Richard Testrake - (Sea Command 2) (4 page)

The corvette was still banging away when Canada approached and showed her teeth. The firing finally stopped and an irate Warren signaled Hornet to send its captain to the flag. In the meantime, he needed to send a responsible officer to the corvette to take command. His eye focused on Mullins. He ordered him to select a crew and take it to the prize, informing him haste was most important. He should follow the fleet as soon as the prize was able, and future plans would be made later.

As a passenger on Canada, Mullins was not well acquainted with her seamen, but her first officer assisted him to select a crew that might suffice in getting the prize underway. Mullins was probably overzealous when it came to ordering men into the boat and the launch was loaded to capacity. With her gunnels barely above the surface, a badly timed wave would have sent her down, but she survived and the bowman hooked on to the corvette.

The sullen enemy crew were not in the least willing to cooperate with their captors, so it was with some difficulty the British prize crew scrambled aboard. The deck of the captured ship resembled the floor of a slaughterhouse with the wounded and dead scattered about.

An intensely furious young French lieutenant was vainly trying to snap the blade of his sword. When Mullins reproached him, the officer said in fluent English he could not allow his sword of honor to fall into the hands of barbarians.

Knowing he might well need the services of his prisoners later, Mullins assured him he could keep the sword if he gave his parole. In addition, he apologized for the actions of Captain Morton, who he agreed was no gentleman.

With the preliminaries out of the way, Mullins insisted it was necessary for much of the French crew to go below decks. Some men might be required to assist in repairs of the ship, and it was hoped the French officers and petty officers would pass such orders to the proper individuals. The officers had freedom of the quarterdeck and, of course, would continue to live in their wardroom.

It was a full day before sail could be set and even then the ship was slow. Much of the prize’s canvas had been shot to rags. There had been no firm orders as to where the ship was to proceed. He had thought to hurry with the repairs, then join up with Warren’s fleet to receive further instructions. This became impossible when the extensive repairs to the rigging took longer than expected. By continuing on the course he thought Warren might have taken, he made for the Channel entrance. Relations between the prize crew and the French prisoners became tense as repairs on the ship brought her into a more seaworthy condition.

Immediately after taking command of the prize, Mullins had found there were about twenty French soldiers on the ship. They were apparently part of the force that was to have been landed in Ireland and also served in lieu of Marines. Mullins had ignored them in the early day of his command, since nearly every one of the soldiers was incapacitated from seasickness and were no real threat to the prize crew. Their arms had been secured in a forward compartment and these troops were thought to be impotent.

However, about the time the prize entered the Channel, the secured compartment had somehow been opened and suddenly the soldiers had their weapons. The seas had also moderated, so many had recovered from their sickness.

Mullins attempted to explain to the single officer surviving from the French crew his ship had surrendered and thus he should not abet his men in any incipient revolt.

The lieutenant reminded him of his ship being fired upon when it had already surrendered and thus Mullins should not venture to lecture him on the rules of war. The men from HMS Canada were all armed, of course, but so were many of the corvette’s crew and there were many more of them.

Mullins then locked the French lieutenant in his own pantry where he had no contact with his crew, but a burly French petty officer then took over the leadership and was hourly escalating the rhetoric for taking back the ship. It was at this time, at daybreak, a convoy was seen close up, approaching. With all the French hands awake down below listening to the speeches, Mullins went through the selection of signal flags he had carried to the prize and hung out a signal signifying mutiny on board. In minutes, two of the convoy escorts were alongside. One was HMS Triumph, an elderly third rate, the other was HMS Assault, a gun brig mounting twelve guns.

Triumph disgorged dozens of Marines into her boats while Assault lay off the prize’s stern, covering her with her battery. The Marines boarded just as the French below realized something was amiss. Mullins gave a hurried explanation to the Lieutenant of Marines from Triumph and he soon had the rebellious prisoners bottled up below. After some consultation between Mullins, Captain Andrews of Triumph and the Marine officer, it was decided to root out the worst offenders- and transfer them to the third-rate. At the cost of a few broken heads, this was accomplished and all was peaceful again.

The detained members of the French crew would get to enjoy a round-trip cruise to Halifax and back while luxuriating in the comforts of the orlop deck.

The inhabitant
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of Plymouth had not yet heard of the battle off Tory Island and were thrilled with the British victory. Mullins was called in to see the port admiral, where he handed over the papers given him when he left the fleet. Apparently, Commodore Warren had some kind words for him, and he was asked to remain close by while some matters were considered.

The corvette was given a thorough examination and it was soon decided to purchase her into the Royal Navy. Much of her battle damage had been repaired on her way back to port and what remained could be taken care of quickly in the dockyard. There was a flurry of media coverage. Word got about that Commander Mullins had somehow captured this ship almost by himself.

He made it known to anyone who would listen to him the true facts of her capture. The admiral’s secretary advised him to let it go. Fame was a fleeting thing and should be enjoyed when it came. He assured Mullins the Navy officials were aware of the true details and no harm would come to him because of the press misrepresenting the facts. He had hoped to be able to visit Mrs. Baker and assure himself of her welfare, but there was just no time.

Almost immediately, he was called back to see the admiral. The loss of the Aphrodite had already been excused and no further action was contemplated. He now learned he was being given command of the prize corvette, now to be the sloop-of war HMS Valkyrie. After re-arming and provisioning, she would sail on a trial cruise to determine her capabilities. In the meantime, it would be necessary for him to gather a crew.

Before he left the great cabin, he learned some interesting information. The Royal Navy had, for years, been somewhat lax in how they rated ships, both rated and unrated.

Of course, ships armed with fewer than twenty guns were considered ‘below the rate’ and were to be commanded by commanders or lieutenants. Ships with twenty guns or more were considered sixth-rates, to be commanded by post captains.

In many cases, the number of guns actually aboard a ship was ignored and the ship was rated in the manner that the local admiral might wish.

These days were over. A ship armed with twenty-two great guns would be a post ship and must have a post captain.

Once she came from the yard and satisfied the Navy, as soon as Mullins read himself in, he would be a post captain.

Mullins went around for days with the belief he would soon be able to shift the epaulette on his left shoulder to his right and thus become a real post captain. As long as he remained alive, he could expect one day to become an admiral.

His dreams were shattered though, when he was called to the yard to attend the ship’s commissioning ceremony.

The ship was in marvelous condition and the yard had even given her a coat of paint. Her ports were open and Mullins was surprised to see a pair of empty ports on her starboard beam. Two of the nine-pounder guns she had been issued had been removed.

He was not concerned at first, probably defects in the castings had been noticed. Then, he saw the corresponding guns on the port beam was also missing.

Before the commissioning ceremony began, he was called aside and learned the guns had been removed so the new captain of the ship could be a commander rather than captain. It seemed some Admiralty officials did not wish Commander Mullins to be promoted at this time. The ship would be commissioned as an eighteen-gun sloop-of-war, rather than a twenty-two-gun post ship. Perhaps, in the future, matters might be rectified, but, for now, he would sail in his present rank, as a commander.

Mullins first met some of Valkyrie’s new standing officers aboard the flag. John Danton would be the new first officer, while Mister Ralston was the Sailing Master and Master Gunner Weems would handle the ship’s artillery. Weems, his old gunnery officer aboard Aphrodite, had come ashore just days before, having been exchanged for a French warrant officer held by the British. The carpenter, cook and armorer had already reported aboard Valkyrie.

Mullins used an hour to give his officers a tour of the ship. Although he had spent a few weeks on her, he was not well familiar with her interior since that had been mostly filled with truculent prisoners after her capture.

After the tour, he invited the standing officers into his quarters where he fed them a meal sent aboard by the kitchen of a nearby inn.

With no crew yet of his own, the admiral let him borrow a few seamen for the commissioning ceremony aboard the new sloop-of war. It was to this temporary crew that Mullins read himself in. At the moment, the most important task on the captain’s list was to obtain some men.

Accordingly, Lieutenant Danton and Mister Ralston each took a party of the borrowed men ashore and set up recruiting stations in nearby seamen’s pubs.

Petty officers were provided with funds from Mullin’s purse and took station at the bar, buying drinks for all able-bodied men there. Granted, most seamen there were too wise to avail themselves of this largess, in fact most left immediately, once they realized a recruiting party was present. There was always the probability of impressment.

Those men who were obviously seamen that refused to sign on usually fell victim to another party of men hidden behind the building. The petty officer at the bar would give his signal and the lieutenant or sailing master, in civilian garb, would gather his party and wait for the men, probably very drunk, to emerge from the pub. Once out in the open, these would be collared and delivered to a nearby warehouse Mullins had rented for the purpose.

And of course, there were always the seamen, desperate for a drink and without funds to buy their own. Some of these men succumbed to the petty officer’s blandishments and signed their ‘X’ then and there. These men were provided with as much rum as they could drink and would be delivered to the ship later. In all, the recruiting missions garnered in excess of two dozen men, well in excess of the captain’s expectations. Some of them were seamen who had somehow escaped being snatched up by the impress service upon their merchant ships paying off. A day after the recruiting mission ended, HMS Valkyrie had the nucleus of a crew. A few of these men had previous experience on King’s ships and after watching these men at work, Mullins interviewed them.

Two admitted to service as petty officers on previous naval commissions, and they were given their old rates, at least temporarily. Now men began arriving from other sources almost every day. There were a number of men now being accommodated on an old hulk used as a receiving ship that were available to Valkyrie. Additionally, ships, both merchant and naval, arrived every day. Hands from the ships paying off were available for impressment if they would not enter service voluntarily.

Two weeks after commissioning, HMS Valkyrie had nearly a full complement of men. The dockyard had done excellent work fitting the ship out for sea. As hands became available, ships stores were brought aboard, after which the ship was moved far out into the harbor where she took aboard her powder.

Then it was time to put to sea to determine how the ship would perform with her new crew and equipment in British service. Signals had been received from the flag for the past few days wondering when they would sail. Mullins had the signal midshipman hoist the signal that Valkyrie was ready to sail.

Now it was the turn of the admiral to delay sailing. The signal ‘Wait’ was flown from the flag, and Mister Danton had the watch below stand down. Nothing more was heard concerning the delay until the next morning, when a launch seen approaching, filled with red-coated Marines. Hailed, her cox’n replied with an ‘Aye-aye’, indicating an officer was aboard.

A Lieutenant of Marines boarded, introducing himself as Daniels, and presenting orders sending himself and his Marines aboard HMS Valkyrie for service.

There was an immediate flurry, as Mister Danton had to re-arrange berthing arrangements to supply room for the newcomers.

In the midst of the confusion, a signal from the flag gave them permission to sail. Mullins gave Ralston the task of taking the ship out while Danton worked with Daniels to get the Marines stowed properly.

There was the expected muddle when it became time to get sail on the ship. Men with previous experience had been assigned duty in the tops, while the landsmen were put on the braces to haul the big yards about. Unfortunately, despite hours of previous instruction by the petty officers, much of this training was forgotten as soon as the ship became alive. Many of the hands began spewing on the deck, and those hands not affected, began pulling at cross purposes with each other. Mister Danton was mortified when Daniel’s Marines saved the ship from being embarrassed when they tailed onto braces and helped get the ship out of the crowded harbor.

Once at sea, out of sight of land, sail drill was commenced, with the different evolutions being repeated over and over again. Many new hands were shaking with exhaustion when Mullin’s ordered ‘Up Spirits’, with dinner following. After dinner, as a change of pace, gun drill commenced. The first hour was spent with the crew observing one of the nine-pounders being fired. Gunner Weems himself served as gun captain, and both Mullins and Danton served on the gun crew.

Weems furnished a few emptied powder kegs for targets, and the crew took great pleasure watching their officers banging away at them, with little success. Following this instruction, every gun was manned and the petty officers began having the gun crews run their guns out by command, simulate firing, then run the guns to the rear in simulated recoil. After these actions were repeated multiple times, powder charges were brought on deck and each gun loaded with a powder charge, with only a few wads on top of the charge. The men had the opportunity of firing off the blank charges without the danger and recoil of fully loaded guns.

New charges were brought on deck, and loaded carefully into the guns, observed closely by the petty officers. This time, each crew was ordered to select a ball from the rack and load it into the gun, then inserting a wad to hold the ball in place. Following this, the captain went to each gun, reminding them of the muffled jeers he had listened to when he had served on the officer’s gun.

“Now, you men have a chance to show us what you can do. Each gun will have one target. Any gun crew that hits its target with their single shot will receive an extra ration of grog tonight. Now go to your guns and wait for the order to fire. If a gun demolishes its target, we will launch another for the next gun.

After deploying a pair of the empty powder barrels, Valkyrie went about and approached the bobbing targets from downwind. A gunner’s mate went to each gun in its turn and made sure the weapon was safe to fire. The crews had to be supervised to insure that no one was in the way of the gun’s recoil when it fired.

Some of the crews were frightened at the violent recoil, but most seemed to be exhilarated. All nine of the guns on the broadside fired without result, so Mullins put the ship around for another go.

This time, number four gun’s ball struck a floating barrel a glancing blow, causing it to dissolve into its constituent components. The remainder of the guns fired at the other barrel with no success.

At that point Mullins called a halt to the competition and called the winning crew aft, where he told them they would receive two rations of grog before supper. They would also be first in line.

When the guns were cleaned and bowsed up against the ship’s side, Mullins felt he had a good crew. There had been much grousing earlier, especially among those who been brought aboard dead drunk from the effects of the recruiting parties in the pubs. While Mullins doubted few men were happy to be at sea, at least some now realized attention to duty could bring good results.

His orders required him to put to sea for a week to make certain the ship was in order then proceed to Portsmouth for further orders. Mullins intended to expand upon his orders a little. At this point, he did not intend to initiate any action against a French national ship close to Valkyrie’s size, but he thought he might look for an enemy coaster that he might take prize.

If he could bring such a prize into port, the crew would receive prize money, in addition to their miserable pay, perhaps enough to pay for a monumental drunk ashore, should they make port where he could safely give his men liberty. Without mentioning his plans, Valkyrie made her way across the Channel and began working her way along the coast.

Deciding his men needed more gunnery practice and wishing to save the ammunition he had personally purchased, he had his lookouts watching the shore for targets of opportunity. Firing at legitimate military targets would give his crew valuable training without causing difficulties with the Board of Ordnance. One afternoon, a battalion of foot troops were sighted strung out on the coast road. The ship sailed parallel on the coast, overtaking the troops.

Mister Ralston brought out his chart and Mullins and Mister Danton examined it. There appeared to be deep water near the shore a few miles down the coast off Cap Antifer. To avoid alarming their quarry, the ship veered away from shore and continued on. Since the ship was sailing faster than the troops were marching, it took some close judgement for the ship to arrive at her firing position at the same time as the troops.

As Valkyrie sailed inbound, Gunner Weems went about the ship, inspecting each gun. When he was satisfied, Mullins called the men aft and explained what they were about. Most were excited over the prospect of imminent action. With the men at their stations and the guns readied, the ship neared her intended victims.

At this time, trouble showed itself. From a jumble of rocks on a small cape, smoke blossomed and a ball came skipping across the water. A hidden battery emplaced on that cape had fired as Valkyrie approached within range. Deciding to use his readied weapons on that battery rather than go about and sail out of range, the gun captains were notified of the new targets, and the order given to fire. The first shots did little, but the succeeding broadside was more successful. Those officers with a glass focused on the target saw a gun barrel thrown into the air after being struck by a nine-pound ball.

The remaining guns of the battery were slow to fire and Valkyrie got in a third broadside. Some shots were seen impacting outside the target area, but enough were effective to persuade the enemy gunners to abandon their weapons and depart.

With the enemy battery now silent, Mullins put his glass on the troops. They had formed up into ranks facing the sea and, as he watched, fired off a volley. Far out of effective range, few of the musket balls actually reached the ship. One ball, as big as the end of a man’s thumb, came aboard, striking the binnacle. Midshipman Connor, at Mullin’s side serving as his messenger, pried the ball from the wood and presented the ball to Mullins.

Hardly deformed at all, the captain handed the missile back to the lad, telling him to show it to the young ladies he met, to impress on them the dangers he faced.

The ship was now about 200 yards from shore, too far for the enemy musketry to pose a threat, but well within the capabilities of the ship’s guns.

Mister Ralston altered course to avoid some underwater snags that appeared on his chart and steadied the ship to parallel the coast. Ghosting along under tops’ls alone, the ship crept up on the enemy troops. Just before reaching the perfect position to deliver a devastating broadside, a pair of galloper guns arrived at the end of the enemy line. The guns were unlimbered and the horses led off.

Curious, Mullins watched first one of the guns, then the other prepared, aimed and fired. Although the guns were very close and firing at a large target, he was impressed at the speed and accuracy of their firing. Both balls struck the ship, although neither caused an injury or harmed the ship in any important manner.

As soon as the guns dashed up, Mullins had sent Midshipman Connor around to make sure every gunner knew he was to fire at the guns. At the captain’s nod, Mister Danton gave the order to fire, and all guns on her broadside went off almost simultaneously. The gun crews had gained a little more experience, and Mullins was impressed by the results.

Those galloper guns had been deployed much too close together and were in the open without cover of any sort. The hail of grape from the nine-pounder guns accounted for most of the enemy gun crew. The guns themselves seemed to be undamaged, but stood by themselves, surrounded by their dead and wounded crew.

At last free to concentrate on the formation of troops, which by now were pumping volley after volley of musket fire at them, the guns commenced their thunder at the motionless flesh and blood.

Some of the enemy balls had been coming on board and two men were down and being carried below to the surgeon. The musket fire ceased, when the charges of grapeshot arrived.

The plum-sized iron balls were travelling fast enough at this range to penetrate several men at a time. Dozens of foot soldiers fell in swathes. Some of the survivors went through their musket drill, loading and presenting for another volley. When the second broadside arrived though, many of the survivors broke and fled, leaving only a steadfast group standing.