Inferno (18 page)

T
hree days later
Tyger
sailed with the tide. Flank escort for a war convoy of more than eighty ships, she found herself to starboard of a sea crowded with sail, set and drawing for Sweden where they were to rendezvous and come under the orders of the commander-in-chief, Admiral Lord Gambier.

In warm summer sun and calm seas it was a bare three days before the distinctive hexagonal white lighthouse of the Skaw was raised, the northernmost tip of Denmark. It was a seamark of legend. Around the point, roils of discoloured water showed where the mouth of the Baltic met the open ocean.

The convoy did not delay, heading directly across the forty-mile entrance to the opposite shore until the Vinga beacon was raised. Ahead lay Sweden and Gothenburg.

There they were met with a sight that took the breath away. Anchored in those outer roads to Gothenburg was a huge fleet, an uncountable number of ships of all kinds, hundreds in warships alone, comparable to Nelson's Trafalgar
fleet, but with store-ships and transports amounting to far more.

In the centre was the largest. This was the expedition they were to join and the ship was the stately 98-gun
Prince of Wales
, flying the flag of Admiral Gambier.

While they waited for the busy aviso cutters to bring orders out to the newcomers, there was time to take in more of the spectacle.

‘There's
Agamemnon
as I'm not a Dutchman,' Joyce said, and gleefully began his yarn about the time he had seen Nelson in the admiral's favourite ship.

Second Lieutenant Bowden had been a midshipman in
Victory
at Nelson's final battle and had lived through much. ‘That seventy-four beyond
Prince
,' he said quietly, ‘
Mars
, as I last saw taking fire from five battleships around her. She didn't strike but lost her captain.'

‘She's always been forward in any kind of action,' Brice said, with feeling. ‘We were too late to assist when she took on
Hercule
seventy-four near the Pointe du Raz in a wicked state o' tide.'

Knowing looks were exchanged: the frightful reefs and rocks on the Brest blockade were well feared.

‘Fought her to the finish – the Frenchy sees more'n three hundred drop and had to douse her flag. Pity of it is that Captain Hood didn't live to see it.'

Bowden came in again: ‘Some other fine acquaintances I spy. Isn't that
Vanguard
? As will stay with me for all my days on this earth, as a new-breeched midshipman I saw her, masts by the board, being carried on to the rocks in Sardinia, Horatio Nelson being sent to his doom. Captain Ball in
Alexander
tries to pass a tow but he's sent away to save himself. He ignores Our Nel's orders and, in a right welter of seas,
tries again and again. Only when the water's shoaling fast does he get a line across and hauls her clear.'

‘And shortly goes on in her to immortality at the Nile,' Kydd said, behind him.

‘Oh, hello, sir. Didn't see you standing there.'

The others fell back respectfully.

‘Well, finish the count.'

‘Sir?'

‘Isn't that
Goliath
I see two astern of her? As signal luff in
Tenacious
, I do remember well her going in first at the Nile. She it was under Foley who thought to pass inshore of the line to take 'em on both sides and win the battle.'

‘Aye, but over there's a lady beats 'em all f 'r the smelling o' powder,' Joyce said, pointing.

‘
Orion
?'

‘Sir. Was wi' ye at the Nile, but as well at y'r Glorious First o' June, at St Vincent – even Trafalgar she made sure she were there.'

Such a roll-call of history. Were they to go on to further glory, conceivably against the Russians to free the Baltic?

A cutter interrupted from alongside with instructions for mooring and the spell was broken.

T
he expected signal, ‘All captains', was hung out promptly, the Yarmouth accession to strength being the last contingent to join.

Piped aboard through the entry-port to the middle gun-deck of
Prince of Wales
, Kydd could see the flagship was in an advanced state of readiness. Were they expecting trouble this early?

There was a welcome on the crowded quarterdeck: Gambier and no less than four other flag officers.

Kydd paid his respects to the unsmiling, formal commander-in-chief, aware that this was a careful-to-the-point-of-cautious admiral whose devotion to the Good Book had earned him the nickname ‘Dismal Jimmy' from irreverent sailors.

There was one other rear admiral he recognised instantly.

‘Why, well met, sir!' Kydd said warmly, crossing to the figure. This man had been captain of
Triumph
in which Kydd had served before the mast as master's mate. After the bloody battle of Camperdown it was he who'd given Kydd the acting lieutenancy that had set him on the path to where he was
today. The two had last met shortly before the politically charged court-martial of Commodore Popham.

Essington beamed. ‘Why, how singularly gratifying to be noticed by the hero of the hour. And now returned to the scene of his apotheosis?'

‘As I will be in the finest company,' Kydd replied stoutly. ‘And you, sir, untimely recalled from retirement? Shame on their lordships.'

He knew another: Commodore Keats, whose name would be for ever linked with that of his famous ship
Superb
. In a single action he had taken on not one but two monstrous 112-gun Spanish four-deckers. In the gathering darkness he'd left them firing into each other and sailed on to take a third.

As a junior frigate captain Kydd had been with Keats as part of the fabled race across the Atlantic by Nelson, missing the French fleet by hours until the fateful meeting off Spain weeks later. To his mortification Keats and
Superb
had not been at the battle but had nevertheless gone on to further distinction.

‘Sir Thomas,' Keats greeted him coolly. ‘An honour to have you with us.' His hard expression belied his words.

Kydd picked up on the stiffness. Surely this great seaman was not to be numbered with the envious. He considered bringing out shared remembrance of the immortal commander but thought better of it and murmured a polite reply.

The admiral's day cabin in the flagship was barely furnished with a vast table stretching right athwart. At it sat the senior captains, those of the line-of-battle ships. Lesser mortals took chairs provided behind.

When all had found their places Gambier entered and sat at the head. At the opposite end, oddly, there was an empty
chair. With peculiarly precise movements he ordered his papers in front of him, then looked up. ‘Gentlemen. I will not keep you long.' He glanced at the crush of resplendent uniforms. ‘This will be the first and last time we shall meet together as a whole. The purpose of my calling you here is to establish at the outset the objectives and methods of this expedition. After today you shall be severally in receipt of my orders and those of my subordinate commanders and will have no need to attend on me.'

He gave a thin smile. ‘This is not to say that we shall not meet hospitably as from time to time the needs of the service allow but it must be understood that we are on a mission of the utmost significance to the safety of the kingdom.'

Polite expressions of attention were all he was going to get from such seasoned warriors and he wasted no time in moving on. ‘The sole objective of this expedition, gentlemen, is to secure the delivering of the fleet of the kingdom of Denmark into our custody.'

Now the faces about the table showed astonishment, puzzlement and blank incomprehension.

‘I don't have to tell you that the result of Tilsit is to leave us alone and isolated in Europe but, worse than that, we have intelligence that Bonaparte now intends to combine the fleets he has at his disposal as a consequence of his conquests into an irresistible armada to throw at our islands.'

Gambier continued, ‘And, further, he is casting a ring of iron around the entire continent, closing it to our trade. The key to his plans is Denmark. If he can coerce it into closing the entrance into the Baltic to us, we are placed in acute difficulties. Should we, however, be successful in removing the Danish fleet, then the means to close off the Sound is denied them. Not only that, but Denmark's fleet will no
longer be available to Bonaparte. Therefore I will leave you in no doubt that this mission must succeed. There has never been such peril under which England now lies. It cannot fail.'

In the charged atmosphere Kydd found himself saying, ‘Sir. Denmark is most certainly neutral. How can we ask this of them?'

Gambier's gaze was troubled. ‘Your qualms do you credit, Sir Thomas, but these are harrowing times. In the first I'm persuaded that if the situation was reversed it's without question that Napoleon Bonaparte would not scruple in any wise to take measures against a neutral – he has done so before. And to the second, be advised that the government has considered the matter and takes the position that the greater hazard is to do nothing. The King shares your view but agrees on the imperative of action. This expedition is in his name.'

‘But—' Captain Graves began.

‘We are all, every one of us, in the King's service, sir. We do not question his orders.'

Gambier waited then went on, ‘To which end, as you can see, I've been granted the best resources in ships and men the navy has at hand. As you may notice, we boast Keats of
Superb
and Kydd of
Tyger
…'

‘Then you expect the Danes to contest the loss of their fleet?'

‘They are an old and proud race, and will not yield lightly. We are therefore here arrayed in such force as will allow them to accede gracefully.'

‘And if they do not, sir?'

‘Then we make demonstration of our earnestness in the matter.'

‘A sailing past of their capital?'

‘No, sir, since they will feel safe behind their defences, which are now too great to be threatened from the sea. It will be achieved by a landing in strength on the island of Sjælland whereon it lies and a passive encirclement.'

‘This is hard, sir. Monstrous hard!' Captain Colville came in. ‘And on a blameless neutral – it were nothing less than an invasion.'

‘Sir, I'll thank you to keep your feelings to yourself. I will hear no further discussion on this point. Our duty is clear and that is to secure their fleet by whatever means.'

‘Then in terms of operations,' Graves insisted, ‘if an encircling does not persuade?'

‘The landings will be made with all impedimenta as if for a siege, with guns and materiel of investment. Nothing will be hidden and all will see the dread implements of beleaguerment poised on their inner flank. I rather fancy that terms will be accepted with some rapidity.'

‘I've heard that Boney has thirty thousand under Bernadotte lying in readiness at the southern border. If it's heard …'

‘He has, and that is why this expedition proceeds with the least possible delay. I'll now ask the captain of the fleet to outline the plans that concern you, gentlemen. Before he arrives I will point out that there is no other in the service as experienced in conjunct operations as he, and I beg you will attend his words with the utmost seriousness.'

Gambier muttered an aside to his flag lieutenant, who left to call the man who was at the centre of planning and execution of the entire expedition.

Kydd wondered why he'd felt it necessary to introduce him at length … then saw standing in the doorway, a light smile playing as he surveyed the assembled officers, Captain Home Riggs Popham.

There were gasps of astonishment and muttering, which Popham ignored as he took the empty chair. He turned from one to another, nodding and smiling for all the world as if renewing acquaintances. Kydd tensed but when his gaze came to him it was as if Popham had looked right through him. It bordered on the incredible, but it seemed that he had levered himself back to a position of trust and responsibility in the few months since he had been found guilty of quitting his station without leave at court-martial.

How had he achieved it?

Gambier broke in on Kydd's thoughts: ‘Captain Popham, be so good as to outline the dispositions of the fleet in this enterprise.'

‘Certainly, sir,' Popham said, with crisp efficiency. ‘Your orders will tell you so, but in summary we have this. The main force,
Prince of Wales
flag under Lord Gambier, and myself first captain, remains offshore by way of deterrent should our business be disputed by the Russians or indeed the Danes. A squadron under the flag of Rear Admiral Essington,
Minotaur
, will be closer inshore and a roaming reserve will be held under Vice Admiral Stanhope in
Pompée
.

‘Bombs and lesser craft will be ordered by Commodore Hood in
Centaur
but the most important task of all is left to Commodore Keats.' He looked up to give him a winning smile.