A Ship for The King (22 page)

‘Thank you, Hopkins,' said Rainsborough. ‘Now, gentlemen, I propose that we make our intentions clear by opening a bombardment of the port, here . . .' He indicated the rough position on his crude chart. ‘The
Leopard
,
Antelope
and
Perseus
will move closer inshore and use their great guns to this end. The pinnaces will search and destroy all local craft along the coastline – the
Expedition
to the northwards, the
Providence
to the south – while the
Hercules
and
Mary
will guard our flanks and – when they receive the order, and not before – open fire on any movements ashore that would seem to threaten the centre. Should any of the three bombarding vessels require support or assistance for any reason whatsoever, the commanders of these two vessels will provide it. Is that understood?' Rainsborough looked about him and was met by assenting nods and murmurs of comprehension.

‘Good,' he went on, resuming his briefing. ‘Now before we open operations against the pirate fleet, I intend to send Mr Hopkins ashore under armed protection on the conclusion of this meeting. He will seek an audience with the chief holy man in Old Sallee and attempt to secure some sort of accommodation and an agreement to desist from raiding our coasts. My intention is to make our purpose known to be against piracy, not against the population, or at least, that portion of the population under the, er . . .'

‘The
marabout
, sir,' put in Hopkins helpfully. ‘His name is Sidi Mohammed el-Ayyachi.' A few sniggered at the impossibility of the foreign name. One or two made notes.

‘Very well. That is all.'

The captains walked out of the cabin on to the quarterdecks in groups, discussing Rainsborough's orders. Several stopped whilst awaiting their boats and stared at the coast which lay a few miles to the eastwards. It had a dun-coloured appearance, with occasional patches of grey-green and the darker green of palms. They could clearly see the cleft of the river valley, and a curve of sand-spit extending from the northern bank behind which the Bou Regreb wound inland unseen. The pale flat planes of the ramparts and towers of Old Sallee rose conspicuously on the north bank, above which protruded domes and minarets, the pale sunshine twinkling on the crescents of Islam that sat atop their summits. To the south the further works of the
kasbah
of New Sallee extended closer along the river, sheltering the masts and yards of the pirates' ships. Beyond, the walls climbed over the low hills and all faded into the immense distance that contained the unknown and terrible Atlas Mountains.

‘Give them bloody hell, Kit,' a voice said in Faulkner's ear as he swept his telescope along the shoreline. Lowering his glass, he turned to find Rainsborough's flag-captain, John Dunton, alongside him. ‘Give them hell,' he repeated, ‘they can expect no quarter from me . . .'

‘Ah, I recall you were a slave . . .'

‘Aye, at Algiers, and only ransomed last year.' Dunton ground his teeth. ‘My son remains there,' he said, his tone grim. ‘He was taken out of the ship with me and is only ten years old. I hope that he is dead by now, though his mother would hate me for saying so.'

‘I am sorry . . .'

‘Just give them hell! That is all we can do.' Dunton moved away, his face unhappy, his eyes gleaming with the prospect of a kind of revenge. Though this was Sallee and not Algiers, a rain of death and terror seemed meet for pirates of any colour.

The following morning the ships worked their way cautiously inshore under easy sail and with their leadsmen in the chains. Having taken up their assigned stations and anchored with springs upon their cables, they awaited further orders, a wait that extended into several days, though Hopkins sent out reassuring messages that all was well and that he had made contact with some English merchants in the old town and was hopeful of meeting the
marabout
.

Matters stood thus for several days, until Hopkins sent a request that Rainsborough himself went ashore and, with Hopkins interpreting, met the
marabout
. Two days went by and George Carteret, the vice admiral and the only purely naval officer in the squadron, betrayed his anxiety by pulling round the anchored ships and soliciting the opinions of the other commanders as to Rainsborough's intentions. Captain Harrison, who was acting as rear admiral and happened to be dining with Faulkner that day, remarked that ‘Carteret probably hoped William would be cast into Sidi what's-his-name's dungeons in order that he might take over the command, for he's as green as grass with jealousy and riled at serving under a merchant captain!'

‘From what I have seen of Rainsborough's methods,' Faulkner remarked, refilling Harrison's glass, ‘they are far superior to my experience of regular naval procedures.'

‘What, even Mainwaring's?' Harrison asked, surprised.

‘When Sir Henry is left to his own devices, there is none to match him for organization and efficiency, but when we flew Rutland's flag in the
Prince Royal
, there was a deal of confusion and wasted time. As for the expeditions to La Rochelle, why, not one of them left early enough in the year to achieve anything worthwhile and the waste was incalculable.'

‘The rulings of commerce sharpen a man's wit, wouldn't you say?'

‘Absolutely.'

‘Still, I would hate to lose Rainsborough at this juncture, if only because serving under Carteret we might fall into such evils. Let's drink to his safe return.'

Two days later the
Leopard
's boat was seen pulling out from the shore, the oar blades flashing in the sunshine of a fine spring morning. Immediately on regaining the
Leopard
's deck, Rainsborough again made the signal for ‘All captains' and again they all repaired aboard the flagship, where Rainsborough gave Hopkins the freedom to open the explanation of what had transpired.

‘I was initially admitted to the
marabout
's presence after three days wait, which indicated a quite uncustomary haste that, I think, marks his surprise and possibly apprehension at our warlike appearance. Early negotiations also showed that the presence of our admiral might speed matters to a conclusion, so I requested Admiral Rainsborough joined me, explaining that from the perspective of Sidi Mohammed, our arrival could prove timely.' Hopkins conceded the floor to Rainsborough.

‘With the assistance of Mr Hopkins, gentlemen, we soon confirmed that it was imperative for Sidi Mohammed to suppress the rebellion of the pirates in order to retain his own position and influence . . .'

‘And probably his life,' put in Hopkins.

‘Indeed, probably his life,' said Rainsborough. ‘In consequence of this he agreed to an alliance with us, in earnest of which he has released seventeen slaves. We must, however, seek ratification from London and must therefore lay here quietly, only denying the passage of any ship inwards or outwards until I have permission to treat with this holy man.' Rainsborough paused, then added, ‘This may prove difficult for us; onshore winds, if strong enough, may cast us on to a lee-shore, so we must be vigilant. We must also keep up the spirits of our men, who dislike inactivity and are always the devil near land, and that I confide to yourselves, bearing in mind that exercising in dumbshow drills may seem like time wasting, but may prove invaluable as we shall certainly go into action before we leave this place.'

It was an unsatisfactory situation, as they all agreed, but little could be done until the
Expedition
returned with permission to proceed as Rainsborough, with unexpected statesmanship, proposed. Happily, however, the King's sanction arrived by mid-July, along with the reinforcement of two ships, including the frigate
Swan
with two months' victuals and money for the squadron to purchase fresh meat from Tetuan. Matters now moved to a swift conclusion. Rainsborough and Hopkins again went ashore and presented Sidi Mohammed with the fait accompli. With the English ships offshore, the
marabout
, whose levies had already invested New Sallee, summoned Ali el-Kasri and his besieged garrison to surrender. El-Kasri responded by firing guns, whereupon Rainsborough hoisted the signal to his squadron to open fire.

The weeks of dumbshow practice paid off and aboard the
Perseus
, as with the other vessels close by, the fire was slow, measured and deliberate. Faulkner had sent two of his young officers aloft from where they remarked the fall of shot, as far as was possible, but once they had the range and were able to fire at the base of the walls along the waterfront quay, where a number of the pirate ships were moored in tiers, they began to see the result of their handiwork as spars fell and the first coils of smoke rose from a burning ship.

The
Leopard
was firing over the walls and dropping her shot into the town itself, while the
Antelope
, close inshore, plugged away at the defences, her balls ploughing up clouds of sand and rock as they scoured the foreshore and prevented any response from the garrison.

‘My God, see the fires the
Antelope
has started,' Faulkner remarked to no one in particular on the
Perseus
's deck, as he peered through his glass. He could see miniature figures, black-robed women for the most part, running from the danger, small shapes alongside them that might have been children or perhaps goats or other small livestock. At one point a troop of horsemen came dashing along the sand. Although they were probably Sidi Mohammed's troops, they were thrown into confusion by the bombardment and very largely destroyed. It was a grim business and one which was kept up by the exhortation, made by Faulkner and the other captains, to: ‘Remember the men, women and children these people have taken from their hearths!'

The gunfire ceased at darkness, but resumed the following morning when Rainsborough ordered the two shallow-draughted pinnaces closer inshore. Both entered the river itself and anchored against the stream, from where they were close enough to shoot fire pots at the pirate ships lying board-and-board along the waterfront. By noon they were all ablaze, a great pall of smoke lifting over the walls of New Sallee and disfiguring the sublime and perfect blue of the sky. Such was the hatred among the English for the humiliations and losses to these pirates, that they exacted a terrible vengeance.

Day after day the bombardment went on until the stocks of powder aboard the English ships were running low. Apart from the appearance of the Moorish horsemen on the beach, the rest of Sidi Mohammed's troops, said to number twenty thousand, successfully reached the waterfront area, setting fire to warehouses in which El-Kasri had stored a year's corn. Three weeks later they stormed the ramparts and were soon in the city, whereupon ferocious hand-to-hand and house-to-house fighting ensued.

During this protracted period a few escaped slaves began arriving alongside the English ships. English, French and Dutch were either swept up by the pinnaces scouring the shore, or found their own way out by swimming or in stolen boats. Gradually resistance in New Sallee crumbled and ebbed, and the green standard of Sidi Mohammed, flying conspicuously from minaret and tower, proclaimed those parts in the hands of the allies. Offshore, more and more escaped slaves were picked up, and on 28th July Ali el-Kasri surrendered.

Rainsborough now began negotiations for the formal release of more enslaved Christians with the Sultan through Sidi Mohammed. These were forthcoming, and by the 8th August the squadron was crowded with some three hundred and fifty men and a score of women, all hungry and in want of food and shelter. With the onset of autumn gales now imminent, and their stocks of powder exhausted, the admiral ordered Carteret to withdraw with all the released captives and to take with him the
Antelope
, the
Hercules
,
Providence
and
Expedition
. He was to lie off the Spanish coast west of Gibraltar for as long as supplies permitted, before returning home. Prior to following himself, Rainsborough ordered Faulkner to proceed south, towards Safi, the port for Marrakech. Here he hoped to secure the release of a further thousand slaves who, so the negotiations with Sidi Mohammed had revealed, had been sold on to the
mastabas
of Tunis and Algiers. Faulkner was to make contact with an English merchant named Blake and await Rainsborough's arrival, while he concluded his treaty with the Sultan of Morocco and waited for expected reinforcements from England.

Faulkner was glad to be detaching. They had been too long moored off Sallee and he ordered the anchor weighed with a light heart. In a stiff west-south-westerly breeze they hauled their yards sharp up and stood along the coast. It was all but deserted, the English blockade having proved singularly effective. Inshore, an occasional fishing boat was descried, but little else until, that is, Faulkner and Lazenby were staring under the curve of the foot of the fore-sail, trying to make out the walls of Safi in the noontide glare.

‘That is no minaret, Captain Faulkner,' Lazenby remarked, his face screwed up as he stared out on the larboard bow, ‘that is a ship.'

Faulkner levelled his glass again and took pains to better focus it. ‘You are right,' he said without removing the telescope from his eye, adding, ‘and she is square-rigged, which means she is either a European trader or a pirate. I am not minded to leave whoever, or whatever that ship is in any doubt as to who commands on this coast. Send the men to quarters, run up our colours and run out the guns.'

‘Aye, aye, sir.' Lazenby went off, shouting orders for all hands.

Faulkner added with a shout, ‘And an ensign at the main masthead too, Mr Lazenby.'

When he eventually lowered his glass he found the slightly stooped figure of Walker, the gunner, at his elbow. ‘Well, Mr Walker, you have come to inform me how little powder we have remaining, no doubt.'