HMS Diamond (38 page)

Chapter Four

      
The streets and place names in Toulon are as accurate as I could determine.

      
The Cathedral of St. Louis is accurately described, but I was unable to determine its location relative to the Champ de Mars, so I simply moved it there. The handbill is fictional but the slaughter of the Toulon citizens took place as described. The only departure from fact was that the killing of the dockyard workers and the cannon-fire killing of the citizenry took place on separate occasions. And yes, that glorious hero, Napoleon, did indeed pull the trigger on those civilians. It was not the first time he had mass-murdered unarmed people in cold blood nor, as you will see in future books, the last.

Chapter Five

      
Sir Sidney’s visit to the Admiralty was fictional but the description of 18th Century London and the Admiralty House are not.

      
Sir George Spencer was indeed the First Lord of the Admiralty at this time and had a special relationship with Sidney Smith. Indeed, in many ways Spencer was Smith’s patron. He saw Smith’s brilliance when others did not, and he helped Smith out many times during his career.

      
Spencer’s description of the jealousy and hard feelings that his fellow officers felt toward him was true. It was something that was to plague Smith his whole life. Indeed, their animosity is one of the main reasons why Smith is not better known today. Compounding the problem was the fact that Smith did not "suffer fools gladly;" which can be a problem back when the Royal Navy had no shortage of fools. Sometimes they commanded ships, sometimes they commanded fleets, and sometimes they sat on the Board of Admiralty itself.

      
Smith was in fact given command of the
HMS Diamond
, his first command since the
HMS
Alcmene,
which was put into ordinary in 1783. The description of the
Diamond
is quite accurate. It was based on David White’s excellent book
The Frigate Diana
, which was a sister ship of the
Diamond
.

      
The names of the officers who actually served with Sir Sidney aboard the Diamond are accurate. They are as follows (parentheses indicate first names I had to make up because I could not determine the actual ones):

Mr. (John) Wilkie - Ship’s master

Lt. Horace Pine - 1st Lieutenant

Lt. Richard Pearson - 2nd Lieutenant

Lt. (James) Sandsbury - 3rd Lieutenant

Lt. Edmund Carter - Marine Lieutenant

Mr. William Knight - Midshipman

Mr. John Wesley Wright - Midshipman

      
The description of Lt. Pine’s adventures in recruiting is fictional, but accurately describes the methods and problems.

      
The ship with the "Smith Gun Mount" was real as was the design. Originally built as a barge, she was bought in to the navy in 1793 and christened HMS
William
(Gunboat). In 1795 Sidney Smith was allowed to modify the ship to test some of his ideas with regard to gunboat design. That testing took place in Portsmouth, but I moved it to Deptford to save Sir Sidney from collecting too many frequent carriage-rider miles.

      
There were actually two versions of the
William
, one in 1795 (described here) and the second in 1797. In the later version the forward 24-pounder was replaced with a 32-pound carronade, although Smith’s rotating canon ball designed remained in place. Aft, the two 12-pound carronades were replaced with one 32-pound carronade that was as unusual as the forward gun. Instead of sticking out the stern like any self-respecting naval cannon, it was put on a pivoting track that ran port-to-starboard. In other words, you could have it firing to starboard then, at a moments notice, pivot it around, slide it across the deck, and have it firing to port.

      
Susan Whitney was not quite correct, however. It did not take the Admiralty "a hundred years," to approve Smith’s designs—it only took them 71. On February 23, 1866 work was completed on the HMS
Prince Albert
, which was the first British warship with turret guns as its main armament. Men turning a rack-and-pinion device could move the guns through 360 degrees in about a minute.

      
Indeed, throughout this series of books you will see numerous inventions, innovations and actions by Sir Sidney Smith that were way,
way
, ahead of his time. In many ways, if the Admiralty had listened to Sir Sidney, there would have been no Horatio Nelson. His heroics would not have been needed.

      
Jervis’ reform of sickbay design actually occurred, along with Susan’s mercury treatment for syphilis. The "Great Whitney Literacy Campaign" was fiction but represents a more general campaign for the literacy of all classes that was occurring at about that time. Usually a shipboard library, when there was one, was sponsored by the ship’s chaplain and was done for the "moral improvement" of the men.

      
The description of the confused state of medical regulation is accurate. And, it really was quite unusual for a fully trained physician to serve on a ship as small as a frigate. (But, hey, if Patrick O’Brian can do it in the Aubrey/Maturin series, so can I.)

Chapter Six

      
The dastardly Lord Howell is fictional as is the theft of the gold shipments, but the shipments themselves were quite real. The possibility of losing one was something that kept admirals, politicians and businessmen awake at night.

      
The Chouan Army was real and General Louis de Frotté was at their head. François de Tromelin was also real. He, General de Frotté, and Midshipman Wright would have a major role in Smith’s later life, as you will see in future books.

      
The plan for attacking Paris by running two armies up the Seine river, one on each side and supported by ships, was actually submitted by Smith to the Admiralty. It was another of a long list of ideas that might have actually worked, but was summarily disregarded by his superiors. Smith eventually stopped asking for permission to do things and simply did them, a fact that later was to keep him in constant hot water with his superiors.

Chapter Seven

      
The
Vengeur
was a real privateer and was actively pursued by Sidney Smith. The tactics described in this book to cut out merchantmen from convoys were the ones she actually used.

      
Smith’s exploits in Brest and at Herqui took place as described, although not one right after the other as described here. He really did bluff his way out of Brest; Midshipman Wright really was inserted into Herqui on a mysterious mission, and Lt. Pine really was wounded while storming the guns at Herqui by climbing up the cliff in front of them.

      
The storm in which the
Diamond
found herself between Brest and Herqui is fictional but is based on the actual experience of a different ship.

Chapter Eight

      
As with the escapades in Brest and Herqui, Smith’s attempt to cut out the
Vengeur
from Le Havre actually happened as described (give or take a sword fight or two).

      
Lewis William Otto was indeed the French representative in London who was responsible for prisoner exchanges. The exchange program was run as described and Captain Bergeret was sent back to France in exchange for Sir Sidney, but immediately sent back.

      
Smith was in fact charged with being an arsonist because of his torching of the fleet at Toulon. This took him out of the prisoner of war category and allowed the French to hold him in prison for several years.

Chapter Nine

      
The jail cell and the use of "argot" in French prisons is accurately described.

      
The robbery of the stagecoach actually happened as described, although not at the time and place shown here. Known as the Theft of the Lyon Mail, it was one of the more celebrated crimes of 18th Century France. What made it so remarkable was that the court wound up hanging the wrong man. It seems the man Lesurques, mentioned at the beginning of the chapter, was nearly identical in appearance to one of the actual bandits and was rounded-up with them. Despite several people testifying (including the bandits themselves) that Lesurques was innocent, they hung him anyway; and following the trial all of Lesurques’ property was confiscated leaving his family penniless. Even though the courts eventually admitted they had made a mistake, they refused to give any of the money back. His wife and one of his daughters finally committed suicide, his son had to join the army to stay alive but died during Napoleon’s Russian campaign; and the final child, a daughter, died in an insane asylum.

      
Couriol was a real person, one of the Lyon mail bandits, and neither a British spy nor a royalist fighter. He was a bandit. He was hung with the others. It’s just I hate to waste a good sounding French name, so I kept him in the story.

      
The palace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye still exists; and it, along with the mile long terrace is today a major tourist attraction.

      
William Wickham was a real person and one of the most interesting people to emerge out of the Napoleonic Wars. He was a master spy and ran a brilliant series of intelligence operations throughout Europe during the war. If I may stretch a literary allusion, he was the
original
James Bond; and is credited with being the father of the now famous British Secret Service. The reason you have probably never heard of him was because he
was
so good. Scholars are, to this day, trying to figure out all the things he did. Needless to say, you will see more of him in future episodes.

      
The piece from the
Gazette Nationale
that closes the book is a direct quote of an article that actually appeared. As mentioned above, Smith was indeed captured at Le Havre and hauled off to prison on trumped-up charges as a criminal, not as a prisoner of war. Because of that, he was to spend the next two years in a French prison; but it was not idle time. (What fun would that be, huh?)

      
To find out what happens next you will, of course, have to read the next book. As with the previous books, however, you may rest assured that it will be based on the actual events in the life of a most extraordinary man.

About the Author

      
Writing has become a "second career" for Tom Grundner—or maybe a third or fourth career, depending on how you count them.

      
Dr. Grundner received his undergraduate degree in Psychology from Eastern Michigan University; a masters degree in Human Learning from the Institute for Behavioral Research in Silver Spring, Maryland; a second masters in Education from the University of Southern California; and a doctorate in Educational Philosophy and psychology, also from USC.

      
The majority of his working life was spent as a college professor. In 1991, however, he bailed out of academia, ran a nonprofit organization for a while, bailed out of that and, given his background and training, made the only career move he thought to be logical—he became a full time custom golf clubmaker.

      
His experience as a clubmaker led him to write a series of golf equipment books with noted golf club designer, Tom Wishon. As a result of the success of these books he was able to become one the original investors in Fireship Press.

      
Today he serves as the "Senior Editor" of Fireship, which also allows him to indulge in his first love—writing books about the 18th Century Royal Navy. His current major project is a series of novels based on the real-life exploits of Sir Sidney Smith; and is currently working on book four of what he projects to be a nine volume series.