HMS Aphrodite (Sea Command Book 1) (9 page)

The signals Raynor was attempting to interpret were really no business of Mullins at the moment. The rear admiral aboard HMS Hermes, was bored with this tiresome blockade duty, and just wanted the latest gossip from home. He invited Stately’s captain to his ship for lunch. The two fleets merged on a course sailing down the Spanish peninsula while the two officers enjoyed their port and cigars in the great cabin of Hermes.

Admiral Wakesley, a bit pensive after finishing his bottle, bemoaned the fact that one of his frigates had a bottom that was about to fall off and needed repairs very soon. Just where he was supposed to find another frigate to take its place, he had no idea.

Johnson, of Stately, was an old friend of Wakesley, and feeling expansive after his own ration of port, offered him the loan of one of his escorts.

“We can take your frigate with us to Gibraltar and leave you with one of our escorts, a ship-sloop, perhaps. If your frigate cannot be repaired in Gibraltar, at least if her bottom does fall out, it will be in a safe harbor rather than out here at sea.”

Since Lieutenant Doolittle had taken the moment to visit the officer’s quarter gallery, leaving Mister Raynor in charge of signals momentarily, it was the young mid that deciphered the signal detaching Aphrodite from escort duty and ordering her to report to the blockading fleet off Cadiz. Although the signal rating stood by looking over his shoulder as he wrote out the signal in his school-boy script, he felt very important as he delivered the message to his captain.

Lieutenant Doolittle emerged from his constitutional just then and wished the message be repeated, sure that the boy had misunderstood. The signal rating swore the boy had been correct so Mullen ordered acknowledgement and eased his ship into the wake of Hermes.

Next day, Mullen had his appointment with Hermes’ flag captain, Admiral Wakesley having a splitting headache, from the effects of his wine-tasting the previous day. He learned he would be on a roving patrol, sailing right up to the defenses of Cadiz harbor, then back out to the fleet to pass on any information learned. Whenever enemy shipping was suspected to be in the area, it would be Aphrodite who investigated and prosecuted the sightings.

Their first activity was intercepting a very plebian vessel, a collier out of Newcastle that had been taken by a French privateer. Unable to get past the blockade into a French port, the privateer had sent his prize south to see if they could enter a Spanish one.

Had the prize master taken his command into one of the many smaller, unguarded Spanish ports, he would, no doubt, have been successful. Full of pride in his first command, he elected to try to get into Cadiz, reasoning that he could get a much better price for the prize and her cargo in this major port.

Unfortunately for the young man, the maintop lookout of the ship-sloop spotted him still out to sea, hull down. The ungainly collier had not the slightest chance to evade Aphrodite, and while the French prize master did his best, he had to let fly his sheets when she loomed up alongside.

The crew of Aphrodite were proud of their first capture and in very good spirits. After accepting the prize master’s parole, Mullins ordered the young French officer be given a space to swing a hammock in the gunroom, with the mids. Since the French crewmen had offered no resistance, they were released to the foc’s’le and given places as guests at some of the ship’s mess tables.

The ship resumed her patrol and Mullen took her close inshore on a foul night to see what he might encounter there. A small coastal vessel was seen creeping along the storm-lashed shore, but before they could make an attempt on her, the craft sought refuge in a small inlet. The sea too agitated for small boat work. Mullins took Aphrodite right in but was greeted by a twelve-pounder ball plunging into a swell right at her bow.

This inlet was defended by a four gun battery and Mullins felt he must leave it in peace. As they struggled back out to sea, the weather really kicked up, until they had a real gale blowing. The fore tops’l bolt rope blew out and the sail began to tear itself apart. The bosun got a party aloft and the tops’l was replaced about the time the gale itself blew out.

Mister Doolittle had the watch at the time and Mullen ordered him into dry clothing and invited the officer to breakfast with him. It would have to be a cold repast since the cook had yet to build the galley fire. Cold, boiled beef and ship’s biscuit would have to do, washed down by Madiera.

While enjoying the relative comfort of the captain’s dining compartment, the pair plotted their activities for the near future.

Mullins had called for a chart and had it spread over the table. Their prey in the inlet was both out of sight in this weather and out of reach also. But, sooner or later, this one would want to set sail, along with dozens of similar craft up and down the coast. He expected, on the first day with a good wind, these craft would be sailing, just as soon as they saw the coast was clear.

The offshore wind took Aphrodite with her prize collier back out to sea before morning, and the ship was put on course for a jagged headland protruding out to sea. When she cautiously edged closer to shore, it was found necessary to deploy boats to sound the bottom. When a clearer idea of the seafloor was determined, Aphrodite was pulled by her boats to a good holding ground off the headland and anchored fore and aft, with boat carronades backing the anchors.

The collier was told to stand off the headland at a safe distance, making occasional ventures closer to shore to report by flag signal anything she had observed.

As secure as she could be on this dangerous coast, the ship-sloop lay in the wind-shadow of the headland and her crew watched the northerly winds blow up the sea outside their refuge. Early in the fore-noon watch, their quarry from the previous day was spotted being swept down past the headland.

Mullins was tempted to abandon his anchors, but suspected he would have to pay for the carronades if he left them behind, so took the time to hoist anchors and guns aboard. The crew at the capstan, knew well they would receive their share of the prize, and to sweeten the pot, no other ship was in sight. Aphrodite would not have to share with any other ship. The men heaved their hearts out but won their anchors.

Their prey was far ahead of them when they freed themselves and the chase was on. Visibility was excellent today and their prey probably saw them almost immediately, but there was little the little coaster could do. She made the attempt to reach a small fishing port but the collier interposed herself between the chase and Aphrodite.

The collier, unarmed and manned only by a sparse prize crew could do the chase no harm, but this was not realized. Heavily laden, slow and fat, the vessel was overtaken before dusk. Laden with salt beef in casks, probably destined for the big French naval base in Toulon, this cargo would bring a good price in near-famished Gibraltar.

With the seas clear around them, a careful inspection was made of the new prize. With all the officers and warrants busy looking over the capture, Mullins advised his people of his intentions for the remainder of this patrol. Each of his officers and warrants were asked for their verbal report of the ship’s needs.

After going over the reports, it was determined the ships was well supplied with water, had sufficient powder and shot to meet expected needs and sufficient salt pork. Some of the salt beef casks however, had meat of an unpleasant taste. When the surgeon and a delegation of senior hands were directed to examine the food, it was determined several casks were unfit for consumption and several more were likely to fall into that same category very soon.

Captain Mullins had the suspect casks marked and placed by themselves for future disposition while the ship continued on its cruise using the remaining provisions that were still in good condition.

As they discussed ship’s business, Doolittle commented upon one of the French prize-crew members they had taken aboard earlier in the patrol from the collier. Jean Dupont was a young man, of perhaps sixteen years. His family, wealthy members of the upper class, had lost their heads to Mme. Guillotine during the Terror. Jean had been sent away to live with a family member in the country for his own safety, before his parents were taken. He had survived, but the family member had turned him out when it appeared he might be attracting unwanted attention from the local Committee of Public Safety.

By this time, he had lost all of the fine clothing he had formerly worn, but it was difficult for him at first to hide his aristocratic accent. He signed aboard the privateer “Marie Lasalle’ but soon came under suspicion from the revolutionary members of the crew. The captain of the privateer was sympathetic to the lad, having come from the same background. He had to remain aloof however so that he might not be tarred by the same brush as the boy. When young Dupont was put aboard the prize, his troubles increased, as the prize-master was unable to control some of the more radical members of that crew.

Taking an opportunity to speak privately with his captain, Mister Doolittle related how he had overheard some of the threats against the boy. During the storm, the members of the French prize crew had labored alongside the ship’s crew as they struggled to keep the ship safe. Doolittle had witnessed the blows the lad had suffered from his own people.

Mullins realized this was really no business of his. Once they met with the fleet, these Frenchmen would be handed over to the Master at Arms aboard the flag. For now though, he was reluctant to let the abuse continue.

He decided to move the lad from the foc’s’le, but where should he be berthed? The logical place might be the gun-room, but the prize-master was swinging in his hammock in the only vacancy there.

Then he recalled his clerk had shared a little cubby beside the bread room with the purser’s assistant. The two never got along together and their squabbles had become so noisy that the first lieutenant had exiled the purser’s assistant to the foc’s’le with the hands. The clerk’s cubby would be an ideal place to stow the boy until they got back to the fleet.

They took their most recent prize that afternoon. One of the newly acquired mids aboard ship was nearly ready to take his boards, so Mullins rated him as Master’s Mate and put him in command of this prize, ordering him to see her to safe harbor. While Aphrodite was shepherding the prizes back to the fleet, his clerk, emboldened by the half bottle of claret he had pilfered from his captain’s stores, related a conversation he had had with Dupont.

The boy had given him some news about the French privateer that had originally taken the Newcastle collier. While she had sailed from Brest originally, it was becoming much too difficult to evade the blockade. Therefore, the privateer’s captain had begun to use an out-of-the-way port in the south of Portugal, down near the Spanish border, to dispose of prizes and to replenish supplies.

Although neutral Portugal attempted to maintain friendly relations with both France and Britain, the privateer was able to maintain its near permanent base in Portugal through its lavish spending. Her prizes had proven lucrative to the local merchants, who found they could obtain merchandise at very low prices. Several struggling business houses were now profitable, and few inhabitants were unhappy with this new order. Soon, other allied privateers were using the port to resupply their vessels.

After learning of this port from his clerk, Mullins invited the boy into his cabin and questioned him. At first Dupont feared to say much, for fear of the other members of the prize crew. When Mullins offered to keep the lad aboard Aphrodite, the youth became more amenable.

It was soon learned there were often several privateers and a few prizes in the little harbor. Mullins decided to report the matter to Admiral Wakesley. The admiral was outraged at the news but decided to touch at Lisbon and explore matters with the Portuguese officials before taking any action.

The Portuguese officials flatly denied there could be any French warlike activity in their waters and surely no French privateer could be violating Portuguese neutrality. One dubious official in their Interior Ministry, the Marquise of something or other, went so far as to imply Wakesley’s fleet was welcome to take any French vessels caught violating the neutrality of Portugal.

This was enough for the admiral. The fleet set sail the next morning for the tiny port. On reaching the port’s outer harbor, it was determined by a careful examination of the charts that the larger ships in the fleet could never safely enter the port.

Aphrodite, with her shallower draft, could very possibly enter, and so that was decided. While the rest of the fleet took up position outside the harbor, the ship-sloop entered, towing the boats of the other ships, each filled with armed seamen and Marines.

Mullins had become unsure of himself, as the plan progressed. He realized he was a very junior commander who was invading a country with which Britain was not at war. His qualms evaporated when a British merchant ship, one Mullins had seen earlier delivering supplies to the Gibraltar garrison, was found anchored in the harbor with boats unloading her cargo. Two armed ships were at anchor and all could hear the French sea-chanties being sung on their decks.

The oarsmen bent to their work and the boats sped silently to the quarry. The first boats reached a racy-looking armed schooner and the men were swarming up her sides even as the anchor watch sounded the alarm. The second craft, a wicked-looking brig had a few moments notice, but she too was taken before her crew recovered from their confusion.

The prize crew on the captured British transport wisely decided not to resist, and ten minutes after boarding, all three vessels paraded out of harbor, Admiral Wakesley leading the fleet into Gibraltar harbor in triumph. Mullins would have expected the Portuguese to protest loudly of the invasion of their territory, but strangely, not a word was said.

Mullins was quietly advised later that little should be said about the affair. The Portuguese government was having its own difficulties and public ridicule would not help the war effort. He was told the French, if they wished to use Portuguese facilities to prosecute the war against Britain, must bring stronger forces to the area.

In addition, relations with Portuguese officials, which had cooled a bit during the recent difficulties resulting from the French activities in neutral waters, now improved when these problems had been resolved.

At Admiral Wakesley’s request, a lighter from shore came alongside Aphrodite with its cargo of freshly packed salt beef, and the ship would now be free from the land for months, while she preyed upon her enemies.

Having brought substantial prize money to Admiral Wakesley, as well as to himself and crew, Mullins was granted an additional cruise. His area was to include all of the Spanish coast down to Gibraltar, and he was permitted a brief foray up to the northern Spanish coast as well.

The harvest went well. The roads in Spain being what they were, most goods along the coast travelled by ship. Apparently, it had been thought the large Spanish Navy would protect this traffic, but unfortunately, much of that fleet found itself under blockade by the British. Cruisers such as Aphrodite had little opposition to their predations. One small coaster after another was boarded and taken. While in the southern portion of the Iberian Peninsula, many of the prizes were sent into Gibraltar, since he could retrieve his prize crews without too much trouble. After savaging the Spanish coastal trade in that area though, he decided to try farther north.

Sailing well offshore he proceeded north, harvesting what he could on the way. He was pleasantly surprised at his catch. Even just out of Portuguese waters, a Spanish coaster would fall into his clutches, often at the rate of one a day.

The politics of the area often changed rapidly. He stood off Lisbon for two days, sending in a pair of coasters he had nabbed and waiting for their crews to sail back out to him in his extra launch. The hands brought a letter from the British consul advising the French were demanding Portugal cease accepting these prize ships. There was the possibility the prizes might be set free.

Accordingly, Mullins decided to continue his raiding farther north, where he could send his catch to British ports. Passing the port of La Corona, he found himself meeting French shipping.

Cruising easterly along the northern Spanish coast, he fell upon a convoy escorted by a single brig. This was a Spanish naval vessel and it fought ferociously to protect her charges.

The brig was less than half Aphrodite’s strength but fell on her like a sheepdog defending her flock against a wolf. Without any maneuvering, the escort came directly at the sloop-ship, firing her pitifully light broadside as they passed at close range.

Three of her four-pounder balls came aboard Aphrodite and one Marine was killed instantly, while several seamen were injured more or less severely. Mullins ordered a final broadside fired as they passed, which brought down the brig’s mizzen. Rounding to on the enemy, another broadside was sent down the now-defenseless opponent’s bow, and she hauled down her flag.

Only one officer was left standing on her quarterdeck, and he was a very junior teniente, with a musket wound to the right arm. Mullins refused to accept his sword and allowed the Spanish crew into their boats to make their way to make their way to port.

Before they left, Mullins dashed off a note, which he gave to the teniente, addressed to the Spanish authorities, describing the battle and praising the bravery of the brig’s officers and crew who had fought against overwhelming odds.

By this time, the convoy the brig had protected had dispersed and Mullins was only able to take a single prize. This was a brig, heavily laden with military supplies, bound for the French forces at Livorno.

It was only while visiting his wounded in the cockpit that he realized the midshipman he had intended to command the prize had a serious wound received from one of the brig’s final shots. One of his bosun’s mates could handle the prize but who would navigate? He intended to escort this prize, as well as several others standing off-shore to safety, but there was always the possibility of separation.

While pondering the problem, his eyes fell on young Raynor, standing his watch beside the helm. At his tender age, he was too young for detached service away from supervision.

Raynor however, had shown himself to be the best navigator in the Master’s class of mids. He had also handled the ship at times, always of course with an experienced officer nearby. Mullins called over to a bosun’s mate supervising the repairs on the larboard mizzen shrouds.

“Watkins, I would like you to take command of the prize. You will take Mister Raynor with you who will assist with necessary navigation. You will join the other prizes now offshore and together we will make for Plymouth. Should we become separated, you may make for any British port.”

Watkins touched his forehead and answered with a calm, “Aye-aye sir.”

It was only because his available, healthy crew members were so thin on the deck that Mullins decided to make for home. Besides the numbers of people he had sent away to man prizes, he had lost additional hands in the fight with the Spanish brig.  He knew he was liable to face censure for bringing his ship into home port without orders. He hoped he could retrieve the hands from the prizes and perhaps take on a few new hands in port, or at least, waylay a few arriving merchants and ‘press some seamen.

He hoped to also take aboard some supplies. His crew had been supplementing their own provisions with captured enemy rations. This was not universally appreciated by his crew.

The prizes were dropped off in Plymouth, where he was ordered back to Portsmouth. Sailing into harbor, the expected censure for leaving his blockading duties, did not happen. Apparently, these duties had originally been understood to include carrying dispatches as well as blockade duties. While he had no actual dispatches to deliver, he did have a large bag of captured enemy mail and newspapers to put on shore. The port admiral was delighted at the intelligence he would be able to forward to Admiralty.

His presence was then more or less ignored for several days, and he spent a little of that time visiting his prize agent. Some of his earlier captures had been adjudicated and he found he now had a most satisfying balance in his bank.

Calling upon the port admiral, he wished to make his manners, and inquire when he might return to his blockading duties. To his surprise, he was intercepted by the flag lieutenant and handed orders, which Mister Darby told him would send him across the Atlantic. Aphrodite would serve as a portion of the escort to a convoy of transports delivering horses, troops and their artillery train to Jamaica.

Redcoats were being sent by the hundreds to help seize some of the French sugar islands. Since Henry Dundas, Secretary of State for War, had advocated the seizure of the French sugar islands as a means of breaking the economy of their enemy, this was the course upon which the country was now embarked. Troops that could otherwise have proved invaluable in European hotspots, were now being sent across to the Caribbean.

Reporting to HMS Reliant, a 32 gun frigate, Captain Ford, he was asked to dine and learned it might be some time before the convoy would be prepared to leave. There was a scarcity of the troops they were to escort. Ford was dismissive of the plan to occupy the French islands, since he thought disease would kill off more of the troops than the enemy could. However, if HM Government wished to send these troops to the fever islands, he would obey orders and do as he was told.