Sails Across the Sea: A Tim Phillips Novel (War at Sea Book 8) (9 page)

There was much work to do on the prize. She was much knocked about, but both Captain Phillips and his sailing master, Mister Tringle were confident they could make the repairs to get the ship safely to Simonstown. The mizzen mast was the most daunting repair. The wounded shrouds could be repaired but the mast itself was a different story. The lower section of the mast had received a nine pound ball in the timber. The impact had not fractured the spar, but the fall when the supporting shrouds gave way had fractured it at the point where the ball had struck.

A temporary jury mizzen was rigged from the wreck of the old topmast. These repairs took up most of the next two days. An idea was brought to Phillips by some British crewmen released from their captivity aboard the prize.

It seemed the Frenchman had taken a prize herself a week ago. An East Indiaman on her way to the East had become separated from her convoy when involved with a storm. The frigate took her prize without inflicting any conspicuous damage to her. The Indiaman had a crew of mostly Lascars, native seamen of the East Indian subcontinent who were returning home, and commanded by British officers with some British petty officers.

The French removed the Britons and replaced them with their own prize crew. They kept the original native East Indian crewmen aboard the prize but used their own people to command. The Indiaman was ordered to accompany the corvette back to a French port. The two had become separated during the series of sandstorms that were encountered. The few remaining French officer adamantly refused to divulge any information about the probable whereabouts of the captured Indiaman, but the now freed Britons were not so reticent.

The former Captain of the Indiaman was rather sure of the course both ships had been travelling. Conversant with the French tongue himself, he had not let the corvette’s captain become aware of that. While walking the quarterdeck he was often able to overhear instructions and conversations that he would not have been allowed to hear had his captors known they could be understood.

The Indiaman’s captain relayed his information to Phillips, and the pair got together with Mister Tringle to decide the proper course to take. The crippled prize was not capable of taking a part in the search, since with her jury rig she would be too slow. Accordingly, her remaining officers were brought aboard Badger, and the carpenter, a good bosun’s mate and sufficient crew were put aboard with instructions to make for Table Bay.

Heading north, the sloop began her search for the Indiaman. This would be a very worthwhile plum if she could be recaptured. While not as rich as she would have been had she been taken on her return voyage, it would still be a profitable day’s work to take her back. The Honorable East India Company would be most grateful.

Early the next day, one of the hands discarding some trash over the side, saw something floating in the water. Bringing it to the attention of the first officer, the topsails were backed and a midshipman took the jolly boat out to investigate. He brought back a piece of garbage, in this case a decayed orange. Some ship preceding them had thrown it overboard as useless.

The Indiaman captain informed his rescuers that his ship carried a supply of the fruit aboard as a scurvy preventative. He agreed with Phillips they might well be in trail behind the ship.

Later on, another object was retrieved. This was a water-logged copy of a book. Retrieved, it proved to be a volume of Gibbon’s Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire. Enmeshed in some discarded sailcloth and cordage, the heavy book had been buoyed up with discarded timber and had narrowly escaped sinking to the bottom.

Captain Damson, the Indiaman’s captain gingerly opened the cover to the now very delicate flyleaf, and found a blurred and illegible inscription there. He excitedly called over one of the other Indiaman officers freed from captivity. Mister Hanford looked at it and exclaimed, “This is my book. My father gave me the set when I entered service with the East India Company. This was in my cabin when I was forced to leave the ship!”

Captain Phillips commented, “Probably the crew was told to discard any useless material, and one of the crew could see no use for this book.”

Badger kept on course for another day, with no more sightings of cast-off debris from their quarry. Unable to spend more time on the hunt, Phillips reluctantly put the ship about and she sailed to join her prize. Toward the evening of a disappointing day, the masthead hailed. His voice was hesitant, and he reported a possible sail on their port beam. Collins, when questioned by the midshipman who climbed up to see for himself, readily admitted he could be mistaken.

The mid, examining the tiny notch in the horizon with the glass he has snatched from the binnacle on his way up, decreed the sighting was indeed a sail, but only that of a small lateen rigged coastal craft.

Disgusted at having expended the energy to climb to the main top, the midshipman did his duty and took one more sweep around.

And there she was, hull down in the gathering darkness, with just her tops’ls above the horizon.

Shouting “Sail in sight, off the port quarter!” he reported to the deck.

The midshipman grabbed the backstay and slid down to the deck, the unwary lad losing skin on his hands as he came down too fast. He had dropped his hat somewhere in his maneuvers, so he touched his knuckles to his forehead as he addressed his captain.

“Sir, Collins did see a sail, but it’s just a little coastal craft close in to land. There is though, something larger to her north. I could just see a bit of her tops’ls before she went out of sight.”

After a quick glance at Midshipman Hardesty’s palms, Phillips sent the lad below to see the surgeon. The ship was put about and another mid was sent up.

Minutes later, Mister Santini hailed the deck, “Deck there, ship in sight just off the port bow, hull down, just her tops’ls showing.” As the moments passed the lad amended his reports. The chase was now lost in the darkness, but he thought he could see the faintest glow of a light on her quarterdeck. The ship was gaining on the chase and by the time the morning watch came on duty, the hand on port side deck watch reported he thought he could make out her hull in the moonlight. When the sun rose, she proved to be ship rigged, and an Indiaman for sure.

The chase kept up the game as long as she could, but finally a ball across her cutwater brought her to the wind. Her dis-spirited French prize crew glumly climbed up Badger’s side and a similar group of elated Britons went up the side of the capture. Her former Captain and his officers boarded her also but Mister Davison would command her, assisted with a small cadre of seamen. Her East Indian crew would continue to man her.

The East India Company Ship ‘Alexander’ was intact, her passengers safe, but with many exceedingly upset. The prize crew had made a start at rummaging the passenger’s valuables while in their custody but not all passengers had been victimized yet. Many of Badger’s Marines had been sent aboard the prize corvette but enough remained to board Alexander and strongly influenced those prize crew members who had pilfered belongings to return their bounty.

Mister Davison reminded the former prize crew members that any man found in possession of stolen property would be tried upon reaching Simonstown in the Cape Colony. He assured them if the colony’s gallows were not sufficient to service the number of customers appearing before them, their carpenter’s crew would be happy to assist the authorities there to construct more.

Eventually, the passenger’s concerns were assuaged, and the pair of ships set out for Southern Africa.

.

The prize corvette Diligente with her wrecked mizzen had made little headway on her journey, and Badger and Alexander soon overhauled her. In the short period since her re-capture, Mister Davison noticed the deck cargo of the Indiaman and signaled Captain Phillips attention to it. She had a number of large spars on deck consigned to the East India Company dockyard in Calcutta.

Upon being questioned, the East Indiaman’s former Captain Ryan felt the company would not object too strenuously should one of the big spars be requisitioned to use to replace the Diligente’s mizzen. Mister Tringle was able to provide a course to an island off the African coast. The island had a bay on the eastern coast capable of taking the three ships. Tringle had used this bay before and assured them the bottom was good holding ground. He advised the crews should avoid going ashore except for the most compelling reasons.

The island was populated by some most obstreperous natives who had been much victimized in the past by sea captains attempting to trick their younger people aboard with cheap trinkets only to then strike them below, in irons, to be sold later as slaves.

The natives resented this practice exceedingly and any men going ashore to obtain water were likely to find themselves under savage attack. In addition, mosquitos were endemic and disease was to be feared on this coast.

This information was passed on to all ships and the vessels anchored well off-shore. The selected spar was lowered from Alexander’s deck into the water and towed over to Diligente by Badger’s launch. The wedges holding Diligente’s jury mizzen in place were knocked loose, and the former topmast was pulled out by tackle from her own main yard. Chips judged the diameter of the replacement spar and used his plane to remove some shavings from the base. When careful measurements indicated the new mast should fit properly, it was prepared to be hoisted into place.

Shrouds had already been prepared, as well as both back and forestays. These were secured to the spar in preparation for their use to hold it upright.

The line that had removed the old spar was now secured to the replacement, and men tailed onto the fall. Other lines were bent onto the spar in order for parties of seamen to control any swing. On command of the senior bosun’s mate present, the spar was swayed up vertically, while men on the restraining lines positioned it into place. It was dropped into position and wedged into its footing on the keelson.

Now, seamen obtained from the various ships went to work securing those shrouds and stays. The Lascars from the Indiamen were most valuable in this skilled work. The thought crossed his mind to press a few of the most skilled to fill out the crews of Diligent and Badger, but common sense prevented him. The East Indians were now working with a will. He suspected if he pressed them that will might evaporate.

Diligent had the remnants of a spare suit of sails below, and after the running rigging of the new mast was installed, the replacement mizzen canvas was hoisted aloft. When the trio of ships sailed from the bay, Diligente was equal to her status before her capture. Phillips would have liked to lay her on her side on a sandy beach and scrape her hull. She was much overgrown from her time spent in warm tropical waters. With the potential danger from natives on the island though, this was not to be considered. Any hull clearing would have to wait until reaching Cape Colony.

Sir John Craddock, Governor of Cape Colony, was elated to see the East India Company ship sail into the harbor, accompanied by a British sloop-of-war and a corvette flying British colors over French.  There was a bit of an alarm, when the garrison commander, fearing a French plot alerted the batteries.

Soon those, the fears were brought to rest when Captain Phillips of HMS Badger and Captain Ryan of the East Indiaman Alexander came ashore. The Alexander had been reported missing by her former convoy members and it had been feared to be lost.

Craddock invited Phillips into his office and asked him to relate the whole story. When finished, Craddock informed him there was a steady drain of British shipping transiting the Indian Ocean and it was feared French ships, either National warships, or privateers were the culprits. Although the few surviving officers of the corvette declined to speak on the matter, there was hope lower ranking seamen might speak, given the proper incentives.

Governor Craddock speculated the offer of land grants to any of the enemy seamen that would disclose needed information might be arranged.

On the subject of the Diligente corvette, Craddock said he had the authority to purchase her for the Crown’s use, and would see her repaired and put to use patrolling the seas near the Cape.

Phillips wondered what he would do for seamen, since he required his own prize crewmen to be returned to Badger if she was to continue her mission to actively seek out the enemy.

The governor realized this might be a problem but knew there were more than a few seamen now at the Cape who had become stranded there for one reason or another. He proposed to round them up, willing or not, and put them aboard the corvette. For officers, he had a few East India Company officers whose ship had foundered in a storm. Although not Royal Navy officers, he thought they might do until the next convoy came through. Some convoys had a third-rate line-of-battle ship with the escort and surely such a ship might have a spare lieutenant or two to put aboard the new sloop-of-war.

Phillips was aware that Sir John’s previous experience had been with the Army and might not be the best judge of the suitability of a naval officer for command. He decided it was not his duty to educate the governor so kept a still tongue in his head.

Badger spent the next week in harbor while new provisions were acquired. A small herd of the native cattle had been purchased from their Khoikoi native herders. Finding the preferred means of exchange for the native tribesmen to be iron tools, Phillips purchased a store of wrought iron bar stock from a Dutch warehouse and had the ship’s armorer fashion the iron into knives and axe heads. These were accepted avidly by the herders.

Salt also was available for purchase, although this required hard coin. The empty barrels were scrubbed out and refilled with chunks of newly slaughtered beef and copious amounts of salt. Not wishing to run out of rum on their long voyage, Phillips purchased some casks of locally distilled white spirits, which locals made from their grain. When he sampled a cup, he almost lost his breath it was so potent, but when he tried it out among a few senior crew members, it was pronounced to be equal to the best Barbados rum

The ship, being in all respects ready for sea, put to sea. The plan was to sail northerly up the eastern coast of Africa, stopping at various likely looking ports, then to slope over into the Indian Ocean itself, examining some of the more out-of-the-way islands that might furnish refuge to seafaring predators. Sailing up the western coast of Madagascar, Badger met her first evidence of pirates. A European brig was found on the verge of sinking a dozen miles off the coast. She had been burned and some charred human remains were found in the wreck. Most of her upper works had been burned away. No evidence remained of what ship this was or who pillaged her. Proceeding up the coast, several small fleets of apparent fishing vessels were seen. Ignoring them, Badger went on her way, but then one such group of apparent fishing vessels raised their lateen sails and pursued the ship.

On orders from the quarterdeck, the crew began to transform the trim warship into a grubby merchant ship. Kegs and boxes were brought up from below and piled on deck while bosun’s mates were instructed to allow the crew to slack off the rigging. Some of the canvas was taken down and stowed, since a merchant vessel would not have the means to employ such luxury. As the craft in pursuit approached, they were seen to be a half dozen double-hulled proas, some mounting a gun in the bows.

The proas were also manned by dozens of paddlers. When Badger, as though alarmed, turned away heading out to sea, the proas followed, the paddlers now working hard to catch up with their prey. With such a large crew, it was unlikely the craft were either fishing or trading boats.

The ship had early on held a big lead, but through judicious sail handling was allowing the proas to slowly catch up, although at the cost of venturing far out to sea. When Captain Phillips felt he had led the war canoes far enough from their base, he turned to and waited. On order, all guns were loaded with ball, but grape and canister loads were ordered to be kept handy.

The grape shot loads were formed in a little package, where the iron balls making up the load were stacked on a wooden disk slightly smaller than the bore diameter. Another disk formed the top and line was run though grommets to preventing the shot from spilling out. On discharge from a gun, the wooden disks would disintegrate and the iron grape shot would then be free to disperse.

The canister shot was a covered metal canister filled with small shot. Upon firing, the front and sides of the canister would peel off and fall away, leaving a cloud of the shot spreading toward its target.

With the ship now almost stationary in the water, the pirates began spreading around the ship, in order to take her under attack from all directions. The crew had been called to action stations long since and all hands were issued weapons from the arms chests on deck. Cutlasses were in plentiful use, as were half pikes and pistols. The Marines were all back on the ship now, and they were armed with their Sea Pattern muskets. These weapons fired an enormous lead ball, as big as the end of one’s thumb. Every Marine had been trained to load and fire three rounds a minute.

With the permission of the captain, Sergeant Boseley issued some little sailcloth bags to the Marines. These were inventions of his own. Each bag held a half dozen little paper packets each containing three pistol balls. These were to be loaded, on command, into each musket on top of the nearly ¾ inch diameter lead ball of the issue cartridge. The idea was, upon firing, the balls would spread out and perhaps injure an enemy that had been missed by the single ball. Boseley thought they might wound a few extra pirates this way.

Phillips allowed the Marines to fire at targets thrown into the sea from the quarterdeck. He did not have much faith in the improvisation, but since the load did not seem to damage the weapon or decrease the already limited accuracy of the musket, he allowed the experiment.

The proas were close now, coming in on all sides. On order, all the gun ports opened and the long nine pounder guns were run out. Shouts of alarm came from the proas as they realized they had potentially caught a tiger by the tail. Most veered toward Badger’s bow or stern where fewer guns were present, but some did not make it. The guns fired individually, the individual crewmen well knowing if they missed their enemy, that enemy crew might soon be swarming up the side of the ship.

Of the six proas, three were struck solidly and either smashed or left in a sinking condition. Two remaining proas converged on the bow with another coming toward the stern. One of the forward guns was loaded faster than the others and sent a canister load of nine pounds of pistol caliber shot directly at one of those war canoes heading forward. Those of her crew that were not struck dead were badly wounded.

Now the ship was faced with upward of forty screaming pirates coming at them from bow and stern. The Marines fired first. Not using the extra pistol balls, they fired from perhaps seventy yards away. This was long range for a musket, but even so, several of the pirates were struck. More of the big slugs of lead smashed holes in the bottoms of their boats. With no one left behind to tend to the boats, the pirates now had to take the ship, otherwise the proas would fill with sea water before they could finish their task.

One fired its single gun into Badger’s bow. Doing little damage, it was later discovered the ball probably came from a British Army four pounder gun that had been taken from a captured transport.

Each of the pair of proas made it to the ship and grappled themselves to her. The Marines had reloaded by now, this time with the extra bags of pistol shot driven down the barrels. This volley did fearsome damage to the boarders as they attempted to lift themselves over the side. Even when the large musket ball missed, many pirates were struck by one or more of the pistol balls.

While not as devastating as the full caliber ball, a pistol shot in the trunk or limb would likely cripple or at least slow a man. Now the crew had their turn to inflict harm on the pirates, and they did so with a will. Cutlasses and half pikes were wielded with abandon. Even Chips, the carpenter, was there, swinging a deadly axe. With the action complete, there was not a pirate left whole on board ship or in their own sinking proas. Badger sailed away from the battle scene. The ubiquitous sharks present in these waters were quick to gather and would do their part in removing both living and dead bodies from the waters.