Sails Across the Sea: A Tim Phillips Novel (War at Sea Book 8) (5 page)

Terrier sailed east, rounding the Italian Peninsula, where she encountered numerous fishing boats. Several of these were boarded, but when the boarding parties found nothing suspicious, they were set free. By this time the ship’s cook had used much of the top tier of beef in the hold, and was now encountering casks with an unpleasant tang.

A conference with the surgeon ensued. Doctor Persons did not feel the off-tasting beef was dangerous at present but it might be well to have an alternate supply of meat available should it become so in the future. A quantity of fish, some type of bream, was purchased as a trial, but the hands did not relish the new dish. Mister Roberts, one of the Midshipmen, reported there was much grousing when the boiled fish was served instead of their usual beef.

Accordingly, the next time a fishing vessel was approached, the first officer with one of the brig’s Italian hands boarded her with the mission of discovering a source of beef, pork or mutton nearby. She was pulling her nets at the time, and was in no position to flee. The captain of that boat, once he found he was not to be robbed of either fish or crew, offered his services to the Royal Navy.

It took some time for the boat’s crew to get her catch aboard, but after that led them to a nearby island. The fishing boat captain loaned them a crewman to guide them through the dangerous shallows to a point near the beach.

The nervous master’s mate serving as the sailing master, stationed men in the chains with sounding leads, as well as another man in a boat that led them in. The Italian fishermen were amused by their precautions, but the brig encountered no problems.

Shortly after the fishing boat’s captain went ashore, cattle and sheep began arriving at the beach, sometimes individually, sometimes in larger bands and herds. With nearly fifty beasts gathered, the fisherman was pulled back to Terrier in his boat and began speaking with the designated interpreter. Phillips stood by and attempted to act as if he knew what was going on.

Finally, the interpreter spoke to his captain. “Sir, Signor Martelli here say he have cattle on shore. Is now time to pay!”

From the interpreter’s vehement urging, Phillips suspected the fisherman had offered him a commission on the number of livestock to be purchased. Phillips had to convince both men he could not possibly take aboard all the livestock present. He had to threaten to sail away without buying a single beast. In the end, he purchased ten bullocks for the ship and a fat sheep to be shared with the wardroom and captain. Another sheep was purchased by the gunroom for the attention of the ship’s midshipmen and petty officers.

Salt would be required to be added to the barrels of fresh meat to prevent spoilage. There was not enough salt in the fishing village to preserve the meat, so a delegation was sent off with a cart to obtain a supply. While that vehicle was on its mission, a bullock was butchered for the crew, who would have fresh boiled beef for their dinner today, while the sheep was put to roast for the captain and the wardroom officers.

When only a thin donkey was produced to haul the cart, drag ropes were rigged and a half dozen hands assisted the donkey in hauling it to its destination and back.

When the hands delivered the salt the next day, the empty barrels had already been taken ashore and their insides scrubbed out with sand and sea water before being filled with fresh meat and the preservative salt. Phillips made the purchases with his own funds, knowing full well the money would likely never be reimbursed.

Phillips hosted the fisherman and a delegation of the village elders to his cabin where he plied them with rum and roast mutton. No one complained of the offerings and Phillips, using his interpreter, attempted to find out what these people might know of their destination.

Few of these people had ever been very far from their island, although there had once been a seaman on the island who was captured by pirates in his youth and freed in his old age. This man had since died though, and there was no person living that could offer useful intelligence. Pirates preyed regularly upon these people. While they had almost nothing the men were hardy fishermen and were valued on the rowing benches of the pirate galleys, while the women made useful household slaves.

With no means to defend themselves, the islanders relied upon staying out of the corsair’s eye and incessant prayers in their tiny stone chapel. The islanders agreed though, it would be the height of folly to attempt to locate this woman prisoner.

The only advice the villagers had to offer was for Captain Phillips to light a candle and pray for the woman.

Terrier set sail the next day and continued the voyage east. Once she approached the Greek islands, Phillips decided they would no longer actively pursue shipping. Now well within Ottoman controlled waters, he did not wish to cause any problems with the Sublime Porte off in Istanbul. Of course, commanding a British warship, he felt he had to ask no one for permission to sail in open waters, but when approaching land or ports, Terrier would observe all the amenities.

Both Phillips and his acting sailing master’s computations indicated they were closing the eastern Mediterranean coast. When the main lookout reported fishing boats ahead, Phillips thought he might as well approach them and ascertain their exact position. Their approach caused a certain amount of turmoil, and one boat abandoned its net and made for safety.

Wishing to calm matters, Phillips had his interpreter call over to the others to see if they would sell some of their catch. There was some difficulty as the interpreter’s native language was Italian and his English was limited, as was apparently his Arabic. The matter cleared when Phillips held up a silver shilling and pointed to the mass of fish the crewmen were trying to load.

Nodding comprehension, the captain of one of the fishing boats grabbed a thrashing tuna from the boats bottom and held it up. Phillips tossed the coin to the man and he in turn gave some orders to a crewman who took the reluctant fish and handed it up to some hands leaning over Terrier’s side. The remainder of the boats took their departure, perhaps not trusting this warship from another world, staffed with infidels.

While these maneuvers were progressing, Phillips asked his interpreter to find how far it was to Cyprus, but the language barrier prevented that question’s resolutions. The fish for his supper aboard, Phillips turned to the master to have him proceed on course when one of the midshipmen approached and removed his hat.

Midshipman Roberts was a young lad who was developing well. At the moment he was petty officer in charge of the deck watch. “Sir, the man who handed up the fish from the fishing dhow sounds English!”

“Why do you think that, Mister Roberts?”

“Sir, he said, ‘I am English and want to come aboard’!”

Phillips turned to the Royal Marine standing by the binnacle. “Private Hughes, I want you to fetch Sergeant Harris now. I need him and a file of Marines on the quarterdeck immediately. They need not be in uniform, but they should be armed. Do it now, please.”

The astonished Marine dashed to the hatch shouting “Passing the word for Sgt. Harris. Report to the quarterdeck with file of Marines.”

The first officer approached, wondering what the excitement was about. Phillips gave Acting-Lieutenant Davison a quick account and ordered him to open the arms chest and distribute weapons to the crew, as though for a boarding party. By now, the Marines had formed up on the quarterdeck. He gave Sgt. Harris his orders. “Sgt. Harris, I want you to station your men at the rail and cover the boarding party I am about to send to that fishing dhow.

Turning to Midshipman Roberts, he ordered, “Mister Roberts, I want you to take a party of armed men to investigate this man who claims to be English. Should he in fact be British, you will bring him aboard Terrier.”

The brig had been slowly separating from the dhow and the crew of that boat had gone back to work bringing aboard their catch. Phillips ordered the sailing master, now serving as officer of the watch, to bring the brig back to the fisherman. As this was being done, Phillips noticed the man he had purchased the fish from had snatched up a long whip and was lashing the shoulders of one of his crewmen vigorously.

From Private Hughes, Phillips demanded the loan of his musket. He asked the Marine, “Is this weapon loaded and primed, Private Hughes?”

“Aye sir, it is.”

Earing back the cock, Phillips held over the head of the man wielding the whip and pulled the trigger.”

The weapon bellowed and an enormous amount of smoke erupted from its vent and muzzle. The astonished man wielding the whip, dropped it and fell, hiding behind a pile of fish on the deck of the fishing craft. Simultaneously, Roberts shouted, “Boarders away!” and leapt onto the craft waving his dirk, followed by his men. The Royal Marines, under instructions from Sgt. Harris, kept their muskets trained on the fishing crew.

With the situation seemingly now about under control, Phillips called over to the boat. “Will the person claiming to be British please come forward.” He saw the victim of the thrashing look down at the deck and heard him mutter something.

Phillips said, “I can’t hear you, man. Please speak up!”

Mister Roberts went to the man and spoke to him. Roberts said, “Sir, this man just told me in English that the man who whipped him would slit his gizzard if he spoke with any of us.”

Phillips answered, “That is enough for me. Bring him aboard at once. Do not let any of that crew approach him.”

With every musket on deck trained on the fishing crew, the individual was hoisted up to Terrier’s deck and ushered to the quarterdeck.

The man was covered with partially healed lash marks and was so thin his naked ribs showed. His hair and beard had not been trimmed in months, at least.

Phillips addressed him, “Sir, I am Captain Phillips, commanding His Majesty’s brig-sloop of war Terrier. Just who might you be?”

The man straightened, stood tall as his body would permit, and announced. “Sir, I am John Devers, from Plymouth. I was taken six years ago by a raider, and pulled on an oar much of that time. When my strength began to fail, I overheard the crew of the galley talking about throwing me overboard as useless, but then they met up with this fisherman a month ago, and the captain, Ali Sadaam bought me for a couple of their silver coins. I think he was also just about to kill me too, since I had lost much of my strength and had a hard time doing what they wanted.

“Can you speak their language, Mister Devers?”

“Yes sir, I have had plenty of time to learn, Sir.”

“Very well, I want you to translate some things I wish to say to that pirate.”

Phillips noticed the first officer had all the starboard side carronades manned and the armed seamen and Marines still had their muskets trained on the fisherman. He was still irate over the treatment he had witnessed a fellow Briton receiving from these people and decided to give them a lesson they might not soon forget.

The fishing boat crew were still processing their catch when Phillips asked Devers if there were any other slaves or captives in the crew. “No sir, not now. They beat Jason Howard to death last month and threw his body over the side.”

“Do you know why they did that?”

“He was old and slow. I think they wanted to show me what would happen to me if I did not keep up with the work.”

“Very well, tell that crew to cut the net loose and let it drop into the sea.”

“Yes Sir, Ali Sadaam will be unhappy!”

After some loud wrangling between Devers and the boat’s captain Sadaam shook his head vehemently. “He said he won’t, Sir. He says he will report this outrage and the Caliph will come after you and nail your skin to his door.”

The dhow had two boats in the water, one was being used to empty the nets and was full of fish, the other empty save for a small crew. “Tell your friend I want him to take to remove all the men in that boat with the fish, immediately. Tell him I mean to destroy that boat.”

More impassioned conversation ensued, ending with Sadaam shaking his head and pointing to Phillips. “Sir”, Devers announced, “I must not tell you what Ali Sadaam said to tell you to do with yourself!”

Nodding, Phillips approached the gun captain of the carronade closest to him. Only a couple of fathoms away from the boat, Phillips asked the captain if he could put a ball right off the bow of the boat. “Carter, I don’t want to kill anyone if I don’t have to, but I want to put a fright to everyone in it.”

Giving the quid in his cheek an extra chew, Carter turned his head to the side and expertly spit over the side. “Put a fright into them it is, Your Honor, sir.”

The carronade bellowed, the ball driving into the water not two feet from the bow of the rowboat. At Phillips’ urging, Devers began shouting for all in the boat to abandon it and load into the other boat. A few did, but most remained in the boat with its cargo of fish.

Disgusted, Phillips ordered a section of his carronades to fire on the boat. Every ball hit, and the boat and its crew ceased to exist, except for scattered fragments floating on the sea. As the smoke of the discharge blew off to leeward, Terrier’s crew saw an individual on the fisherman rush up from below deck with a strange looking weapon.

This was a long gun with an extremely long barrel and a strangely shaped stock. Phillips had never seen one before but knew it was called a ‘jezail musket’. Before he could say anything, the Royal Marine sergeant called it to the attention of his men and ordered them to fire. The man with the musket went down as did several others nearby.

Tiring at this, Devers was told to announce to the fisherman’s crew that the dhow was about to be destroyed and any that wished to survive should transfer into the small net-tending boat that remained. This time there were no arguments, and when the last man left the sailing dhow, it was fired upon by several carronades. Its peculiar construction was not intended to stand up to large caliber gunfire, and the vessel came apart forthwith.

Proceeding on the way, Phillips ordered their surgeon, Doctor Persons, to come into the cabin to examine Devers. Persons said he could treat victim’s lash wounds with an ointment he had made up and would recommend careful nourishment of the man. Turning to his servant, Phillips told him to take instruction from the doctor and feed Devers accordingly. The servant would have free access to Phillips own cabin stores for that purpose.

After this matter had been taken care of, Phillips went below and while the former slave was being treated for his wounds, began quizzing Devers on what he knew of their destination. As it turned out, he replied his galley had put into the harbor of that very island once to make repairs, and he and the other oarsmen were taken ashore and placed in guarded barracks. He knew the location of the villa where the Forsythe woman was supposedly kept.

“It’s been a few years since I was there, but I think the bloke’s name was Abdul al Raschid, or something very like. I heard he was the richest man on the island and made his money as a rover himself. Now, he is a merchant, buying and selling most anything a man could want.”

“If he did buy the woman you’re looking for, he’s probably sold her by now. You know these slave woman generally lead a hard life. She was probably raped by every member of that corsair crew, and who knows what happened to her in the slave bazaar. Raschid’s wives may have worked the woman to death.”

When the doctor finished Devers’ treatment, Phillips’ steward came in with some beef broth the doctor had prescribed. As the captain went to his own cabin below, he had a lot on his mind.