Sails Across the Sea: A Tim Phillips Novel (War at Sea Book 8) (3 page)

That is what the brig spent the evening doing, thundering away with the big carronades. While his men could use the practice, of course, the real purpose was to give the brig an excuse to be moving during the evening. Normally, of course, he would be forbidden by Admiralty custom from doing all this live fire, but he had purchased powder and shot with his own money. The Navy would take no adverse notice of that.

While the thundering was going on, Chips and his crew were in the process of constructing a gun carriage to hold the first French gun. They were nearly finished when the ship returned to harbor.

Chips reported to Phillips he would need more good oak timber to make the other three gun carriages as well as the iron fastenings. There was a portable forge in the brig which one of the landsmen, a former farrier, could use to make those fittings, but they had no charcoal for it. Phillips had a whole list of material he needed to acquire soon.

It was three days later when Phillips finally was called to the Admiral’s shore office and was told the long awaited pouches had arrived from London. He was to escort four transports to the Spanish coast, find where General Wellesley wanted the supplies, then proceed on Gibraltar for further orders.

With the newly purchased supplies brought aboard and stored, Terrier set sail. She picked up her convoy at Spithead and proceeded on her way. Training was continuous for the next days, both on board the escort brig and the transports. Terrier kept to windward of the flock so that she could swoop down on any misguided privateer that might attempt to destroy the tranquility of the voyage.

Nearing Brest, a pair of luggers were spotted who were taking a suspicious interest in the convoy. Built as normal fishing boats, these particular craft had a few guns aboard and a large number of men to serve as boarders. Given the chance, one could swoop down on a poorly guarded merchant, overpower her crew and carry her off in a flash. Phillips instructed Hawkins to have the guns loaded with grape. The eight pounder gun carriages were not finished yet, so they would rely on the carronades.

The predator boats had apparently worked out a strategy of getting a single transport separated from the convoy. Once they had driven it far enough away, it could be attacked and captured. The presumption of course, was these boats were faster than either the escort brig or the individual ships of the convoy.

Phillips did not think so. Watching the boats he could tell when they were sailing well, and he thought Terrier could do better. He did not, however, let Terrier out. He wanted the enemy to believe the brig was slower than she really was. Mister Hawkins did not believe in this tactic. He wanted Terrier to hang up all the sail she could carry and let the devil take the hindmost. Phillips was beginning to think the man was going to give him trouble. He had never heard the like. In his experience, the captain of a vessel was a god-like being who was listened to with respect by every member of the crew.

Phillips was coming to the belief that Hawkins did not respect him, he just hoped the man would obey him. The problem, Phillips feared, was Hawkins had noticed Phillips taking his own course on various matters, such as obtaining the French guns. There was the possibility that the first officer thought he could defend himself against any disciplinary action brought by Phillips by threatening to relay all of his misdeeds to the admiral. Phillips did not really fear the consequences of any of Hawkins possible revelations of his semi-illicit activities, but he knew the man could cause him a great deal of inconvenience.

Right now, Hawkins was positively dancing, so nervous was he over the incursion of one of the privateers into the convoy itself. He was begging his captain to raise more sail in an effort to drive the interloper away.

Phillips was trying to keep his attention on the other lugger. That one was doing an end around, having sailing clear around the windward flank of the convoy and now looping in from forward. Terrier was there, ignored by the interloper who by now regarded the brig as ineffectual and nearly harmless. While Phillips worked out his solution to the problems, Hawkins suddenly gave orders to the helmsmen and sail handlers to bring the brig around

The brig began to swing around before the action could be corrected. Phillips decided to let the brig turn onto the new course and build up a little momentum, before he corrected the error. He did not wish the hands to believe there was disagreement on the quarterdeck. As the brig settled onto the new course Hawkins had ordered, he looked to Phillips in triumph. Granted, the brig was now coursing toward the corsair in the center of the convoy but that predator was causing no trouble there with the transports scattering from it. Phillips could see the second intruder coming up toward a fat ship loaded with military supplies right on the outside.

The brig, having picked up a little momentum, was ready for the next maneuver. As Hawkins looked on with surprise, Phillips tacked the brig and she came around, suddenly on a course to intersect the enemy. Now was the time to see what the brig could do. Setting all plain sail, aloft and alow, the brig’s cutwater began throwing water to either side of her prow. The privateer closing on its target was now unable to turn aside since the transport he had intended to pillage was alongside

Phillips had an intelligent midshipman standing by on the quarterdeck as a messenger. He gave the lad his instructions and the boy went racing down the deck, stopping at each gun, instructing every gun crew to fire their load of grape into the enemy as the gun bore on the target. The gunner was to aim low, so most of the grapeshot would impact the privateer rather than the transport behind it.

Terrier passed the stem of the lugger by just a few fathoms and the guns began to roar. Each carronade was charged with thirty two pounds of plum-sized iron balls, and the ships were so close most of them hit. Long before the after guns fired, the privateer was in pieces.

Again the brig went after the other lugger but it had seen the error of its ways now and was heading for Brest. Heaving to beside the wrecked lugger, the launch took off what men were still alive. Most of the few survivors were terribly wounded. Captain Phillips felt no enmity for these men. They had fought for their country and lost. He was upset over the actions of his first lieutenant though. Unless the man had simply made a stupid, unprofessional mistake, it seemed he might be attempting to usurp command himself.

Captain Phillips invited the first officer to his cabin that night to discuss the situation. He began by informing the officer he realized how difficult it must be to be under a captain half his age, He informed Hawkins he was prepared to ask for his replacement the next chance he had.

Of course, Hawkins realized that would be the kiss of death to his career. Already a very senior lieutenant, with few distinguishing achievements, he could look forward to spending the rest of his life ashore on half pay.

The officer volubly protested “Sir, I know you are disturbed because I changed course. At the time, I thought you were making a mistake and had not seen the lugger in the middle of the convoy. I am most sorry for my action.”

“Mister Hawkins, there can only be one captain aboard any ship. If you believe that should be yourself, you had better approach the Commander of the Mediterranean Fleet when we join and make your case. Should you attempt such an action again, I will regard it as mutiny and place you under arrest to be held for court martial. As it is, I intend to log the incident.”

The rest of the meal was spent in grim silence. Mister Hawkins apparently still felt he was being abused but now did not dare protest. It was a relief to both when the midshipman of the watch reported the wind was shifting and the brig was now unable to maintain her course. Hawkins immediately left to investigate. A few minutes later, Phillips himself went on deck, staying well away from Hawkins and the Master’s Mate by the helm who were discussing the necessary course change.

Next morning, the convoy was well out in the Atlantic and hopefully free from danger from any of the small, privateer pests along the French coast. With good weather prevailing, Gunner Wilcox and Chips were undertaking to fit the illicit guns to the carriages Chips had constructed.

Four carronades, two forward and two aft, were lifted from their slides and struck below into the hold. The new gun carriages were put in place, then the guns were lifted from the deck by tackle from the yards. Since the exterior of each gun was rather roughly cast, and not uniform, it was necessary to drop the gun in its proposed carriage on a trial, then Chips would carve away any wood that interfered with the gun being seated properly.

By nightfall, the guns were ready for service. There were no prepared powder cartridges for these gun, so new ones had to be sewed. There were still a few barrels of the purchased powder Phillips had laid on before leaving port, so the new cartridges were filled with that. He need not account for this powder or for the shot, but in order to fire grape, he would need to break down some of the 32 pounder grape charges and use the components to make new loads for the smaller guns.

Phillips saw little need for that. Grape was strictly a close range tool, and the remainder of the carronades would prove very useful in filling that need. What he needed the long eight pounders for was for their utility at long range, distances the carronades could not reach.

He had hoped to see a potential target by now to test his new guns upon, but nothing came into sight. Shortly before reaching their rendezvous with the invasion fleet off Lisbon, the wind died down and the convoy had to wait for another breeze. A signal flag was hoisted on Terrier indicating gun drill was to commence.

Having expended much of his practice powder and shot already, Phillips proposed just using the new guns. One of the boats took out empty beef barrels which were tossed overboard. The first shots fired from each gun were with reduced charges, in order to insure the guns were properly seated in their carriages.

Then, the full load was fired. It took some time before the crews became used to the new weapons, and except for number seventeen gun aft, all seemed to be proper. The gun captain of that weapon was upset, saying he thought a defect in the bore of the gun was preventing the best accuracy. A test was done, running a cloth inside the bore on a worm. The cloth would often catch on an interior imperfection.

“Looks like I made a bad bargain, Henderson. Next time we meet a Frenchman, I shall ask for my money back!” Phillips quipped.

The wind returned and next day the transports were handed off to the Army at Lisbon and Terrier resumed her voyage down the Peninsula toward Gibraltar. Passing offshore from Cadiz, early one morning, the lookout was surprised to see a ship emerging from the darkness to the west. His alarmed cry brought Phillips out of his cabin with his glass.

The newcomer just coming into view was only a mile or so away and coming up fast. Whatever else one had to say about the first officer, no one could say he did not know his duty. The crew had been brought up before fist light to clear the brig for action and to clean the decks. With the sighting, the crew flung down their swabs and ran to the guns.

Powder boys were already bringing up the charges and the guns prepared. The gun crews were ordered to leave the gun port lids closed for now. Phillips was standing by the helm with the master’s mate who was acting as sailing master. He ordered the brig to be brought around to obtain a little sea room. The problem was the stranger, which had been identified as a small frigate or large corvette, of twenty four guns now flying the French tricolor, was almost in his way.

The frigate initiated hostilities, firing off her forward portside guns, which were shockingly well aimed. One shot, probably an eight pounder, was directly aimed at the brig’s starboard bow, but a little low. It struck the sea a cables length away, skipped across the surface and slammed into Terrier’s forward hull low, almost at the water line.

The shot, slowed by striking the water, merely started a few seams and cracked the wood in a strake. Terrier, turning toward the aggressor, fired her forward starboard long gun. This shot also hit, and the enemy apparently thinking Terrier was only armed with eight pounders continued on, closing the range. Phillips ordered his topsails aback to slow his forward progress and the enemy rapidly closed her, steadily firing his forward starboard guns at the brig.

Only a few of the enemy guns were firing and hitting their target, but damage was being done to the brig. Some of the balls proved to be twelve pounders and Captain Phillips did not want to think of what they were doing to his brig’s hull. At the proper time, at a close range indeed, he ordered the starboard gun port lids opened and the carronades readied. The forward carronades and the re-loaded long gun all fired nearly simultaneously, while the after carronades fired as they came on target.

The effect was devastating. The enemy hull was not designed to withstand the battering from the heavy ammunition it had just received, and now she was getting grape fired into her, too. Over two hundred pounds of little iron plums came across her deck and into her rigging at every broadside.

Terrier was firing faster than the enemy, also. The ‘smashers’ were lighter than the long guns the enemy was using, and were quicker to load. Too, with every exchange, more enemy crewmen were lying dead or wounded in the scuppers, leaving fewer men to sail the ship or man the guns. In addition to crew losses, the concentrated fire was causing terrible damage to the frigate’s rigging, and Phillips could not see how she could stand it much longer.

Her foremast came down in a tangle of sailcloth and rigging, masking some guns. With these guns unable to fire and so many of the crew disabled or called away from their posts making repairs, she was no longer able to fight effectively. The frigate’s tricolor was then hauled down. Phillips sent Hawkins to the prize with some seamen and most of the Marines to take command. Hawkins almost immediately sent back word he needed carpenter's crew. It seemed the frigate’s hull had received a few serious knocks ‘between wind and water’, and she was now taking on water fast.

Terrier had received few serious wounds, much of it was in the rigging, as the frigate had fired high, apparently in the hope of disabling the gun brig. The crewmen Phillips had sent over were now desperately fighting to save the prize, so he decided to visit the frigate, leaving his sailing master to tend to the repairs on the brig.

The men were in the process of fothering a sail under her bow, where the most serious damage had occurred. The men had passed lines under the ship and used them to draw a sail under in an attempt to slow the leak. As Hawkins overlooked the activity, he reported about half the intake of water had been stopped, at least temporarily. Now crews were working inside the hull, stuffing hammocks into the cavities and bracing timber over the plugs.

He reminded Phillips they were making headway, but the prize was still in a perilous position. The bow was very low in the water, and the increased pressure was hazarding the repairs made thus far.

“Sir, I’d like to take off some weight forward. Could I heave some of the forward guns over the side?”

Giving permission, Phillips had a thought. He watched the breaching cables chopped with axes and the guns, carriage and all pushed through the ports. Most of the guns were twelve pounders but there were some eights right up forward.

The captain approached Hawkins and modified his permission. “Mister Hawkins, I would like to save a few of those eight pounder guns. I’ll send some men to move them back to the stern. In the meantime, continue with dropping the twelve pounders over the side.”

A quick discussion with the bosun’s mate and Chips elicited the information the ship’s bow was beginning to rise a little, with the dead weight of the guns being removed.

With the extreme activity required to save the frigate, the men were beginning to tire. Hawkins alleviated that problem by sending the men needing relief to the pumps, to supervise the French captives who were manning them. Although the prisoners had been warned they might well go down with the ship if it sank, after a long spell of pumping ship though many of that body began whispering the British would not let them die, so the pumping efforts began to subside.

The supervisors were armed with lengths of knotted ropes ends, which were used freely on the backs of any presumed slackers.

With no one to fight now, the Royal Marines had removed their red uniforms and donned the seamen’s slops which they normally wore at sea, and took up their duties as guards, standing behind the prisoners with their muskets and bayonets to ensure these men did not attempt to re-take the ship.