Sails Across the Sea: A Tim Phillips Novel (War at Sea Book 8) (12 page)

The new monsoon season was about to begin and Phillips wished to put to sea early in case the reversal of the wind patterns might begin earlier than expected. In this case, for the rest of the summer, winds from the south-west over the Indian Ocean might be expected to assist the Badger toward the Indian sub-continent. In autumn, the winds would reverse and help propel them on their return trip.

It was important the ship proceed on their voyage as early as possible. As they waited, merchant shipping arrived in harbor, also awaiting the favorable wind patterns. As they waited, there were some merchant seamen aboard the traders who decided they had had enough of the seagoing life and were attracted by the green landscape around Simonstown. Phillips had made arrangements with the authorities on shore to notify him whenever these men were apprehended after jumping ship. He managed to collect and press ten of these people before word got out of the danger of being impressed into the Royal Navy.

Phillips had to face indignant ships’ captains who wished their hands back but firmly assured them he was perfectly within his rights to round up deserters and put them in his own ship.

With all its new hands aboard, HMS Badger set sail. With a new first officer and many new hands, matters aboard the ship were stressful, but soon evened out. Phillips overheard one of the new hands relating his impressions to another. “At least, we ain’t being worked to death by a hard horse first mate. Here we have a dozen hands to do a job that two had to do aboard the old Princess. I heard tell all these Navy captains were free with the lash, but this captain hasn’t let the cat out of the bag yet on this voyage. I wish I had heard about this before. I hear some of the old hands are due to get enough prize money to set themselves up with their own pub when they get back home.”

After some gun and sail drill, Badger turned back to harbor where she picked up a convoy on their way to India. As normally happened in convoys, many of the masters felt free to do matters their own way, especially when it came to reading signals or obeying them. Phillips did not consider himself bound to attempt to force any of the captains to follow his orders.

Before sailing, he had purchased some paper at a stationer’s shop ashore and ordered his two midshipmen, including the hand Simmons, who Acting Lieutenant Hardesty had recommended, to copy an order he had drafted. Basically, the order stated what was expected from each captain, and the difficulties he might find himself into should he ignore the advice. All captains were advised to have the proper crew aboard before sailing. It advised the captains that any ship leaving the convoy voluntarily would be entered into the log. Possibly the insurance carrier might decline to honor a policy if that ship were lost for any reason.

From his father, Captain Phillips had heard of the various foibles of merchant ship captains. In this case he learned a new one. One vessel, a brig-snow was painfully slow with her sail drill and was having a hard time keeping up. She has sailed without a full crew and was unable to make and reduce sail as she should. After lagging far behind the others, she caught up when the winds died. She kept the winds longer than the rest of the ships and signaled for Badger to send a boat. Wary of any tricks by this merchant captain, Phillips merely hoisted the signal for ‘Query?’

After repeated requests for a boat from the merchantman, the captain of that vessel was pulled over in a leaking skiff by a pair of oarsmen. That captain was vehement in his demand that in the future Phillips must honor his request for a boat. After all, the man of war had a much larger crew than the merchantman. Phillips listened politely, until the merchant captain demanded a half dozen hands to work his ship, since his men could not keep up with the Navy’s demands.

Phillips reminded the captain of the notice he had sent before sailing about the responsibilities of the merchant captains. He informed the man if he had too few crew to man his ship, his only recourse was to return to Cape Colony and hire more people. Of course then, he must wait for the next convoy if he wished to keep his insurers happy.

When the indignant merchant captain refused, Phillips bade him goodbye and saw him over the side. Protesting all the way, the fellow assured him he would report him to the Admiralty, and this would be the last command Phillips would ever have. Phillips lifted his hat and turned his back. The wind had picked up by then, but Phillips waited for that merchant captain to regain his ship before hoisting the signal to set sail.

With a following wind pushing them right along, the merchant fell farther behind as he declined to hoist the proper sail. Phillips made sure the previous events had been entered into the log with the appropriate times, and had his first officer and Mister Tringle sign the log.

By the evening, they had sank the merchant’s topsails below the horizon, and she was seen no more. Phillips never knew whether she had returned to Cape Colony or had perished in some manner.

For the next week, no traffic of any kind was seen, but then three John Company ships were seen ahead. They had sailed from England, not touching at Cape Colony and were now well into the Indian Ocean. On sighting each other, the separate convoys merged and the commodore of the senior company ship was pulled over to Badger when the winds died.

The monsoon winds, previously speeding them on their way, now decided to die down, and the ships came almost to a halt. As they wallowed there in place, clouds in the distance in the west were approaching. Mister Tringle assured them the winds were on their way.

Phillips and the commodore had a productive meeting and news exchanged. The commodore reported a big forty gun French frigate had attempted to catch them the day before, but she was too slow and they sank her tops below the horizon.

Phillips related his engagement earlier with a big frigate and wondered if this might be the same. The commodore thought that might be likely. “This frigate”, he said “was surely battered about when I saw her in my glass. She did not have a full suit of sail, and what she had was more patches and tatters than whole cloth. We had no difficulty in escaping her.”

While the Company commodore was with them, Phillips went over with him his ideas of what to do if the enemy should happen upon them. He gave the commodore copies of some signal commands from his own signal book, and asked if his ships would follow his commands. With the agreement of the commodore, the fleet went on its way as soon as the wind picked up.

The fleet was indeed moving, but the large French frigate was also on the way. She had picked up the wind long before it reached the convoy, and now was coming up hand over fist. She had encountered a better breeze than the convoy and was closing rapidly. The convoy was traveling in line astern, with Badger off on the windward beam. The rearmost Indiaman, with a higher masthead and an alert lookout spotted her tops’ls first and hung up the signal ‘Enemy in sight astern.’

Thus prompted, Badger’s own lookout a moment later to repeat the sighting. Phillips was not unduly alarmed. There could be many reasons for a lone sail to appear in their wake. Since it appeared to be a European ship, the most logical explanation for it to be a British ship, either an Indiaman or a large frigate. As she approached though, by late afternoon it was apparent it was their old opponent the French frigate. Toward evening, the winds had picked up in favor of the convoy and for a while the convoy was outpacing the interloper.

Phillips took this opportunity to split he convoy. The smaller vessels that had accompanied him from the Cape were ordered to proceed on their own. He felt the big frigate was bound to pick off one if the convoy stuck together. He reasoned if these small fry were out of the way, the frigate would likely come after the Indiamen, which he intended to remain with. The ships departing sailed off to the north-east without pursuit.

As darkness fell however, the breeze fell for both sides, becoming fitful in the night. By sunrise the next morning the enemy was still with them, having come up to windward. For much of the next day, first on side gained the advantage of the wind, then the other. By nightfall of the second night, both sides were barely in sight of each other. While the moon was out, a heavy cloud cover prevented much illumination, and when the wind picked up, Phillips signaled a course change to the convoy by dark lantern.

One Indiaman missed the signal and remained on course. Early next morning, the others noted the missing ship in their convoy and heard the sounds of gunfire in the distance. He hung out the signal for the others to proceed on their own while he went after the stray, but the others would have nothing to do with that. The commodore insisting they would all go to the aid of their comrade.

These Indiamen, Phillips had noticed before, were not completely helpless. Many of them had a respectable broadside of large caliber guns. The problem however was two-fold. First, while the Indiamen did have a fairly large crew, many of them were servants, intended to wait on the wealthy passengers aboard. Secondly, those same passengers, having paid handsome prices for their passage, protested loudly when their rest was disturbed by the crew exercising the guns. Thus, the crewmen were mostly unfamiliar with their weapons. The deck space needed to serve the guns was often occupied by deck cargo which would often require almost an act of Parliament for the captain to order it thrown over the side.

The stray Indiaman and her pursuer were spotted soon after the chase began. Led by the sound of her guns, the frigate was tracked and gained upon. She was having difficulty keeping up with her prey because of damage to her rigging and Phillips had become convinced he could take this ship. As they gained, it became obvious she did not have a full set of guns on the beam closest to Badger.

Since the frigate had much heavier scantlings than either Badger or the Indiamen, it would be much more difficult to damage her, while the enemy’s heavier guns could cause havoc with her more lightly built opponents. The Indiamen had some heavy caliber guns similar to carronades, but slightly heavier and with a longer barrel. Twenty four pounders, they could deliver a severe blow to an opponent if only they could get within range.

Badger’s nine pounders would need to be skillfully directed to cause the frigate much harm. Fortunately, Phillips knew the French ship had been mauled by the thirty two pound carronades of the escort brig of the East India Company that had earlier engaged the ship. Phillips doubted the damage had been properly repaired because of the lack of a secure base of operations. Her hull must necessarily be more fragile than a sound ship of the same class.

The frigate, sailing about as fast as her prey, directly behind them, was firing her two forward guns at her target. Phillips thought these were probably eight pounders, with twenty fours on her broadside. She was having to veer a few points before every shot to line up her gun at the target, costing her speed. Phillips thought if he were commanding the frigate, he would refrain from firing until he had gained on her enough to ensure good accuracy, then come up on her beam to fire his broadside.

As it was, Badger and the pair of Indiamen, were approaching on the leeward beam of the frigate. Through his glass, he saw the Indiamen were clearing for action, Navy style, with boxes and barrels thrown over the side. A crate of live ducks, formerly intended for the wardroom table, had been thrown overboard, and the freed fowl were paddling around, expressing their indignation.

At long gunshot range the three ships began firing at the frigate. At first the shots were ignored by the frigate as merely an annoyance, but then her fore topmast sagged as a shot hit the spar. He watched as men swarmed up to take down the tops’l but before they could manage it, the spar fell.

Approaching closer, fire was continuous from the Indiamen and Badger. Some of the larger guns of the Company ships were beginning to tell. The enemy foremast backstay parted, as did some foremast shrouds that had been lubberly repaired from her last action. The whole mast then fell to leeward, tearing away the remainder of the foremast standing rigging and bringing the ship right around from the drag in the water. The jib boom fell away and the bowsprit itself. Out of control now, the frigate, her bows now enmeshed with fallen gear, came off the wind.

As the frigate lay across the approaching Badger’s bow, her starboard guns that would bear opened fire. Probably only ten of the ports opened and none of the shots hit Badger. She herself turned to starboard and fired into the frigate. Her guns were more accurate, but did little more damage. Then the Indiaman Wessex came up and opened fire at close range with her twenty four pounder guns. She did little damage with her first broadside but as she reloaded, the other Indiaman, Royal Charlotte, came up and fired also. Several of her balls struck the frigate and now all three ships were firing into her. The ship being pursued, Pendennis Castle, now took the opportunity to come about and join in the fray.

The frigate answered valiantly, but her rate of fire was slow and it was apparent she was becoming overwhelmed. More of her guns were put out of action. Badger lay across the enemy’s bow and raked the big ship while Royal Charlotte came up to her quarter and poured in her twenty four pound balls. Smoke was seen coming from her hatches then, soon after the smoke appeared, an explosion tore open the ship. Afterward, Phillips wondered if her full load of gunpowder had detonated since it had not seemed to have had the force that one would expect.

However, the evidence was clear. The upper deck of enemy ship was now in fragments and bits and pieces of ship and men were falling in the sea. Fire was taking hold in the remainder. Soon, another, more violent explosion tore the remainder of the ship apart. All four ships put boats in the water to look for survivors, but only three were found. Two were badly injured men of apparent South Asian parentage, while the other was a European lad of about sixteen. He was in better condition than the others and was able to recover. The other two died that evening.

When able to speak, the boy told his tale to Acting Lieutenant Hardesty, who had studied the French language as a boy before turning to the sea. His grasp of the language was not perfect but he learned the French ship, Argosy, had lost most of her original crew from battle injuries and disease during the years she had been away from Europe, replaced by natives from around the Indian Ocean. Her former captain had died last year and a man who had been merely an aspirante, a French Naval cadet, when the ship originally sailed, was in command at the end.

The cause of the explosion became evident. The inexperienced captain of the frigate had ordered powder charges in quantity brought up from below to save time reloading. He felt too much time was wasted waiting for the single charges to be brought up from the magazine in the hold as they were needed. With several charges at each gun, he thought he would be able to fire faster. Somehow, some the powder charges fired, the low-order explosions flashing from one cartridge to another on the gun deck. This had destroyed the fighting ability of the frigate and led to the fire moments later that finally reached the magazine.

The frigate had taken on numerous people from different areas around the Indian Ocean, few of them accustomed to European sailing ships. In earlier days, the successful capture of British merchant ships had brought a flood of recruits aboard to take the place of French casualties and share in the plentiful loot but lately, the deteriorating frigate had a much more difficult task catching its prey and casualties were higher. The non-European seamen, often mere pirates, began to desert. The lack of a common language and the differing skill sets, as well as a deteriorating ship, caused untold difficulty in their pursuit of the India trading ships.

Phillips asked the commodore back aboard to discuss matters. He himself wished to beat back to Cape Colony to effect repairs, but wondered if the Company ships felt prepared to continue on their voyage un-escorted.

The commodore assured him the trio would have not the slightest difficulty in making Bombay by themselves. The merchantmen had demonstrated to themselves how to treat pirates and were anxious to be on their way to be the first ships to make port with the new monsoon. The first ships to reach port would receive the best prices for the merchandise they had aboard.

Badger wore around and began the trip back to Cape Colony, beating against the wind. By now, his crew was settled in well. Mister Simmons, the new midshipman, was performing well with his duties. Unlike many a young lad of twelve or thirteen, fresh from shore, Simmons was an older hand, who had been rated Able before his elevation. No one had to warn him of juvenile antics and he was a credit to the ship.

The major difficulty was his absolute lack of knowledge of mathematics. He would need to master this subject if he were to learn to navigate, a most necessary skill. Mister Tringle, the acting sailing master, took on the task, and soon the pair was usually to be found in the mizzen top, Tringle drilling the new mid in the mathematical mysteries.

The results of their labor was shown only a month later when Mister Simmons took his place on the quarterdeck for the first time. Armed with a spare sextant borrowed from his captain, he was able to compute a ship’s position only a few miles distant from the others.

HMS Badger was making slow going of her voyage back to Africa. It was necessary to beat against the wind much of the time. On her way, the lookout in the maintop spotted a sail approaching. It was a brig, and she flew her number and the proper recognition signal. It was a new number that was not in Badger’s book, but the signal was proper so the pair came together without undue anxiety. She proved the be one of the new all-carronade gunbrigs, such as Phillips had commanded previously, that had been ordered by the East India Company for service in the East.

She was commanded by Lieutenant Harrison of the East Indian Naval Service and was on her way to Bombay. Phillips informed him of his action with the French frigate and asked him to watch out for the convoy he had left last week also bound for Bombay.

Harrison told him of a corvette he had met a few days ago that had come to meet him, but had fled after being fired upon by his brig’s broadside of thirty two pounder carronades. Phillips guessed this ship might be the one he had met off the Cape, and it would be a feather in his cap if he could locate and defeat her. News from the Cape indicated several expected ships were missing and were feared lost.