, he met again with the official he knew as ‘Jones’. Once the pleasantries were over, Jones produced a thick folder and placing it on his desk, invited Mullins to examine the contents.
Leafing through the contents hurriedly, he saw accounts of French military activities on the Normandy mainland. Looking at Jones questioningly, the official admitted that Mister Dooley was the source of much of this information. He was able to add further information to that enclosed in the packet.
“Captain Mullins, you of course know that Boney, during the recent invasion crisis attempted to obtain large supplies of craft that could be used to transport men, gun, horses and materiel across the channel to what he hoped to be a successful landing across the Channel. Of course, he was not successful and his plans there came to nothing. While he sent his army to other theaters, he did not quite give up his plans to invade England. Shipyards all over Europe were put to work building a navy which might compete with our own. While these yards often are able to construct warships of good quality, Bonaparte has had a difficult time to man them. Many newly constructed ships put to sea with crews made up of ill-trained conscripts.”
“Of course, we do the same with our navy, but we are generally able to spend enough time to give the crews a basic knowledge of seamanship before they must face action. Very often, these new French warships meet our own and are taken or destroyed before their crews have any inkling of their duties.”
“Now, in the past, France has had capable crews, well trained by their commanders. Later, many of these trained men were conscripted into the French armies, where their skills began to evaporate. In his report from the mainland. Mister Dooley reports that the French are now searching through the army ranks to locate former seamen who were removed from their ships at sea and put into the ranks.”
“While there is no thought at present to interfere with this activity, to any great extent, it has been learned that some former seamen recovered from the French army are to be sent to the seaport of Brest to undergo refresher training there, with the purpose to send them to new construction as soon as possible.”
“The Royal Navy is in the process of refurbishing a half-dozen former French-built corvettes, of which your Falcon is one. They will be armed primarily with carronades as these become available. Once ready for sea, each of these sloops-of-war or post ships will be sent to the Normandy coast to cruise for any enemy ships engaged in training seamen. The captains of this force will have the latest intelligence that has come across the channel. Are there any questions?”
Mullins wondered, “Will we be under the orders of the Channel Fleet commander?”
Jones replied. “Lord Gambier, commander of the Channel Fleet, will be your nominal commander, but Captain Harding, a senior post captain has been named as Commodore of your little fleet. Actually, he has agreed to give his captains the greatest latitude to do harm to the enemy. I believe you will find that the captains involved will not be kept on a leash. While you are successful, there will be no one holding your reins.”
Mullins left the admiralty and made his way to the quay. A passing waterman took him out to Falcon, where he found Mister Reynolds conferring with the Superintendent of the Ordnance Wharf. Once the welcoming ceremony for Falcon’s arriving captain was finished, Reynolds introduced him to Superintendent Drake and explained Drake was tasked to provide new armament for the ship.
Welks, the gunner, now joined the others and Mullins learned HMS Falcon was to have her armament drastically altered. At the moment, she was presently armed with nine-pounder long guns for her broadside, with a pair of eighteen-pounder carronades up forward and another pair of the same on the quarterdeck
Most of these guns would go ashore and be replaced by carronades. Four of the long-nines would remain, serving as bow and stern-chasers, but the guns on the beam would all be eighteen-pounder carronades. This was not altogether good news to Mullins. Falcon, a slow ship herself, would have a difficult time escaping from any more powerful ship that might pursue her.
The intent of the additional carronades was to give the ship an overwhelming broadside capacity. As a former commander of a gun brig with similar armament earlier in his career, Mullins was aware that a larger ship, confronted at close range by a smaller, carronade-armed vessel, had a reasonable chance of being devastated by the larger caliber guns.
However, he also realized if that opponent was aware in advance of the armament disparity, it could simply remain out of range of t
he carronades and pound his enemy to splinters with its long guns. To win a battle with a ship armed with long guns, he must get close to her and destroy her quickly. A task difficult to perform with a post-ship as slow as this one.
The matter was out of his hands though. It had already been decided at a higher level what Falcon’s armament must be and the decision was now holy writ. The ordnance supervisor had nothing to say about the decision. His orders were to equip HMS Falcon with carronades as they became available and this he was going to do.
The ship transporting the weapons from Scotland was already in harbor, and as soon as lighters could be arranged, the guns would be delivered to Falcon. There would be a delay while the gun ports were modified and the new breaching equipment installed, but it was expected that Falcon would be properly armed within a week.
A week later, the work was finished, during which time daily signals from the flag insisted the efforts of the men must be expedited. Despite the captain’s expectation, the new officer took hold and rapidly proved his worth in attending to the ship. Early on, Mullins invited Lieutenant Rainier to dinner and expressed his appreciation.
He learned the officer came from much the same background as himself. His father being a minor member of the nobility, Rainier, as third son, was sent to the Navy, where he was expected to sink or swim. The lad did have the advantage of family patronage and was promoted well before most others might expect.
Finally, the new guns were installed and Falcon could proceed. She must now take on her powder. This work would be done in an empty portion of the port where an explosion might not prove too disastrous. An anchor was loaded into the launch and the boat was pulled out to the end of its cable, where the anchor was dropped to the bottom. Then, it was the crew who would man the capstan and pull the ship up to the anchor. This would be repeated until Falcon arrived at the desired location.
Previously, Captain Mullins had handed Gunner Welks a purse to arrange the issue of some extra powder for practice use. Admiralty did not regard practice firing with the King’s powder a necessary activity, and those captains who expended their powder in that frivolous manner sometimes were made to regret it.
Because this powder must either be privately owned, or at least ‘off the books’Welks spoke to a man working for the supervisor who had once been a shipmate on another vessel A portion of the funds in the purse was passed on and some powder, recently landed from a ship paying off, was found to be deteriorated and was marked for remanufacture. The paperwork for this was ‘lost’ and the powder itself was itself loaded onto the lighter along with the issue powder.
When HMS Falcon set sail, she had on board sufficient powder for the practice her people needed. Once at sea, every suitable day was marked by the thunder of the guns and clouds of powder smoke. It was frequently necessary to repaint the gun ports, since the short carronades had a tendency to scorch the woodwork.
Only an engagement with the enemy would give the crew the necessary experience, but Mullins knew his men were getting more instruction than most of their opponents were getting, in their own service.
Their leisurely sail across the Channel was interrupted when one morning, a sail was sighted hull down at first light. She soon identified herself as HMS Rainbow, a thirty-two gun frigate with a captain junior to Mullins. She deferentially signaled that Falcon was to report to the Channel Fleet’s commander off Brest at her earliest convenience.
Mullins was not at all anxious to meet with Lord Gambier, commanding that fleet. He had heard that Gambier could be a most irascible man. However, having received the order, there was nothing else to do but obey, so off toward Brest they went.
The fleet was spotted well out at sea, the big first-rate serving as flag, putting the others through their paces. As soon as it was thought her signals could be read, Falcon hoisted her number as well as the recognition signal. Moments later the flag hoisted the proper reply, then came the signal Mullins was dreading.
Mister Drew, an undersized and under-age midshipman, as well as being the most intelligent of those aboard, was serving as signal officer, under the supervision of Mister Rainier. Standing near Mullins on the quarterdeck, he reported, “Sir, Flag signals to our number, take station in her lee. Captain to report aboard Flag.”
Chapter Eleven
Lord Keith was waiting Mullin’s appearance in his office impatiently. Without preliminaries, he erupted as soon as his visitor stepped inside.
“Young man, just yesterday I received a communication from Admiralty, reminding me I was not to interfere in any manner with your efforts on this station. I submit that is a most disrespectful demand to be given any senior commander. Exactly what is it that you are to do that I must not interfere with?”
Mullions attempted to diplomatically explain that he understood he was to be assigned to Commodore Harding where he would be given duties patrolling for French training vessels. Lord Keith dismissed the explanation with a look of contempt.
“My dear sir, we are here to bring battle to the French fleet, not interfere with students in training. Truly, I have no need for your little post-ship. The best use I have for her will be as a dispatch vessel. “
Turning to a figure standing half hidden behind him, Admiral Keith ordered, “Charles, see to it that all mail bags are sent to Falcon. Our own dispatches should also be sent over. He will be returning to Portsmouth immediately.”
Mullins recognized the man as Sir Charles Howe, a relative of Lord Howe himself. This officer was a senior post captain, presumably Lord Keith’s flag captain. Dismissed without another word, Mullins made his way out to the quarterdeck, wondering what the devil he was to do now.
Mister Jones, back at Admiralty, no doubt expected that by now, HMS Falcon would be pursuing French training ships. If he were to appear meekly back home, carrying a cargo of mail, there would be some strange looks directed at him. On the other hand, he could hardly just blithely ignore Lord Keith’s orders.
While looking forward to see if he could see his boat crew, Captain Howe approached him. “Captain Mullins, you will find Commodore Harding’s ship, Valiant, close in to Brest. Would you give him my regards when you see him?”
Mullins was confused. “Sir, I understood Admiral Keith to order me back home with dispatches and mail.”
Howe dismissed the objection with a wave. “Lord Keith forgot we sent the mail back yesterday on Sparrow, so you might as well follow your original orders and report to Commodore Harding.” Trying to express his misgivings, Mullins stood fast, hoping to think of a diplomatic means of expressing himself.
The flag captain understood his dilemma and said, “Captain, Lord Keith has led a long and stressful life. As we all do when we get older, Admiral Keith sometimes forgets minor details. We here attempt to ensure that these lapses do not reflect badly on him. Do you understand?”
Mullins replied, “Yes sir, then on your order, I will depart to join Commodore Harding.”
“Very well, Captain, Good luck with your efforts to take your selected targets.”
Heading inshore against a stiff breeze, it took Falcon two more days before her lookouts sighted a medium frigate hull down close on the land. She identified herself properly and Falcon closed the ship where their captains spoke to each other by speaking trumpet. Commodore Harding felt it was not worth the time for them to converse at length with each other and decided to send Falcon forth on her hunting. He explained that he must wait here for other ships expected to reinforce his little fleet.
Dipping her colors in salute, Falcon left the Valiant and made her way out into the channel, remaining well clear of Lord Keith’s Channel Fleet. When he related his conversations aboard the flag to Mister Evans, a man with much experience, he confessed his concerns. The sailing master informed him that the Navy probably understood Lord Keith’s problem only too well. The aged admiral had been at sea much too long, and sometimes make a dog’s breakfast of simple matters. No doubt he would be relieved as soon as Admiralty
members could make up their minds as who would replace him.
HMS Falcon cruised along the Normandy shore, looking for targets that she could attack. Although she had engaged in profitable target practice on her way over, Mullins was not quite satisfied with his crew’s training.
A spot of color on the summit of a flag pole on the enemy shore revealed a French battery. Mister Evan’s charts revealed a small cove for fishing boats here, and this battery had no doubt been erected to keep the British intruders well away. Transient cargo vessels on their way to Brest were reported to seek refuge here at times, and no one could argue against Falcon’s right to engage this enemy military target.
With most of the ships’ guns now being short-range carronades, some thoughts must be made on how to crack this nut. Under more ordinary circumstances, Mullins might send boats, under cover of darkness or bad weather, to attack the battery from behind. Today though, he was interested in training up some of his gun crews. Granted, his carronades could not play an important role in the endeavor, but still, he had four long nine-pounders on board. In the hands of the right men, they could be very accurate, too.
Deciding to test the training of the enemy gun crews, he ordered the ship inside the expected range of the French weapons. For some reason, the enemy made no notice of them, so heaving to, off the coast, he ordered Gunner Welks to see what he could do with the nine-pounders at bow and stern.
Welks installed a gunner’s mate in the magazine to dispense powder charges and attempted to lay and fire the two guns that would bear, by himself. It was necessary for him to walk back and forth the length of the ship for each discharge and the portly gunner was becoming obviously winded, so before too many shots had been fired, Mullins ordered him back to the magazine and another gunner’s mate was assigned to lay both guns.
Ball after ball struck the enemy battery with little evidence of success. The impacts could be readily seen through their glasses, but for some reason the French did not fire back. When Mister Reynolds wondered if they could move the ship closer, Mullins thought not. “We are striking all around her embrasures” he told Reynolds. “We are causing the enemy harm without suffering any ourselves. We will continue with our efforts for a little longer.”
HMS Falcon: A Charles Mullins novel, Sea Command 7 Page 7