Hervey 09 - Man Of War (25 page)

Six miles or so on the starboard beam, towards the southern horizon, was what looked like a brig sailing a good two points free of the wind, and beyond, but evidently within gun range, a second, indeterminate sail chasing her.

There was another puff of smoke from the second sail’s bowchaser. Several seconds later came the muffled report. Peto did not see the fall of shot, so he had no idea whether it had struck the brig or fallen short.

‘Another merchantman running from pirates?’ suggested Lambe, likewise searching with his glass.

Indeed, every midshipman on or off watch was now on the quarterdeck with his telescope, the sound of a distant gun sweet music to a young man who had only ever heard it at practice.

‘And the pirate has not seen us? It’s possible.’ None but the coolest would risk his work with a man-of-war to weather. But Peto was not convinced. ‘I rather think the
chasing
sail may prove the friend. See, the brig’s holding her course when it would be easier for her to bear away. It will bring her well astern of us. So perhaps she seeks to evade us too?’

Midshipman Duguid, a wiry, red-haired boy from Moray, had climbed the main mast at the first shot. He now hailed the quarterdeck with unconcealed delight. ‘
Frigate
chasing, sir, with a red ensign!’

Peto lowered his telescope with the satisfaction of a man who had just proved his wits. But a frigate in the Mediterranean would fly a blue ensign, the commander-in-chief’s colour; red meant that she sailed under Admiralty orders. That surely meant she was cutting out slavers. ‘Heave to, Mr Lambe!’

‘Ay-ay, sir!’ Lambe cupped a hand to his mouth. ‘Heave to, Mr Shand!’

The master raised his speaking-trumpet: ‘All hands, shorten sail!’ There followed half a dozen more precise instructions to the captains of the tops.

The off-watch came scrambling to the upper deck – those who had not already come up at the prospect of action. The starboard watch could easily have shortened sail and trimmed the yards, but with an order to heave to within earshot of cannon (rather than merely to lower a boat), the master would lose no time where there was no need.

‘Run out starboard middle- and upper-deck batteries!’

‘Starboard middle- and upper-deck batteries, ay-ay, sir!’

Lambe took up his own speaking-trumpet and relayed the order.

‘Mr Pelham, signal to
Archer
, “come about”!’

‘
Archer
to come about, ay-ay, sir!’

Peto saw no call to beat to quarters yet, nor to clear the whole ship for action. It ought to be enough merely for
Rupert
to run out the lighter of the guns to convince a brig to strike her colours. But if the slaver did try to run astern – and she would have to be remarkably fine handled to sail so close-hauled –
Rupert
could simply turn to starboard, and with the wind comfortably abeam rake her as she bore. A single broadside would smash her to smithereens. No master, even of a slaver, would dare it. What Peto feared was that she might cast the evidence overboard. It was not unknown, as the despatches from the Preventive Squadron on the West Africa Station revealed only too well.

‘Let us serve her notice. A signal gun, if you please, Mr Lambe.’

‘Ay-ay, sir.’ Lambe put his speaking-trumpet to his lips again. ‘Middle deck, one gun to fire unshotted!’

At such a range there was nothing to choose between guns: no shot, upper-deck eighteen-pounder or middle-deck thirty-two, would reach even half-way to the slaver. It was the noise and smoke, the signal, that counted, and a thirty-two would make the most of each.

A minute and seven seconds ticked by. The aft gun fired.

Peto put his telescope to his eye again to observe for a change of course. In five minutes there was no sign of it.

‘
Archer
coming about, sir!’ called the officer of the watch.

Peto glanced over his shoulder. The sloop had indeed wore round quickly. ‘Good man,’ he said to himself (her captain was commissioned from below deck, but he was sharp enough). ‘Make to
Archer
, “stand-by to intercept”.’

There was no need of elaboration, for at that angle
Archer
would have a better view of the chase than did
Rupert
, and there was enough sea space for her to intercept without having to sail too close-hauled.

With a three-decker now all but motionless ahead of her, a frigate chasing astern, and
Archer
about to cut her off to leeward (the wind abeam so that she could not turn away more than a point) the slaver’s only option was to strike her colours – such as
were
her colours (Peto was damned if he could see any).

But in five minutes more she still had not altered course. Peto was mystified. Did she gamble that
Rupert
would not open fire, knowing her cargo? A three-decker could certainly not give chase. He considered the propriety of his options: the Royal Navy was enjoined to suppress the slave trade, not to liberate slaves, although the latter was the usual consequence of the former; he would be perfectly justified in sinking the slaver with all hands. That offended his humane instincts, however, and although it was just, it was hardly consonant with that impulse which had animated parliament in moving the legislation in the first place.

‘Make to
Archer
, “expedite”, Mr Pelham.’

‘ “Expedite”, ay-ay, sir.’

Peto thought it would now come to a fight, but could his sloop catch up the slaver and board her? Even if she could, she would have to sweep her deck first. He hoped she had the weight of carronades and small arms for the job.

The minutes passed, twenty of them before the slaver was within range of
Archer
’s long twelve-pounders – had
Archer
turned broadside to her quarry, that is (but, still making to catch her,
Archer
’s captain had to be content with warnings from the bowchaser). Still the slaver kept her course. Peto reckoned she would pass at least half a dozen cables’ length astern. He thought of sending two boats’ worth of marines to try to intercept her, supported by the sternchasers. He glanced at the boats in the waist and wondered if two would do it, or if he could spare a third, which might too be stove in. He had not many minutes more before he must decide . . . ‘Curse her!’

The sudden discharge of one of
Archer
’s twelve-pounders made him turn – just in time to see the slaver’s bowsprit carried clean away. The sloop had risked the chase for a shot by turning away from the wind, but with what effect!

‘Great gods! Capital shooting! Capital!’ exclaimed Peto. ‘Mark you, Mr Lambe!’ (Likely as not it had been a warning shot across the bows, fortuitously off its line, but that was no matter.)

‘She strikes, sir!’ came the cry from the maintop, Midshipman Duguid observing the pennant running down.

Peto nodded approvingly. Another minute and he would have given the order to lower three boats. ‘We will keep a sharp lookout, Mr Lambe. I would not trust a slaver’s crew until they were in irons. If she
is
a slaver, that is.’

‘Ay-ay, sir,’ replied the lieutenant, his telescope trained once more on the sloop and her captive brig. ‘
Archer
’s running out her launch.’

‘I commend Mr Crabbe for it,’ said Peto, raising his own glass. ‘It doesn’t do to give a crew of a striking ship time to reconsider. Yonder frigate’s still a mile to run.’

Indeed, he observed, the frigate was having to beat more to windward to give herself leeway to run alongside the prize.

‘Not worth a deal of money, though,’ he added laconically. ‘A guinea or so a man by the time it’s shared out.’

Had the frigate taken the brig as prize with no other warship in sight the money would have been hers alone, but the presence of even a man-of-war’s tops on the horizon meant that the prize-money must be shared (it was held that an enemy was persuaded to strike by the mere threat of a second ship engaging). And so the slaver would be claimed by sloop, frigate and first-rate; the share would be meagre indeed. If only she were a Spanish bullion, and in the glory days, twenty years before!

‘Frigate’s signalling, sir!’ came the cry from the poop.

Peto fancied his eyes were still strong, but he strained in vain to make out the separate signal-flags.

The frigate turned another point into the wind, her signal halyards now easier to make out (it was expecting too much, perhaps, for
Archer
to be repeating them, occupied as she was). Peto turned impatiently, to see Midshipman Pelham’s junior leafing through the pages of the signal codebook, while Pelham himself peered through his ’scope, calling out the flags to another, who looked about as old as Rebecca Codrington.

Where
was
Miss Rebecca Codrington? Peto had not seen her yet this morning.

‘Good God!’ he spluttered, realizing that the dark blue of what he had taken to be one of Pelham’s afterguard assistants was in fact that of a bodice, not a jacket. ‘Mr Lambe!’

‘Sir?’

But he thought better of it. He had given Rebecca Codrington the freedom of the quarterdeck, and the day before, he had instructed Pelham to look after her. He could scarcely cavil now, just because there was a chase and a boarding action a mile off. ‘No matter. What
does
Mr Pelham do there? Can it be so very long a signal?’

He himself had been a signal midshipman, and he knew perfectly well it could be the very devil taking down a signal in clear, let alone cipher – and
that
supposing both ships were using the same codebook. The frigate, whoever she was, would not be signalling in cipher, but did she use the same book? She was sailing under Admiralty orders, while they were Mediterranean Fleet. He took another look at her, and now saw the cause of delay – no fewer than
four
signal halyards. He could not know, of course, whether it were a long message or whether the words were not contained in the codebook, and therefore to be spelled out letter for letter. Be what may, she now appeared to be turning into the wind even more. Was she intending to tack? What
was
she intent on?

‘I believe she’s going about, sir,’ said Lambe, sharing his captain’s observation. ‘I wonder—’

‘From
Trincomalee
, sir,’ begged Pelham, touching his hat.

Peto lowered his ’scope.
Trincomalee
: he knew her – teak-built at Bombay a dozen years ago, a fast sailer (and a savagely long name to have to spell out). ‘Wear away, Mr Pelham!’

‘ “Request you take possession of prize. Have second out of Tangier to pursue.” ’

Peto huffed. He had the authority to refuse, but he had no wish to frustrate a preventive frigate in hot pursuit. Nor did he believe the Admiralty would wish it. But he could not risk putting a prize crew on board to sail her to Gibraltar – not with a hold full of slaves who, once unshackled, might fail to distinguish between captors and liberators. He would have to send aboard two dozen marines at least. And he would get back none of them, nor the crew, this side of a month if he were lucky. No,
Archer
would have to escort her. It wouldn’t be plain sailing, not against the wind, but with address she could make Gibraltar and be back in five or six days. Except that it meant he would have to rely on another ship coming out of Valetta to take ashore Rebecca Codrington – and the other women. Curse it! And for a paltry fifty guineas prize-money to his own pocket!

‘Very well, Mr Pelham. Make to
Trincomalee
: “Affirmative. Good hunting!” ’

‘ “Affirmative, good hunting” – ay-ay, sir!’

‘And to
Archer
: “Convoy her to Gibraltar and return”.’

‘ “Convoy her to Gibraltar and return” – ay-ay, sir!’

‘Crabbe’ll ask for men if he needs to,’ said Peto to his lieutenant as Pelham scuttled back to the poop.

Lambe nodded. Handling a prize-slaver would be tricky. ‘Stand-by to make sail, sir?’

‘As soon as
Archer
acknowledges and has possession of her.’

‘Ay-ay, sir.’

‘I shall walk the lower decks meanwhile.’

‘Ay-ay, sir.’ Lambe called to the waist for the master-at-arms and boatswain to accompany.

There were two places laid at table in the captain’s steerage. Peto had asked that a dozen officers join him at dinner, and in the circumstances he thought the presence of Miss Codrington not, in truth, apt. Or, seen another way, he wished his officers to behave without the inhibition that the presence of a lady, a girl – and the commander-in-chief’s daughter at that – would inevitably occasion. And so he had asked Rebecca Codrington to take a late breakfast with him, which, with the diversion of the chase, was now luncheon.

‘Rice b’n’t so good as it were an hour ago,’ said Flowerdew as he placed a bowl of salt on the table, his voice close enough to Norfolk as to make Peto feel comfortably at home.

‘I’m confident that it will be most appetizing,’ he replied, opening a locker under the stern lights and appearing to search.

‘But the ’addock’s well,’ called Flowerdew, not inclined to question what it was that Peto searched for (if his captain wanted his help he would certainly ask for it).

‘How many of Marsala did we bring?’

‘Two cases, sir.’

‘I don’t see it.’

‘There wasn’t room, sir. It’s still in the ’old. Do you want some?’ He sounded doubtful. He had never known Peto to drink Marsala except of an evening, and alone with a book.

‘I thought to send a bottle to Miss Codrington and her maid. She said last night she had never tasted it.’

‘That’s uncommon thoughtful, sir,’ said Flowerdew, though sounding more doubtful still. ‘I’ll fetch up a case.’

‘I’d be obliged.’

‘I’ll go an’ fetch Miss Codrington, an’ all.’

‘If you would.’

Peto sat down in his Madeira chair and placed his hands together as if in prayer, his customary method of recollecting his thoughts. He was, indeed, fretting somewhat at the missed opportunity. He had written to Elizabeth at some length the night before, his intention being that Rebecca Codrington take the letter ashore when he put her off for Malta, whence it could travel with the next ship for England. If he had been able to pass the letter to
Archer
instead it might have been with her in Wiltshire in under a month. But now he would have to wait for a barque or something out of Valetta. It need not be any great delay, he knew, but it was a delay nonetheless. He
could
have sent the letter across to
Archer
, of course. Had there been official papers to send, too, he would not have hesitated to do so – or even a decent bag of mail from the ship’s company; but two days out from Gibraltar there was next to nothing.