Richard Testrake - (Sea Command 2) (8 page)

Mullins had the ship sail close along the shore of Spain, during spells of appropriate weather. Several times, shore side gun batteries tried their range. When one ball from such a battery splashed close onto the ship, Mullins decided he might try his own guns against that target. Continuing on, he put out to sea after passing the battery and reversed course. Coming about again, the ship sailed down the coast toward the battery. The sailing master had his chart out and was able to point to a suitable area just offshore from the battery from which they could attack. The bottom was good here with no rocks or obstructions to concern them. Just before approaching the firing position, they passed a small headland, which would serve to mask their approach from the enemy until the last moment.

Closing on the enemy position, Mullins thought it might be politic if he notified his passenger of the impending action. Not wishing to approach the irascible colonel himself, he deputed Prince Adolphus. Of all the crew, Howard would speak to the prince with some semblance of courtesy.

After Mullins carefully drilled the midshipman with the message he wished him to deliver, Howard soon made his appearance on deck, with a pistol in his sash and an expensive sword by his side.

“What’s this I hear about our going into action? Why wasn’t I told earlier?”

Mullins continued watching the shore through his glass. When approaching the headland, he gave the order to clear the ship for action. Immediately, all the extraneous material was struck down and carried below. The colonel protested as he saw his cabin opened up and his belongings taken below.

The ship’s captain continued to ignore his protesting passenger as the disorder ended and the ship became ready for battle, with the deck clear from bow to stern.

Coming around the headland, they were now able to view the enemy battery from close range. It was a small emplacement, housing four guns. A simple stone-work barbette gave some protection to the guns and the huts behind the guns probably served as barracks for the gun crews. A roofed structure built low to the ground behind the battery probably served as the magazine.

Mullins explained his coming actions to the furious colonel spouting beside him. Howard seemed to be of the opinion that an attack solely by ship’s guns against this target was useless without foot troops to attack the battery.

With the ship now in plain sight of the battery, a bugle sounded on shore and men began to scurry to their positions. Mister Ralston took over the ship and Mister Weems left to his post in the magazine.

As the ship came broadside to the target, a tricolor rose on the battery’s flagpole. Mister Danton looked at Mullins questioningly and the captain nodded.

A moment later, eleven guns crashed, spewing their nine pound balls against the stone barrier.

Only one gun was able to answer their thunder, with its ball severing one of the main shrouds. A bosun’s mate sent a couple of men up to repair the slight damage. One wing of the barbette collapsed with the impact of the Valkyrie’s projectiles with two guns ashore thrown down when the stone-work fell. In the meantime, the gun crews went through their gun drill and the guns exploded again. No answering shot replied this time and the order to change to grape was issued. The gun crews worked the target over with grape shot until no further activity was seen.

When the ship’s Marines were ordered into the boats to examine the damage, Colonel Howard insisted on accompanying the troops. Not wishing to forbid the colonel to go ashore, he was not willing to take the risk that the colonel might try to take command of his Marines. He decided to avoid that problem by going himself.

The colonel, elated at getting his own way, sat in the stern sheets of the boat, beside Mullins, seemingly undeterred by the rough passage to the rock-strewn beach. As they neared the beach, departing gunners from the battery were seen making their escape through the dense gorse in the rear.

The seamen saw to pulling the boat up on shore, while the Marines doubled to the remnants of the battery. Colonel Howard followed them and occupied himself by poking around among the wrecked guns with their dead and wounded French gunners. Mullins put a petty officer to getting the enemy wounded under shelter and instructed a party to see to the dead. If they had time before French forces responded, he intended to give them a burial, perhaps leaving a note with details of the casualties’ names, if these could be determined.

Colonel Howard gave a whoop as he discovered the badly wounded French artillery lieutenant who had commanded the battery. The officer had received a grapeshot ball that had mangled his shoulder, tearing some flesh away. Howard had his sword to the weakened officer’s neck trying to get him to stand.

Seeing this, Mullins hurried over, ordering the colonel to stand down. Astonished at the captain’s effrontery, Howard seemed to be considering what he should do, but the sight of a pair of Marines behind Mullins caused him to lower his weapon.

Those men with serious wounds were placed on carrying boards and taken out to the ship, to be seen by the surgeon; the former French commander being one of the first to be sent.

The other prisoners, healthy or those with minor wounds, were placed under guard and taken to a safe area, well away from the magazine.

Mister Weems had come ashore when the boat returned from its mission of delivering wounded and went with Mullins to examine the former battery’s magazine. A pit had been dug on the reverse slope of a knoll and had been lined with mortared stone. A low roof covered it. Much of the interior was filled with kegs of powder, but a separate room inside served as space for a crew to fill cartridges. Storage for projectiles was in a crudely built shed behind the magazine.

The bulk powder was in the standard oaken kegs. After Weems pronounced it to be in excellent condition, Mullins ordered a party of seamen to roll some of the casks down to the shore. This would serve as practice ammunition, which would not need to be accounted for on return to port.

When all preparations had been made, the captured powder was first loaded in the launch to be pulled out to the ship, then most of the landing force was sent away, keeping only a few men to assist with the demolition of the magazine. Colonel Howard insisted upon staying as well.

Mister Weems had brought some quick match on shore with him, as well as a few fathoms of slow match.

With the remaining barrels of powder in the magazine, were also some cartridges already made up for use. Leaving the outside door open to gain a little light to see what they were doing, Weems and Mullins carefully placed a dozen cartridges at the base of the powder kegs. Weems slit one of the cartridges with his knife and the dry powder spilled out onto the stone floor.

Thrusting one end of a length of quick match into the loose powder he led the remaining portion through the open door. At the other end of the quick match. Weems tied a short length of slow match. This slow match would burn at the rate of a few inches an hour, while the quick match could flash through fifty yards in an eye blink.

In this case, when the slow match was lit, it would burn very slowly to its junction with the quick match. When that fired, it would flash to its destination with the gunpowder almost instantly.

With all ready, Weems drew out his large Sea Service pistol. Picking up a shorebird’s lost feather from the beach, he jammed the quill end into the flash hole of his weapon. Hopefully, this would prevent the flash of the powder in the pan from igniting the main charge and firing the pistol. After renewing the priming of the pistol’s pan, he placed a wad of tow into the branches of a convenient bush and sprinkled powder onto the material. With his pistol in one hand and the slow match in the other, he fired the pistol, holding it over the powder impregnated tow. Almost instantly after the powder in the pistol’s pan flared, that in the tow also caught and there was for a moment a hot fire blazing in the top of that bush. Igniting the match from that blaze, it was now time to make the final preparations for departure.

The party retreated to a distant part of the beach. In due course, the ember at the end of the slow match reached the quick match. Then, the flame flashed toward its target, the powder in the magazine. The results were spectacular, leaving nothing but a crater in the earth where the magazine had been.

Those prisoners left on shore, both lightly wounded and healthy, were liberated and told they were free to depart.

Their mission on shore ended, Mullins and the rest of the party boarded the launch and were pulled out to the ship, Colonel Howard being strangely silent for the trip. Mullins thought he might have learned a bit on this day.

HMS Valkyrie proceeded on course for Gibraltar. On the way, several small coasters were sighted close to shore but, because of the poor quality of their near-shore chart, it was decided that it would be dangerous to approach any of these shallow-draft vessels, so they were ignored. Colonel Howard, his blood now up, requested they locate more shore installations to attack, but for the same reason, Mullins declined, thinking they had done enough damage for now. It would be better to wait until reaching Gibraltar where they might find what the Navy wanted them to do.

By the time they arrived, the colonel had modified his views on the Royal Navy in general and HMS Valkyrie in particular. One of Mullin’s barge-men had retrieved the French tricolor from the battery’s flag pole and proudly displayed it to his mess-mates whenever he had a chance.

Captain Mullins purchased the flag from the seaman with a bottle of fine brandy and presented it to Colonel Howard.

Howard, upon reaching shore, submitted a most gratifying report on the professional abilities of the captain and officers on this King’s ship. Mullins and Lieutenant Danton were invited to the colonel’s regimental mess where they found the captured banner on prominent display, with the elegantly inscribed script on a silver plate describing how it had been captured in battle by forces under the command of Colonel Howard.

Amused by the incident, Mullins enjoyed himself, so much it took several seamen to hoist him aboard ship later in the evening.

The ship swung at anchor in harbor while loading incidental supplies. Mullins went ashore to the Government building in the ‘Convent’, where he was informed his ship was to escort a merchantman across to Algeria to take on a load of livestock. The animals would serve as provisions for the Gibraltar garrison as well as for ships calling at the port. It was hoped this would develop into a normal trade path between the two continents.

Although theoretically, the entire North African coast was ruled by Constantinople, actually many enclaves were more or less independent.

Captain Ben Warner of the merchant ship, ‘City of Glasgow, came aboard Valkyrie that evening and explained the situation over wine and cigars in Mullin’s quarters.

“Every local strongman in North Africa hopes to overthrow his overlord and become the supreme ruler in his area. If he succeeds, he can become very wealthy from his share of plunder and trade. We are sailing to a small village on the north coast of Africa. It would normally be insignificant, but it does have an ancient breakwater built by the Romans, which serves as a port of sorts. The local strongman was months ago a petty chieftain of nomadic tribesmen who based themselves in that village.”

“He murdered the previous ruler and pronounced himself emir. Sooner or later, someone will be able to remove him, but at the moment he has a large number of native tribesmen at his call. His people, when not looting or pillaging others, are primarily herders and farmers. One of his agents contacted me recently offering to sell quantities of sheep and cattle. I posted a letter to Governor O’Hara here about the possibility of trade. He was most interested in the prospect and will give me an open contract for the importation of livestock and corn from this source.”

Mullins wondered, “Captain Warner, just how is it that you are known to this ruler? Why has he come to you?”

Warner answered, “Emir al-Hassan doesn’t know me from Adam’s off ox. When I was a young seaman sailing out of Plymouth, the fishing boat I was working on was taken by Moorish raiders, right outside the channel. They took what catch we had and cut the throats of all the crew but myself. They let me live since I was young and fit in those days and they needed another oarsman.”

“I pulled an oar for five years and was about on my last legs when the xebec in which I was pulling an oar attacked a small convoy of merchants near Sicily. They were not well armed and had no escort, which meant that several of them would probably be taken. When my xebec came up on the starboard beam of a poleacre, a brig to our starboard came right at us. That brig’s captain was being bloody minded and crushed our hull right in.”

“There were a few hundred Moors on the xebec and they tried to board the two merchants but the 24-pounder guns we had in our bow pulled us right down when the hull went.”

“I was chained to my bench, but the impact tore something free and I was able to get clear before the xebec went down. I still had my irons on and would have soon gone under myself, but grabbed a big spar next to me and that kept me afloat until I was rescued.”

“I went back to sea and after twenty years was master of my own ship. Since I knew the language, I often arrange for cargoes through some merchants I do business with. These people have friends and relatives in most ports around the Med and are usually honest.”

“I can mostly trust their word as to any danger involved. In this case, the man that contacted me assured me this emir could deliver his cattle and corn, but would likely cut my throat if he thought there was profit in it. Governor O’Hara said he could get me a Royal Navy escort, and that convinced me to take the risk.”

Mullins and Warner finished another brace of claret before they decided to call it a night. Mullins head was still muddled the next morning, and he could recall little of the previous evening. Fortunately, Warner had left behind his notes for the undertaking. They were well written and easily understood.

Calling Mister Danton as well as the sailing master into his quarters, Mullins went over the plans. Ralston produced his charts of the North African coast and the destination village was located. The chart showed the old breakwater. From all the information Mister Ralston was able to obtain, this breakwater consisted of remains from an ancient Roman harbor. Much of the stonework had been removed over the centuries, but enough of the huge blocks of stone remained in the water to offer some protection to small craft.

Ralston was dubious about the accuracy of the marked depths on the charts, but thought a pair of boats going in ahead of the ship, sounding as they went, could give adequate warning of any dangers.