On the King's Sea Service: A John Phillips Novel (War at Sea Book 1) (12 page)

“My, Captain Phillips. No one could say you have no initiative. Most captains would not dare assume so much responsibility without asking first.”

“Sir, I did not want to bother Admiral Hood, with all the responsibilities he has. The civilians were desperate and I hated to deny them. Besides I believe I recall the admiral advising me to rescue what civilians I could. Would you like me to send them ashore? The flag captain grimaced. “No, Phillips, you have merely anticipated the Admiral’s orders. Many ships are already loaded down and will be ordered out soon. Formal, written orders will be issued to captains who have not already done so. Tell me about the Franklin. My staff thought her too low in the water to sail. We had thought to burn her, with the majority of the Toulon fleet.”

“Sir, I think she will do. She was low, but that was because she has been abandoned for weeks and needed to be pumped out. The civilian passengers on board are pumping her out in relays. She has already risen a foot, even with all the refugees we have loaded aboard.”

“What about weapons, I think she had all her guns removed when she came in the inner harbor. Is that right?”

“Not quite, sir. All her upper deck guns are gone, but she still has all the lower deck weapons. Twenty eight guns, all thirty six pounders.”

“Ammunition, Captain Phillips?”

“A problem there, sir. I have perhaps fifty rusty balls aboard. No grape or bar shot. Enough powder in casks to make cartridges for that many shot.”

“Yes, I think that should suffice. Have you enough people to man those guns?”

“No sir, I have fifty of my crew aboard her to sail the ship. I have just enough people aboard my frigate to fight her, although they will be thin on the deck.”

“Hmm, I do believe I could spare, say thirty men for you. Many of them gunners. . Can you fill out the remainder of the gun crews using refugees?”

“I believe I can at least make some noise at anyone that attempts to bother us.”

The flag captain scribbled out a note and gave it to him. “Hand that to the watch officer on deck. He will get you your men. You should put to sea as soon as you can. I would strongly recommend you go through your refugees and find any able bodied male who looks like he could serve on a gun crew. Drill them ‘till they drop.

I suspect the enemy is mobilizing all of the naval force they can muster. Should you encounter any French warships of force, you may be able to make a fight of it. Remember, if you were to haul down your flag to the enemy, all of your refugees will have an appointment to the guillotine.”

After getting the new men carried over to the Franklin, Phillips was forced to send over the extra hammocks that some of his men had ‘forgotten’ to turn in to the Impress Service back in Portsmouth.

There were no hammocks aboard the Franklin, so these, plus the ones already issued to the men transferred from Vigorous would serve. For the refugees, of course, there was no bedding of any kind available.

Burns appointed some authoritative appearing refugees into deck petty officers, who had the task of assigning areas of the deck for passengers to sleep. Some were upset about the arrangements, but Mullins assured them that any not satisfied would be rowed back to the shore where they could plead their case with the new Republican authorities.”

When all the necessary tasks were finished, both ships, with the permission of the flag, slipped their mooring cables and put to sea.

Refugees

Captain John Phillips had sailed in colder waters than the December 1793 waters of the western Mediterranean, but many of his passengers had not. The HMS Vigorous was laden with every human being he could cram aboard, refugees of the evacuation of Toulon. Those people ‘tween decks were kept relatively warm by the animal heat generated by so many bodies. Many however, simply were not able to find a space below.

These were accommodated by a space on deck, slightly protected by a wrapping of old canvas furnished by the sail maker, serving as blankets. The quarterdeck was kept clear, this being the domain of the officer of the watch. At the present time, this was Acting Lieutenant Mullins, a young man who had just turned seventeen. A crowd of refugees had collected on the fore deck, all huddled together from the cold.

Slightly separate from these people was Sarah Forsythe. She was an anomaly. Her father had been Lieutenant Forsythe, a Royal Navy officer. Her mother was a French native who had married Forsythe two decades ago. After the father was lost at sea near the end of the American war, Sarah was taken back to France at the age of ten to be near her extended family.

The mother had gone into keeping with an elderly gentleman with some pretensions of nobility. The girl had an idyllic life for a few years until the Terror came along. Abandoning their home, the family became transient, eventually ending up in a town near Toulon. Sarah’s mother had the vision of somehow getting to sea and travelling to Britain, where she was still a citizen.

The family’s dreams ended when another refugee denounced them as royalists in a vain attempt to receive mercy herself. When the mob came, Sarah had been out scavenging for scraps of food and any potential articles of value behind some shops. She escaped, while her mother and stepfamily were dragged off and she never saw them again.

Another person was right beside Sarah on the deck, Pierre Legrand. This person fancied himself a scion of gentility since his grandfather was the bastard son of a baron, so said the rumor anyway. LeGrand had cultivated the diction and the style of his supposed ancestors. Before the Terror, he had often able to convince a maid or serving girl that he was indeed a member of the upper classes and thus a potential way out of the disaster of that woman’s life.

Since the advent of the Terror though, he had been forced to suspend the boasts of his ancestry and try to plan how to keep his head on his shoulders. He had somehow made his way to the deck of a British ship of war. He knew the British had the proper reverence of those of noble birth. With some luck, he might be able to parley the rumors of his ancestry into seeming fact.

In the meantime though, he was cold and the ragged young woman next to him was not doing her part. Every time he tried to share warmth with her, she edged away. Deciding to take matters into his own hands, he reached for her and got a handful of the decayed fabric she wore, which tore away. Eyeing the exposed skin, he decided he had a better idea of warming himself. As she whimpered and yelped, he rolled over on top of her. People trying to sleep around them ignored the pair. Sometimes, it was often not wise to notice too many events.

Forsythe wriggled and fought as the man above her tried to accomplish his mission. He would have too, had not Acting Lieutenant Mullins on the quarterdeck seen the struggle.

Normally, lieutenants, when armed, carried a sword. In the circumstances, Captain Phillips had ordered all officers and petty officers to carry arms while on duty. Mullin though, until yesterday, had been a midshipman, armed with a short bladed dirk. He had not had the opportunity since to arm himself with a proper weapon, but was prepared to do his duty with what he had.

Hurrying over to the struggling couple, he considered his options. Realizing the man attempting rape was twice his size, the youth drew the dirk and stabbed down into a heaving buttock.

Legrand jumped to his feet with a roar, but a full grown Marine who had followed Mullins from the quarterdeck, offered to pin the fellow to the foremast with his bayonet. The seamen on watch were there now with line to bind the man up in a cocoon.

When Mister Harkins came to interview the prisoner, Legrand immediately went into his standard spiel, explaining he was of the French nobility and they had different standards than the peasantry.

Captain Phillips was now at the scene and listened to the man without comment. While Harkins ordered the man chained in the orlop, the captain pondered what to do with the terrified woman. He had abandoned his own cabin and sleeping quarters to some refugee women and slung a hammock in the tiny nook where his clerk and servant had slept. These men being relegated to a single hammock jammed into the mess deck which they shared, watch and watch.

The offender, now in custody and unable to cause further trouble, he looked to the woman. She was sobbing uncontrollable and shivering in the cold. Her hands were blistered and bloody. The bosun said in an aside the woman had spent hours pumping ship. Ever since the repair after the battle with the pirates, it was necessary to pump at least an hour of every watch and the refugees now did most of that labor.

An inspiration came to him. His own food pantry was available and while now well stocked, was still capable of stowing a person of slight stature. He told his two youngest midshipmen, boys of twelve and thirteen, to take her there and to rearrange such stores as to allow the slinging of a hammock.

He ordered them to take the woman into his cabin, already occupied by women refugees and show her the quarter gallery; a private privy, normally used only by the captain and his guests, now serving only the women guests. While giving the orders in front of the woman, he never dreamed she could understand his English.

She had stopped sobbing and as the midshipmen started to lead her off, she spoke in upper class English, with a delightful hint of French accent. “Captain, I am dreadfully sorry to have been such a bother. I am very grateful for your compassion and courtesy.”

Next morning, while discussing plans for the day with the first lieutenant, the bosun came before him on the quarterdeck, asking whether a cat o’ nine tails (a whip used to punish defaulters) would be needed for the prisoner. A fresh punishment device was made up for every miscreant being admonished and it took a fair bit of time to make a new one. Mister Harkins also wondered just how much deck space he might need to clear.

“Mister Harkins, much as I would like to have the prisoner tied up to a grating and given a hundred lashes, I think that is not in the cards. Since he has not been entered on the books, he is not subject to the articles of war. I think we have a choice. We can take him to port in irons and turn him over to a magistrate, to be charged with assault and attempted rape, or perhaps we could simply hand him over to a French fishing boat. Perhaps Mister Mullins could explain to them he is of noble birth and will expect to be treated accordingly.”

“But sir, won’t the Frogs chop off his head?”

“Well. There is that, Mister Harkins. But I am sure they will do it with the proper ceremony.”

The sometimes mentally slow Boatswain, suddenly saw the light and grinned. He said, “My men will keep a good lookout for fishing boats, sir.” After all, the magistrate would merely charge the man with attempted rape, ensuring the hangman’s noose. On the French shore, he would be undoubtedly be sent to the guillotine as a suspected royalist. In the meantime, Legrand was dragged below, where he was shackled into leg irons bolted to the orlop deck. It would be better for all, this way.

The frigate and liner made their way toward Gibraltar. The canvas aboard Franklin was in very poor condition and had to be husbanded wisely. The Franklin’s main masthead was higher than Vigorous’, so she was the first to signal “Sail off my starboard bow.” Mullins was sent up with a telescope and he soon reported a ship rigged sail ahead, hull down.

A few minutes later, he reported a second. Phillips ordered some kegs of British gunpowder lowered into the launch, along with some 36 pound ball they used for their carronades. When the mid came sliding down a stay to the deck, he sent him into the boat to deliver the ammunition to Burns in Franklin. Before Mullins dropped into the boat, he handed him a note to be delivered to Burns.

In the event of combat, he listed some signals for various maneuvers that might be attempted. He advised Burns to charge all his guns with powder, but to delay loading shot until it was determined what side of the ship would fire. The Franklin had very few balls for the big thirty sixes, so they had to be used wisely.

As the ships approached, it soon became evident the oncoming ships were French and one was a big forty gun frigate, the other a smaller twenty eight. They approached in line astern, the big fellow leading. As they approached, Phillips was concerned about Franklin.

That ship did not have the ammunition or the gun crews to defeat either enemy ship in a drawn out engagement. Her only hope was to overawe the enemy. If the French could be made to believe Franklin was a fully armed battleship, both would likely flee.

He imagined the enemy had recognized the Franklin and perhaps suspected she had been partially or fully disarmed to carry passengers. And what of those passengers? Many of those aboard the 74 were serving as gun crew or at unskilled seaman jobs. Phillips had known his share of British warships that were as badly manned when leaving port.

Gun captains were cautioned to fire only as each gun bore on their target. The French were not shy; they were approaching on the windward side at long pistol shot. At that range, a steady crew should be able to make every shot count.

As the leading ships approached, Phillips saw Lieutenant Granger, his former third, now serving as second officer standing just clear of the bow gun.

When Granger’s arm dropped, the gun fired. This was one of the thirty six pound carronades and it made its mark on the forty gun frigate. Then the eighteen pounders started going off, before the French ship fired its broadside.

When it did, twenty guns of its guns fired together. A dozen of them were eighteen pounder weapons. The rest of the guns were the of the French eight pounder caliber. Many of its guns were not bearing on Vigorous, so those were wasted. Every one of the Vigorous’ shots hit and by the time the after carronade did its job, some of the forward guns were firing again.

When the French ship passed them, heading toward the Franklin, she was almost a wreck. The mizzen chains had been ruined and the shrouds were loose. The mizzen was swaying. The name on her counter showed her to be the Imperieuse. Phillips saw men called from the guns of the enemy ship to make repairs. It looked like four of its eighteen pounder guns had been dismounted. Perhaps it could not harm Franklin too badly. As the after guns of Vigorous no longer bore on the big French frigate, her forward guns were now bearing on the next ship.

Again the big carronade smashed a ball into the smaller frigate. She was too small and her scantlings too light to see such punishment and it soon showed. The other guns did incredible damage on the frigate. As before, this ship waited before she was almost completely abreast of Vigorous before she fired her broadside. Evidently the French captains did not trust their crews in independent fire.

While he was looking for damage aboard his ship and his opponent, he heard an almighty crash from the Franklin. All her big guns had gone off and savaged the already damaged Imperieuse before she could fire a shot herself. The mainmast started leaning, then came down. The mizzen soon followed, leaving that big ship with only her foremast standing.

The smaller frigate trading blows with Vigorous, due to face that broadside herself in a few minutes, apparently decided it could not take such punishment and bore away to port to try to escape out to open sea. Unfortunately for her, this left her in position to be raked from her quarter, a position from which she could not effectively reply and the real damage started.

This ship proved to be the twenty eight gun Nymphe, a twelve pounder ship. Most of Vigorous’ guns had already fired, but the last few eighteens near the stern were still loaded, as was the after carronade. By the time the balls of these guns finished smashing through the ship, the forward guns were loaded and beginning to fire. Her flag came down immediately. Phillips looked to the forty gun frigate. With only one mast standing, many of her guns were masked with fallen canvas and she had lost too many of her crew. When the reloaded thirty six pound long guns of the Franklin came out through the ports, the Imperieuse hauled down her flag.

The Vigorous had received her share of enemy shot and many people were down, both crew and refugees. There was a crescendo of screams as many civilians, as well as hardened crewmen, faced the knife and saw of the surgeon. More from cowardice, than any other reason, Phillips had his barge brought up from where it had been towing astern and was pulled over to the Franklin.

This ship was remarkably untouched. She had received some twelve pounder balls from Nymphe as she tried to bear away, but they were from relatively long range and the thick scantlings kept most from injuring passengers and crew.

He discovered one of the refugees, a former Major of Infantry in the French royal service, had been training some male refugees of military age.