william price and the thetis 18 cliffie bonus

 

Chapter 18

 

The lady and children were dressed in dry clothing, which might not be as fine as the lady was used to, but she was plainly comfortable in one of Amelia’s best gowns.

“Captain?” she asked.

“Yes, I am Captain Price; this is my wife, Amelia,” said William, firmly, in case there were any misunderstandings.

“She has been all that is good,” said the lady. Her English was heavily accented and hesitant. “I am Doña Mercedes Navarro, and these are my children, Antonia and Alejandro. We sailed out of Sāo Tomé to Brazil, to rejoin my husband, carrying cacao to America on the way, but we fell in with what we thought was a British war ship. Only it was not; it was that foul pirate, Pedro Nieves.”

“Peter Snow!” said William, angrily. “My mission is to seek him out and destroy him. He sank your ship?”

“No, he and his men overran it and killed everyone. He… used me, and gave my maid to his men. She stabbed herself, but I had to live, for my children.  He put us overboard when he saw the storm coming, and laughed. His idea of mercy was to kill us in a storm, terrified, thirsty, and alone. Your slave….”

“Adou is no slave,” said William, coldly. “We Britons do not hold with the slave trade, and I am also seizing slavers. He asked to go to save you.”

“Then he is a brave man; please give him this,” she stripped off a ring.

William went to the door of his cabin and opened it.

“Adou!” he called.

Adou came at a run.

“The lady wants to give you something,” William said.

Doña Mercedes smiled and offered her ring to Adou.

“Adou not swim for rewards,” said Adou. “Adou swim for rescue, king an’ country!”

“Take it, Adou,” said William. “Lady, Adou swam to rescue a woman with a baby whose husband had died, and two other infants they adopted, and he married her. And it is right that he should accept thanks, and the blessings of a mother to a very sudden father of three.”

“Indeed,” said Doña Mercedes, warmly. “I would give money which is easier, but I have none on me.”

“I can see that he is given a fair price for it, or he may choose to give it to his wife as a reminder; Adou is a romantic,” said William. “Off you go, Adou.”

Adou saluted and went out.

“A remarkable man,” said Doña Mercedes.

“Yes, a good man,” said William. “I am lucky; I have a fine crew.  I will need them to take Snow’s ship. And I am going to leave you here when the wind abates, as it is Portuguese territory, and I hope they will send word to your husband, and to Sāo Tomé.”

“Thank you, I wish you good luck in your search for the dog,” she said.

Naturally, the lady and her children would have the captain’s cabin, and the mattress on the floor suited the little ones, who were around six or seven years old, better than a swinging cot. Scully moved in with Ziv Stark, to give William and Amelia his cabin. It was only for a night or two whilst the storm abated. Then they put in at a port called Sao Felipe, below the cone of the volcano which had built this island in the chain, escorting Doña Mercedes to the governor’s residence.

Here William left her with the governor’s wife, and Doña Mercedes was glad to be on land again, and with her own kind of people. Not to mention, having her children safe, and returned to their own rather stiff clothing. William sympathised with whichever one it was who had a tantrum over giving up comfortable slops-style garb for their normal wear.

 

William was glad he had taken the lugger’s crew on board; it had been tossed violently in the waves, and had sprung a few planks, as well as losing a mast. He left the small ship in the harbour of Sao Felipe, with some gold to have it repaired. They would call for it when they might; or if not, well, the fishermen would have a new ship for their fleet. And likely William and his crew would be beyond caring.

 

Peter Snow must have also had to run before the storm, but it would be impossible to second guess where he had gone. Though he must have passed close to the ‘Thetis’ that an open boat still surviving in the storm was there for them to effect a rescue.

It gave William chills to think how close they must have been to the pirate; perhaps still were. There were many shelters around this chain of islands, into which the ‘Sparrowhawk’ and her prize might have retreated, and those on shore comforted by the presence of a Portuguese merchantman.

“Now, where is he likely to go?” mused William, and realised he had spoken aloud when Scully answered him.

“America,” said Scully. “He can’t take ‘Sparrowhawk’ to England or Gibraltar, and he can’t take his prize to anywhere Portuguese or Spanish. And he’s limited in where he can sell Cacao, so he’d go to America where they don’t ask any questions.”

“Well reasoned,” said William. “Lay in a course north of the rest of Cape Verde, and then west.”

“Aye, sir,” said Scully.

 

The Cape Verde Islands were a blue haze on the horizon when the lookout shouted, “Deck ahoy! Sail fine on the starboard bow!”

“Almost dead ahead; that’s a problem,” said William. “We might go closer to the wind than any square-rigged ship, but they can go faster.”  He shrugged. “Go to quarters.”

The little drummer boy flourished his sticks to beat the ruffle that called the men to quarters. The topsmen went up gladly, the breeze was still stiff, but the storm had gone to menace someone else, and most of them cared little whether this was Cornwall or Canada. The day felt newly-washed, clean and ready for anything, with cumulus clouds on parade in ranks, marching across the sky. Sun darted through between them, and their own speed and the wind meant that clothes hung out on lines were drying fast after almost everyone had been saturated by the storm.

“Deck there! Make that two vessels! Merchantman of some kind and a British sloop!” sang out the watchman.

“I’ll go, sir,” said Colin, taking his telescope.

He ran off up the ratlines, and took his time to make sure, before coming down.

“Sir, that’s a sloop of war, which is challenging us; I bent on our numbers and the acknowledgement.  I can’t see if it’s the ‘Sparrowhawk’ yet, but she has lost the upper part of her foremast, and has a Spanish or Portuguese merchantman on tow.”

“Acknowledge then, and ask ‘what ship,’ and we’ll be ready to move in on her. Mr. Stark! Get your men quietly into the boats; when we join battle, they will release the tow, and you take the merchantman back.”

“Aye, sir,” said Stark. “I wouldn’t put a large prize crew on a merchantman if I was having to tow it; do you still want me to take all my men?”

“Yes; there may be more men than either of us thinks likely, and better safe than sorry.”

“Sir,” said Stark. “Can I steal Colin? My men are well exercised at the cannon, thanks to you including them in evolutions, but a steady gun captain will help if we need to help you out.”

“You’d better take half a dozen topsmen, then, from the watch below,” said William. “And Lord, who is fast at reading messages.”

“Yessir,” said Stark. “Just don’t add the infant reading class. In a year or two, they’ll be better than most ship’s companies, but they’re a little short for sail handling.”

“Go to hell, you impudent rascal,” said William, without heat. “I’ll need the infant reading class myself to intimidate the pirates.”

Stark laughed, and went off to muster his men.

 

“Sloop has signalled, ‘Please come alongside and render assistance,” said Seth Porkins.

“Acknowledge,” said William. “And run down to tell the men to close the gun ports, but to be ready to open and fire on command.”

“How can we tell if it’s Snow, or if it’s been taken from Snow?” asked Scully.

“Because Seth is going to get back aloft after relaying his message, and look for signs of men crouched behind the bulwarks,” said William. “And if so, will shout ‘Aye-aye, sir,” and if not will shout, ‘Belay!’.

“What if I’m not sure, sir?” said Seth.

“Did you have to holystone the deck of the Brig, and was it unshipshape?” asked William.

“Aye, sir!”

“Well, even with that mess of spars, you’ll know,” said William. “And the fallen sail might wriggle.”

“Oh! I see,” said Lord. “They won’t keep it as Bristol fashion as if they were tars.”

“Precisely,” said William.

Seth darted off to relay his message to the guns, and then leaped back into the rigging with an energy William envied.

The ‘Thetis’ drew level to the sloop, which loomed over her, somewhat, and William confirmed the name on the stern.  ‘Thetis’ was slightly longer, Sparrowhawk was as broad on the beam and higher. She was pierced for six guns; they had parity there.

“Aye Aye sir!” Seth’s shrill voice was heard.

“Very well, Mr. Scully, heave to at your convenience too far away for them to storm us and close enough to rattle their teeth when we fire,” said William.

“I believe the technical term for ‘heaving to at your convenience,’ is ‘constipation,’ sir,” said Scully, as he carried out the orders.

“Oh, very good, John, very good,” said William.  Those sailors in earshot sniggered. They liked their officers in a jocular mood for battle.

William nodded to Smitty, whom he had designated last man down for Ziv Stark’s party, and the sailor slid over the side to give the order to cast off tow, and start the row to the merchantman.  William had noted the tow between ‘Sparrowhawk’ and the merchantman, ‘Nossa Senhora das Flores’ had been cast off. And it was another clue that this was no true British warship asking for aid. William ticked it off in his mind, a point of evidence to bring up at a court-martial, if he ended up sinking another British vessel.

It was the naval way. If one succeeded, it was only one’s duty to do so. If one made a mistake, then one was before a board of enquiry. Honest mistakes could still have serious consequences.

“What’s your problem?” William called over the speaking trumpet as he closed somewhat.

“Come along board, old chap, and I can let you know in more detail,” said the man dressed in Royal Naval uniform. It was correct as far as William could see.

“You’re Worthington, aren’t you?” said William. “Master and commander of the ‘Sparrowhawk?’ he picked a name at random.

“Yes, yes, that’s me,” said the man.

“Yes, I heard about your problems,” said William, keeping the man talking to give Ziv time. “Did you think my surgeon could relieve it, then? Damned embarrassing thing to have, but of course, the whole world knows, you know what sailors are like, a bunch of old women as gossips.  And I know it’s a really embarrassing place from which to have to have a belaying pin removed, but accidents happen, accidents happen, after all. I assume it was an accident? I mean, who puts a belaying pin up the northwest passage deliberately.”

The bulwark guffawed. In several voices.

Or, presumably, men concealed there did so. The fury on Snow’s face was quite comical.

“Fire,” said William, conversationally to the drummer. The drummer boy’s drum rolled. All six gun ports opened in unison and the deck shook as the full broadside of the ‘Thetis’ roared out, and slammed into the side of the sloop. Colin had once boasted that the lads could put their shot through individual cannon ports if within a cable’s length, and it looked as though they had been peeking through their own gunports to check range and angles, because three of the six smashed through the still-closed gunports of the other vessel.

“A guinea to each member of the guncrews who were so accurate,” said William, to Scully.

“Mr. Prescott will be pleased when he comes back aboard,” said Scully. “It’s three parts luck, of course, but also a belief in themselves.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if at least one gun was dismounted,” said William, happily.

There were shouts and cries from the ‘Sparrowhawk,’ and William thought he caught the words, ‘loose cannon!’ and beamed. That would be devastating.

Snow was screaming, “Get this sodding ship close enough to board and storm their sodding American cockleshell! And fire grapeshot at them you lubbers!”

“Mr. Scully, if you please, release the courses and stand by to come hard to starboard on my command,” said William.

“Aye aye, sir,” said Scully, bellowing orders. “It won’t do as much good as raking from behind to cross their ‘T’, of course.”

“No, but it counteracts their boarding manoeuvres,” said William. “And we can hope that Ziv and his men are busy on the other ship.”

“Oh!” said Scully. “Spit them with roundshot from both ends at once.”

“Yes,” said William.

“They’re already playing skittles with a loose cannon, making manoeuvres before that is secure is not going to do them any good,” said Scully, happily. “Watch out, their sharp-shooters,” he added, barging William as he saw a man with a musket.

Walden raised his rifle and the musketman fell. In short order, so did several others. In the confusion, with the ‘Sparrowhawk’ trying to turn into the ‘Thetis,’ the sloop’s quarterdeck started to swing away, and William, almost in a spirit of mischief, heaved up his service pistol from its hanger on  his belt, and fired it.

The pirate stumbled, and his hat flew off. William laughed; he could not stop the laugh coming at the ridiculous way the man shook his fist at him. He felt like a little boy, rattling a stick in the railings of the house of some pompous and gouty householder.

And then the wind caught the sails, and almost immediately after the ‘Thetis’s’ quarterdeck came level with the sprit of the ‘Sparrowhawk,’ Scully was issuing orders, and the ‘Thetis’ was turning to starboard, sailing in front of the less agile ship.

“Fire as you bear,” William called the order, which was relayed. The bowchaser managed a shot first, and then each of the six in the broadside spoke in turn.

A roll of gunnery which was not from the ‘Thetis,’ but did not seem to be from the ‘Sparrowhawk’ alerted William to the fact that Messers Stark and Prescott had not been wasting their time, and the ‘Nossa Senhora das Flores’ had joined the fray. There was a cheer from his own men.

“Come about and rake them with the other battery,” said William.

“Come on lads, look lively! The captain wants us wriggling like a snake in a brothel,” called Scully. “Back the other way, now, and if you get seasick, do it on your own time!”

“You’re a bloody good officer, John,” said William.

And then blood blossomed on his friend’s face, and he stumbled backwards, and fell.

 

 

and that leaves a worse cliffie, but I promise I'm not going to kill John Scully