Hostile Shores (40 page)

“And, there is
rich
potential in the Argentine, sirs,” Popham enthusiastically drilled on. “Cattle, hides, tallows, and lards, and mineral wealth, along with vast
seas
of grain crops, and the bark of the
cinchona
tree, which is a specific against Malaria. And, Buenos Aires is one terminus of the Spanish Philippines trade, with all the spices, gold, and silver that that means, annually. Our Drake, in his time, would have given his right arm for the chance to take one of the ‘golden galleons’. Who knows what untold wealth now lies in the warehouses and counting houses of Buenos Aires, gentlemen? Do we appear in the Río de la Plata to augment and light the match to the nationalist uprising, we will outnumber, and over-awe, those Spaniards who still cling to the old regime in Madrid, and they are a distinct minority, all our intelligence, and Captain Waine’s personal observations, assure me!”

He’s mad as a hatter!
Lewrie gawped to himself;
As daft as a March hare!

“Won’t this require an army at least as large as the one that we brought to the Cape, though, sir?” Captain Rowley hesitantly asked, sounding tempted, but wary. “And, do we sail for Buenos Aires, and leave Cape Town un-defended, might we run the risk of losing it to an expeditionary force from the French bases in the Indian Ocean, once they learn of its loss?”

“The French have barely enough troops to garrison Réunion and Mauritius,” Popham was quick to dismiss, “so General Baird will be as safe as houses so long as he holds both fortresses, and can field one brigade of his present strength. A naval presence to defend the Cape is of secondary importance, leaving us free to undertake the invasion of the Argentine.

“I have already spoken with Sir David, and he assures me that he may spare us the Seventy-first Foot, and some dis-mounted dragoons, along with field artillery.… Perhaps we may arm and equip these rescued soldiers from the Queens’ and Fifty-fourth Regiments with surrendered Dutch arms and accoutrements, or trade them for a half-battalion more of Sir David’s troops. General Beresford will command our landing force. And,” Popham paused to give them an reassuring smile, “since the passage to South America requires us to take a great circle route Nor’west with the Sou’east Trades and currents, then over towards neutral Portuguese Brazil, I intend to break our passage at Saint Helena for more water and firewood, and prevail upon the island’s governor to lend me some more troops. A force of two thousand, all told, should be more than sufficient for the initial landings, after which the nationalists come to us. Both Colonel Miranda, and Captain Waine, assure me that there are no more than two thousand Spaniards under arms round Buenos Aires.”

“And here I thought we’d be goin’ East, not West,” Lewrie gaped to fill the uneasy, thoughtful silence. “Have a shot at Réunion, and clean out one privateers’ nest. Have a chance to engage a French squadron, broadside-to-broadside? We’ll be back at convoyin’.”

“Well, in this instance, Lewrie,” Popham said with a pleased simper, “we will most assuredly muster all our Marines and as many sailors as may be spared for shore duty. You may have a chance for even more action ashore … and more mud and dirt on your boots!”

“It
could
be … glorious,” Lieutenant Talbot of the little
Encounter
brig spoke up for the first time.

“As glorious as Lord Clive of India, sirs!” Popham exclaimed, seizing upon that word. “One man, with a laughably small force of sturdy British for the backbone, leading native armies in rebellion against the great Moghuls and their tyranny, won not just a province, but the entire Indian sub-continent, and came home with honour, and the untold wealth of emperors! And, might I add, un-dying renown, hey?

“I fully intend,” Popham said, turning more business-like, as if his case was won, “to depart round the middle of April, if not earlier, so see to your victualling and readiness, gentlemen. We shall be having future conferences anent our preparations, and meetings with General Beresford and his staff officers. It would be good for all our Sailing Masters to meet, as well, to share what knowledge they possess of the Plate Estuary, their pertinent charts, along with what charts may be available from the chandlers here in Cape Town.…”

Lewrie looked round the table at his fellow captains, wondering if he should say something along the lines of
Have ye lost yer bloody mind?
or
This is all a load of moonshine!
and would speaking up make a groat’s worth of difference. There were several hooded expressions of worry, but in the main, his compatriots looked as if they would go along with Popham’s orders, “muddle through”, and hope to make the best of it. Deference to the authority of one’s commanding officer was sacrosanct in the Royal Navy; men had been court-martialled for
mute
insubordination for obeying but doing so in a surly manner, or for questioning a superior’s order too strongly.

He ain’t
askin’
for our suggestions,
Lewrie thought;
His mind’s made up and he’s Hell-bent on his little … crusade, and nothing anyone can say’d dissuade him! This
ain’t
goin’ t’end well!

“… may appear wide, but it is rather shallow, so we may have to put off the selection of our landing beaches until we enter the estuary,” Popham had been going on, just bubbling over with enthusiasm, and waving his cabin stewards to come forward with newly-opened wine bottles. “A glass with you all, sirs!” Popham cried as their glasses were filled. “To victory and glory in the Argentine!” he proposed, and they had no choice but to echo that toast and toss back their wines.

*   *   *

“Well, that was … breath-taking,” Captain Donnelly of the
Narcissus
frigate muttered to Lewrie as they stood near HMS
Diadem
’s entry-port to make their departures in order of seniority.

“Aye,
breath-takin
’s a
mild
way t’put it,” Lewrie agreed in a low voice. “Never been there, mind, but it does strike me that there is a lot more to the Argentine than Buenos Aires. God only knows how many people there are, in a long-settled country nigh the size of
all
Southern Africa. And we’re t’take it with only one infantry regiment? Sounds daft t’me!”

“We
might
get a second regiment, or a battalion at the least, at Saint Helena,” Donnelly speculated. “With three hundred and fifty of our Marines and sailors … strip our ships to the bare bones … we
might
succeed.
If
we find allies in the rebels, and the Spanish garrison is weak.” Donnelly didn’t sound hopeful.

“If there’s no opposition from the Spanish navy,” Lewrie had to point out, scowling. “If that Colonel Miranda is to be believed. It is just
too
 … iffy.”

“The Dons don’t have much of their navy overseas, and we will have two sixty-fours, a fifty-gunner, and three frigates, so we have little to fear on that head,” Donnelly said.

“Only
two
sixty-fours?” Lewrie asked.

“
Belliqueux
is to escort the East India Company ships to Madras, now their part in the invasion’s done,” Donnelly told him.

Captain Honyman of the
Leda
frigate emerged from Popham’s cabins, looking as if he was in a pet, his fingers drumming on his sword hilt.

“I am to stay here at Cape Town,” Honyman announced, growling. “Don’t know whether to feel cheated, or mightily relieved.”

“Protect it all by yourself, sir?” Lewrie asked, amazed.

“I will have the
Protector
gunboat,” Honyman sneered, “and the
sight
of that French fourty-gunner,
Volontaire,
anchored between the shore fortresses. She hasn’t a full Harbour Watch aboard, but anyone who sails in for a look
should
take her at face value for a ship in full commission.”

“Who got her?” Captain Donnelly asked.

“Commander Josceline Percy,” Honyman said with a snort. “Left England too late with orders to have
Espoir,
and had to beg a passage in
Protector.
Lucky fellow.”

“Lucky, indeed!” Lewrie said, chuckling. “Lose a brig, get a frigate, and be sure t’be made ‘Post’! Ehm … even with your ship here, sir, isn’t the Commodore takin’ a huge risk? Admiralty might have a very dim view of it, success at Buenos Aires be-damned.”

“Ah, but he has so
many
friends in high places, Lewrie!” Captain Honyman said more loudly, his sneers more pronounced. “He’s the ear of the Prime Minister, a doting patron at Admiralty in Lord Melville, an host of ‘petti-coat’ allies in every salon through his wife’s excellent connexions … perhaps cater-cousins in the Privy Council, I shouldn’t wonder! As he had told us … so very,
very
often, what? ‘When last I played at bowls with the Prince of Wales’ … ‘When Noah and I compared notes on tides and currents’? God,
spare
us!” Honyman gravelled. “But, in the end, I expect he’ll be excused for abandoning his post … it’s the way of things.”

“But, only if we’re successful,” Lewrie cautioned.

By God, we’d better, or it’s the ruin of us all,
he thought.

“Well, there is that!” Captain Honyman hooted with a snicker, as if failure was no skin off his own nose. “Gentlemen, I wish you both the very best of good fortune over there in South America. Just so long as I’m not part of it, no matter which way it goes. Take joy of the Commodore’s success. Are you lucky, he might even share a bit of the gloss with you, haw!”

BOOK FOUR

Where is Montjoy the herald? Speed him hence;

Let him greet England with our sharp defiance.

Up, princes! and with spirit of honour edged,

More sharper than your swords, hie to the field.

—W
ILLIAM
S
HAKESPEARE
T
HE
L
IFE
OF
K
ING
H
ENRY
THE
F
IFTH
,
A
CT
III, S
CENE
V, 36–39

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

“Signal from
Diadem,
sir,” Midshipman Rossyngton called out from the taffrails. “It is … ‘Report … Provisions’.”

“Lovely way t’start the day,” Lewrie said, scoffing. “What’s the tally today, Mister Westcott?”

“The Purser’s inventory says we still have seven days’ water and five days’ of bisquit remaining, at full issue, sir,” Lt. Westcott replied, referring to the morning’s tally which Mr. Cadbury had given him after breakfast.

“Pass those to Rossyngton, then,” Lewrie told him, “and pray that this voyage doesn’t last much longer. We’re almost to the Plate Estuary, but how we’re to victual from a hostile shore is anyone’s guess.”

When Commodore Popham had announced that they would break their passage at St. Helena, lengthening the duration of the voyage, Lewrie and his officers had determined to buy or have built extra water butts to stow below. Cape Town had the facilities to bake bisquit in great quantities to service the needs of the merchant trade which put in to victual, so HMS
Reliant
had left the Cape with a goodly extra supply as well.

The problem had arisen after leaving St. Helena, for the expedition had had to sail further North, riding the Sou’east African Trade winds and the Agulhas Current, to the latitude of the Cape Verde Isles to catch the Nor’east Trades that would carry them across the Atlantic to South America, and the ships of the squadron had wallowed in the variable zone between those two great wind and current routes, some days barely making steerage way, before resuming adequate progress. The requests for reports on how much basic provisions remained lately had become a daily fret.

“We
could
have put in somewhere in the Vice-Royalty of Brazil, sir,” Westcott commented after returning forward from relaying their figures to Midshipman Rossyngton. “Portugal is neutral, after all. It would not have had to be Rio de Janeiro, or another major port. Any fishing port would have served.”

“Hah!” was Lewrie’s sour reply. “After the blow Popham got from Governor Patten at Saint Helena, I don’t think he wants anyone in authority t’know where we
are
!”

News had come from London that the Prime Minister, and Popham’s “dear friend” and supporter, William Pitt, had died on the 22nd of January. The new Prime Minister, Lord Grenville, had quickly assembled his new administration, “The Ministry of All Talents” due to the many new and younger men who, on paper at least, possessed such great potential and brilliance. William, Lord Grenville, was
not
a fan of Popham’s.

And, to make things even worse for the Commodore, the Right Honourable Charles Grey, M.P., was the new First Lord of the Admiralty, and no one knew what he might think of any expedition to South America, especially one dreamt up on the fly, without official leave. Lewrie strongly suspected that their little squadron was now
slinking
to Buenos Aires, hoping to achieve victory before anyone could recall them, staying a days’ sail ahead of any orders from London, and out for a very quick
fait accompli
!

How that would be achieved was worrying, too. General Baird had given Popham and Brigadier Beresford only seven hundred men of the 71st Highlanders, along with six pieces of field artillery and two troops of dis-mounted Light Dragoons from the 20th. Popham’s hope for enthusiastic support from Governor-General Patten at St. Helena had been dashed; he had contributed only two companies of infantry, all that he might spare from the defence of such a vital mid-ocean post.

To make up the lack of soldiers, Popham had invented the “Royal Blues”, stripping all his warships of most of their Marines and as many sailors as could be spared, to add another 340 men who would be landed ashore when the time came. After witnessing the size and power of General Baird’s army of five thousand in combat at Cape Town, though, Lewrie had his doubts what a force of around sixteen hundred could accomplish. It was seeming dafter and dafter!