Across to America: A Tim Phillips Novel (War at Sea Book 9) (11 page)

Tenedos had long since been left behind beneath the horizon, and with his crippled ship, Phillips had no desire to search for her.

A conference in the middle of night with his carpenter, the sailing master and first officer revealed the ship must make some important repairs before she could safely face the rigors of the open sea. The Constitution now far behind them in the dark, Andromeda turned toward land. It was necessary first to insure they were out of sight of Constitution by first light, then they must find a secure refuge to make repairs.

The masthead lookouts were sent up early, and all awaited the first reports. “Land ahead!” was announced, and there, well ahead, was a desolate looking shore. With no sign of any other shipping, Andromeda followed the shoreline. Mister Harding came up with a chart of these lands and indicated what he thought was their proximate position.

They were apparently following a long, off-shore island. There was no hope of safety on this low-lying coast, but eventually, the island ended, and another began a mile ahead of them. Harding did not trust the chart, so the launch was put over the side and the boat crew took her ahead to check the depths. Proceeding slowly, with the depths sounded as they went, the ship moved along under her reefed tops’ls. Once through the channel between the two islands, they were in a passageway between the mainland and the next barrier island. Crawling along, with the ship’s keel sometimes just feet above the bottom, they came to the mouth of a river.

The boat moved into the river and found just enough depth in a single channel to take the ship. The remaining boats were lowered and manned. With her sails furled, the boats pulled the ship into the river channel upstream as far as she would go. Phillips decided this was the best he could do. He felt the offshore island would protect them from any ordinary storm. This was hurricane country so that had to be considered, but he could do nothing about that problem for now.

Mister Daniels took a party of Marines to reconnoiter the terrain. Because of the marshy surroundings, the men were ordered to wear their normal ship-board attire, the same slop clothing the seamen wore. Their uniforms were left on the ship. The party of mud-smeared men returned late in the afternoon with their report. This area was low-lying and marshy, with hummocks of higher ground. Game seemed to be plentiful. No recent sign of men, although a fallen cabin and overgrown field was found upriver on some higher ground.

Chips reported to the captain that while he had much of the material needed for the more important repairs, he did need some heavy timbers to replace damage in the stern. The ship’s sternpost must be built up, and the rudder repaired, as well as some framing issues taken care of.

There were many bigger trees available that could be harvested but the only available means of transportation was the river, so it would be necessary to find stands of the proper timber along the river’s bank. Chips took a party armed with axes and saws to search. While they were gone, the crew began unloading the ship, especially the stern, to get it as far out of the water as was possible. A pair of boat guns were taken from the ship and emplaced ashore covering the likely approaches to the site.

That afternoon, the carpenter’s crew came back accompanied by a strange looking man and a team of rough looking oxen dragging an oak log behind. The man was bearded and wore buckskin clothing, and a hat made of the hide of some small animal.

Phillips stepped back as the man approached and expectorated a stream of tobacco juice at his feet. The man held out a grimy hand and stated, “Jedediah Stuart here, gen’ral.”

Phillips gingerly shook Stuart’s free hand. The backwoodsman was holding a long rifle very similar to his own, save for the different ignition system.

Chips came forward. “Mister Stuart here met us as we were deciding whether to cut down this tree. He offered to haul it here with his team if we would pay him a Spanish dollar for it. I told him we would need another three just like it.”

Phillips invited the woodsman onto the Andromeda and had his servant set up the deck chairs, and produce cups and a flagon of rum. Stuart downed the rum in one swallow and held out the cup for another.

“So, Mister Stuart, you can deliver three more logs like this one if we pay you four dollars?”

“Yessir Genr’al, I know that is highway robbery, but you’ll get the logs a sight faster than if you try to drag ‘em to the river and float ‘em down. ‘Sides, them logs are green an’ won’t float nohow!”

“Well Mister Stuart, you just sit right there and I will get your money.” The cabin had been struck down and much of his furnishings taken ashore, but he knew just where his chest was located in the hold. Finding it, he withdrew his purse and found the dollars. Another long case beside the trunk held the long rifle he had purchased in Halifax. He took the rifle and hunting bag and went back up on deck.

In his absence, the woodsman had downed another mug of rum and his speech was becoming a little slurred. Phillips handed him the coins which were immediately secreted in his own hunting bag.

“Say, Gen’ral, where’d you get that rifle gun? My old pa had one like it. That was a Burkett, out of Lancaster.

“’Cept that lock on your’n was never made by Burkett. Looks like he didn’t quite get it right, whoever did that.”

“This rifle was made in Lancaster, Mister Stuart, although I don’t know who made the weapon itself. A gunmaker in Halifax made the lock.”

“Well, that ‘splains it. Them Yankees never get anything right!”

“Oh, I don’t know, Mister Stuart. This rifle shoots well for me.”

“Well, I’d offer you a match, but your gun would never fire anyhow. I’ll not take your money without a chance.”

Phillips looked around. A small rill running into the river near the boat had washed a small branch onto a small sand bar. It was a stick, barely an inch in diameter and was probably a good ten fathoms away. Pointing at it, he asked Stuart if he could break the stick with a ball from his rifle.

“Well, sure I could, but you can’t, and it wouldn’t be right to shoot against you.”

Phillips stood and retrieved a paper cartridge from his bag. Stuart eyed him curiously as he charged the weapon and extracted the cap from the brass box built into the buttstock. Placing the cap on the nipple, he asked Stuart if he would like to fire the rifle.

“Not me, Genr’l. I’ll not have you laughing at me.”

Phillips took a careful sight, then he eased the trigger back. The heavy long barrel hung steady on the target. The powerful mainspring slammed the hammer down on the cap which exploded instantly, firing the weapon. The stick jumped, broken into two pieces.

“I will be damned Mister! Just how in hell did that thing go off without a flint and frizzen?”

Phillips went over to an arms chest and removed a pistol from inside. He placed another cap on the iron strap reinforcing the cover and struck it with the pistol butt. A loud ‘pop’ sounded as the cap exploded. He showed Stuart how the flash from the cap communicated with the main charge inside the barrel.

“Well, this is all well and good, but just where would you go about getting these caps?”

“The only place I know of, Mister Stuart, is the gunmaker in Halifax, where I bought it.”

“Well, there you go. When you run out of caps, or just lose ‘em, you are out of luck. If I look around, I can find a hunk of flint in most any stream bed and make my own. Now, just when are you gonna be needing them other logs?”

“Just as soon as you can get to it, Mister Stuart. I see Chips is hewing out the first one you brought, already.”

“Well, you see, I’m gonna have to let the team rest a bit. I don’t have any grain to feed them. Just grazing, they don’t last long before they tire.”

“I have no grain, Mister Stuart. I could however give you a hundred pound bag of ship’s biscuit. That might give them some energy to work.”

The cattle wolfed down some biscuit and the hands followed Stuart back to the forest for the second log. By the time it had been felled and brought back to the ship, dusk was falling. Stuart left and promised to be back in the morning.

Chips and his crew labored on the project steadily for the next week. The sheathing in the stern had to be removed and some of the damaged frames repaired. Chips did not wish to take the time to completely replace the broken timbers, so he put them in their proper places and re-enforced them with timbers pinned over them with treenails. He was not satisfied with the green timber he needed to use, but made do with what he had. With fresh sheathing on the stern, he was ready to re-hang the rudder.

A week after they moored in the river, they were ready to begin caulking the repairs. With much of the important work done, it was now a matter of re-stowing the hold and getting everything aboard.

Stuart came back and offered to take Phillips hunting. With time now available, Phillips took Mister Daniels and his batman along and accompanied Stuart. After trudging through the swampy forest for hlours, Stuart left the pair behind a sumac thicket on a knoll. Ordering them to remain there, he told them he would send some meat their way. Phillips readied his rifle, while Daniels checked his personal fusil. This was a light weight weapon firing a heavy ball. Phillips had tried the weapon from the deck aboard ship and found it had a vicious recoil.

The pair soon heard Stuart coming though the undergrowth. Ahead of him a pair of whitetail deer stepped daintily to the edge of the clearing, then sensing danger, leaped forward. Caught by surprise, Phillips managed at the last minute to put the front sight of his rifle out in front of one of the deer and pull the trigger. That deer shot into the brush on the other side of the clearing and was gone.

He dimly remembered Daniel’s fusil crashing but had not seen what happened. Stuart came out of the forest, going right to Daniel’s deer, now folded up where it had fallen, at the edge of the clearing. The heavy ball had dropped it immediately. He went to the thicket and nodded to Phillips. “Here is your deer. She ran a ways after you hit her. These small rifle balls do not always stop them in their tracks. I like to hold on their neck, myself. Seems they go down faster.”

A party from the ship arrived and dressed out the deer. Stuart was presented half of Phillips’ deer. The remainder would feed him and the gunroom, while Daniels’ meat would go to the wardroom.

The gig waited just off the beach while Phillips made his farewells. As he seated himself, Stuart wondered, “Say there Genr’al, I hear we’re fighting the British agin. Know anything about that?”

Surprised, Phillips could only nod.

“Well, I guess we’ll just have to whup ‘em again just like my Pa did, years ago. You take care now, Genr’al, and watch out for them British!”

Phillips boarded on the port side of the ship, without the usual ceremonial. He saw a party preparing to raise the ensign and called out. “Mister Wilson, I’d be glad for you to postpone that until we are out at sea. If anyone on this coast should see us, I’d prefer they did not know who we are.”

With the damage that had been inflicted during the action with Constitution, Phillips felt he needed to have the ship surveyed in a good shipyard. It would be easier to sail up the coast to Halifax, but he knew the shipyard there was busy, and thought there might be an inordinate delay. Chips informed him the green wood they had used for repairs was sure to rot, and the sooner it could be replaced, the better.

Deciding the yard at English Harbor might be a better choice, they went south. The repairs done back on the mainland had been done in a hurry, and there was difficulty with leakage. There was no imminent danger to the ship, but it would be best if the ship not face any heavy weather before more complete repairs could be made.

It was a long trip, but they sailed into Antigua’s English Harbor, and picked up their mooring after saluting the Admiral’s flag. HMS Tenedos was floating proudly at her mooring, and many of her crew stopped what they were doing when they went by. He was pulled over to the flag expecting to see the admiral, but was told the man was indisposed with dropsy. The flag captain took care of his reports and said the dockyard would be notified of the necessary repairs.

“Now then”, the flag captain began. “I understand you were in an action with the USS Constitution and supposedly taken or destroyed. Would you give me the news of what happened to you?”

Phillips had brought along his reports and log which the flag captain glanced through. “You say you obeyed a flag signal from Tenedos to engage the enemy. Could there have been a mistake in reading the signal?”

Phillips answered. “Sir, there were actually three such signals. One was ‘Enemy in Sight’, another “To engage the Enemy’ and the final was ‘Engage the Enemy More Closely’. We did as we were ordered, but Tenedos was unable to come up to assist and we were much beaten about.”

Captain Ellis looked puzzled. “Phillips, you do know Captain Danson of Tenedos died of apoplexy two weeks before that action, do you not?”

Phillips was concerned. Danson was an old friend of the family who had often stayed at the Phillips estate back in his youth. “I did not, Captain Ellis. Who was commanding Tenedos at the time?”

“That would have been Lieutenant Granger, her first lieutenant.”

Now Phillips was really puzzled. Granger had no business ordering a ranking officer as to when or how he was to engage the enemy.

Ellis broke the silence. “Captain, I want you to report back here this afternoon with your signal officer and his log. You should also bring along your first lieutenant and your master with his log.”

Upon returning as ordered, the wan looking admiral was present but said nothing. Captain Ellis was certainly in charge. A few minutes after the party from Andromeda arrived, that from Tenedos entered. Ellis asked Phillips if he had ever met Lieutenant Granger. Phillips assured him that he had never met the man.

After the stilted introductions, Ellis began the proceedings. “Gentlemen, this is by no means an official inquiry, although a report will be submitted to Vice Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane, Commander of the North America Station. Our purpose is to determine exactly who was responsible for the engagement between HMS Andromeda and the USS Constitution. If everyone will place their logs on the table, I would be obliged.”

Ellis continued, “Beginning with Lieutenant Granger. Sir, will you tell me what duty you were performing on the day of the action?”

Granger looked pale and not at all well. “Sir, I was in command of HMS Tenedos, after the death of Captain Danson.”

“Very well, Lieutenant. Will you tell us of the events of that day, starting of course before the action took place?”

“Yes sir, shortly after the lookouts were sent up, I heard the call from the maintop, ‘Sail in sight off the port bow’. I went up on deck and sent an officer to the maintop with a glass. He reported the sighting to be a large ship. Hull down, her identity could not be determined at that time.”

“Very good Mister Granger. Exactly when was her identity determined?”

“Probably a glass later, sir. My sailing master recognized her, having served in the Med when she was there.”

“Fine, now, just who was she?”

“Why, the USS Constitution, sir.”

“And what plans did you make immediately, Mister Granger?”

“Sir, I thought I had better stay out of her way. She is better armed and more strongly built than Tenedos. I felt I would not have a chance if I engaged her.”

“What about if you had assistance. What if another King’s ship were present to assist?”

“Then sir, I think there would have been a real chance to defeat her.”

“Good. Now when did you become aware of the presence of Andromeda?”

“About a glass later. Again, our maintop lookout saw her west of Constitution.”

“And what were your thoughts when you learned of her presence?”

Granger was looking paler by the minute. “Sir, we were unable to read her number at first, but thought she was a King’s ship by the cut of her sails. She appeared to be a large ship-sloop or maybe a small frigate. Without knowing who she actually was, I thought she probably had either a commander or post captain commanding. I knew whoever it was would be superior in rank to myself and therefore in command of any joint action. When we could read her number I learned she was Andromeda, a post ship, and that Captain Phillips was in command.”

“Now, at what time did you signal Captain Phillips that you commanded Tenedos?”

“Well, sir, I never actually told him that I was in command. I thought he already knew.”

“Mister Granger, I myself did not know you were in command until afterward. HMS Andromeda was on detached duty. How was he supposed to learn of the death of Captain Danson?”

Granger stood mute and he was visibly trembling.

Captain Ellis continued, “Mister Granger. What signals were passed between Tenedos and Andromeda before the action?”

“No actual signals sir. We both made our numbers to each other.”

“So you never signaled Andromeda to attack Constitution?”

“Oh no sir. I could not do that. Captain Phillips was senior to me.”

Captain Ellis went to the table and picked up a log book. “This appears to be Tenedos signal log. I see no entry for any signals at the time in question. I wonder why that is? Surely, a simple greeting might be exchanged.”

Granger made no reply.

“Now here we have the signal log from HMS “Andromeda. This shows several entries. The first two seem to be attempts to answer unreadable signals from Tenedos. The next shows the acknowledgement to a signal from Tenedos to Andromeda to ‘Enemy in Sight’. Then we have another acknowledgement of a signal purportedly from Tenedos, ‘Engage the Enemy’. Finally another acknowledgement from the same source, ‘Engage the Enemy More Closely’.  I wonder why the discrepancies?

Ellis eyed the log books closely then opened a drawer on his desk and withdrew a magnifying glass. “I have a little trouble reading fine writing, so am required at times to use this glass.”

Peering closely through the glass, he exclaimed. “Gentlemen, I think I see the difficulty. A page has been cut from this log. I can just see the remains of the original page. Would you gentlemen care to examine this?”

Everyone but Granger took the opportunity to look at the log book. While he was looking at the page with his young eyes, Phillips thought he saw the traces of a sharp blade on the underlying page. He showed that to Captain Ellis, who could not make it out himself, but the admiral’s flag lieutenant could see it quite clearly.

Captain Ellis reported. “Gentlemen, I see no need to continue this discussion. I intend to recommend to the admiral this matter be brought to the attention of Vice-Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane for possible action. You are dismissed. Mister Granger, would you remain behind?”