william price and the thetis 7

 sorry, sorry, I was going to post early and got distracted by tearing my nightie and having to mend it.

 

 

Chapter 7

 

It would not work against a more conventional navy, thought William, as muffled rowlocks carried him to the smaller of the two brigantines. Scully was headed for the other, and Erskine to the schooner. Hiram Gubbins was in charge of the ‘Thetis,’ as William preferred to be in charge of one of the cutting-out expeditions himself than to ask anyone else to lead it.  The most experienced midshipman he had left was little Lord, and William felt he needed another year of sea time before being thrown into such duty. Lord was in charge of a second boat, accompanying William. Colin could do it, but Colin’s job had been to act the slightly gormless surviving officer in charge of a plague ship, and his job was done. Colin could lead a cutting out party, but his job for now was to cause a diversion in the case of any of the parties from the ‘Thetis’ being spotted.

Colin had had every one of his men pack their kit, which was only a satchel’s worth each, in any case, and keep ready on deck, to abandon ship at a moment’s notice. His idea of a diversion was to blow up the ‘John and Betsy,’ and so long as Peacock, Beck, and Walden were taking care of Taffy, he did not much care if anyone took care of Feltham or not.

In the meantime, it did not seem as though there would be much need for a diversion, since the pirates were carousing, and appeared to be being joined by such local prostitutes as might be mustered. As evening descended in the rapid fashion of the tropics, lurid colours painting the west-facing brown and golden cliffs in reflection of the vivid sunset contrasted with dark shadows; and six dark boats rowed silently were just six more ripples in the water, briefly a study in black and gold, and then wine-dark, like Homer’s Mediterranean,  as the colour faded from the sky whose vapid crescent moon barely added to its crepuscular gloom. The stars glistened like diamonds on the darkest blue velvet, and seemed close enough to reach out and pluck them. Whimsically, William wondered how they would look, strung, to give to his wife. He knew he was thinking desperately of everything except what was to be done on board the three ships he was taking.  It was strange, if they were facing them on the high seas, he would never hesitate to give an order to rake, killing as many as possible. But the idea of killing them in cold blood was nauseating. He had given orders to incapacitate if possible, and kill if necessary; but where possible to tie them up in their own hammocks to be put ashore, probably on Tenerife, the next nearest of the Canary islands. Of course, were the positions reversed, the pirates would give precious little mercy to the men of the Royal Navy. But then, they were better than such men.

William was unaware that Scully had said to his men, “Listen, take no risks. They’d murder us in our sleep, you know, so if it’s a choice, I want my lads live, and the pirates dead. They should all be hanged, in any case, so don’t muck about unless capturing them really is easy.”

It was understood that they did not tell the captain.

Erskine’s orders were to take them down by any and all means. He had Ziv Stark as his second officer, who was of the same mind.

And the men with William had no intention of taking undue risk. But the would acknowledge the order, and take any killing onto their own conscience as the captain had a weak spot about this. He was a good captain, fair, and brought prizes, so he might be allowed his foibles.

 

William watched Adou run up the anchor chain as if it were a secure ladder. The big man’s grace never ceased to amaze him. The ladder snaked down, and William was busy following him. He could feel his own boarding party coming up behind him, and hurried to allow the more active sailors room in climbing.  Then he was swinging over and onto the deck, with Lord right behind him, almost losing his hat, followed by Smitty, who had made a fast recovery, and a stream of sailors behind him, lining up in silence. William glanced back at the ‘Thetis’ and was glad that Gubbins had remembered for him, as the union flag fluttered out where it had just reached the masthead. Adou and Smitty were quickly conferring… no, Smitty was striking a light! That was foolishness, anyone might see it… William made his way over as Smitty’s light crawled onto slow-match leading to a small barrel. William opened his mouth to ask what they were about when Smitty opened the forehatch and dropped the barrel down.

There was a startled noise, and then a dull CRUMP! sound. The deck shook.

“Are you insane?” asked William, in a strangled whisper.

“No, sah, following dem orders f’om le’tenant Stark,” said Adou. “He say, big bang, de be plenty lots subdued men.”

“Subdued?” said William.

Adou grinned.

“Some’p’n like that,” he said.

William was not about to censure Adou, who was following a lawful order from an officer… Stark should have cleared it with him.

And William would have forbidden it. Stark was working by the maxim that it was easier to seek forgiveness than permission; and William would have to write his report as though he had sanctioned the use of gunpowder, to protect Ziv Stark, and… and at that, the admiralty would probably agree that taking out half the pirates with gunpowder was a good thing, and that he, William, had been unduly optimistic to think that they might take out three pirate companies without softening them up somewhat beforehand.  It had been loud from where he was standing, but he could still hear voices laughing and singing from the other pirate vessels, moored over a cable’s length away.  The wooden walls of the deck had absorbed most of the noise.

There were the sounds of other men coming aft.

“Adou, with me; the rest of you, below and secure the gundeck,” said William. He and Adou would deal readily with those who were coming to see what the noise was about.

Soon William was swinging his cutlas beside Adou.

He thought he heard two other vague bangs some distance away; but he might have imagined them. He and Adou disposed of their few assailants, and followed the other men below decks.

It was a mess down below; Adou’s little firkin had made a real mess of the mess, but the men would rate dealing with that as less trouble than fighting pirates, more of whom had not been asleep than William had estimated. No proper watches; and he should have taken that into account.

Well, Ziv had taken it into account for him, and had probably saved half the ship’s company by doing so.

It was dangerous to consider pirates as ordinary people with desires and aspirations like anyone else.  There was no suggestion that these pirates were in any way coerced into joining; and if the whores were with them, that was pity. Most were probably aft with the nominal officers; there would never be many in a small fishing village.

The fight with the officers and those on a rather desultory watch was short and brutal, and William rather enjoyed it. In some ways, if he was honest with himself, every pirate he killed represented the pirate, Henry Burkett, from whom he had rescued his beloved wife, Amelia. And the hanging of Burkett, whilst it made Amelia safe, was not as satisfying as being able to sink a cutlass into him.

William took Adou to search the cabins, and found only a Spanish girl with very few clothes on.

“Vamos,” said William, hoping it meant what he thought it meant.

She fled, which was the general idea, scrambling overboard for a small boat by which she had, presumably, arrived.

 

Scully felt a lot more sanguine about the project with a bomb to drop on the pirates below. It may only be an old butter firkin full of gunpowder, not an iron shell, but it would still make a mess of anyone in the blast area.  Not to mention the wooden shards being driven through anyone.

He heard a bang and fancied it was the captain’s target; well, now Will knew, and they must live with what he might say later.

He had reached the deck of his prize vessel, and kindled a spark to set off his own bomb, and as Sam Price lifted the hatch for him to chuck his sizzling barrel of death down amongst those below, he reflected that a chewing our from Will would still be better than being dead.

He thought he heard a distant boom, before his went off, and he wondered if that was Nat Erskine and Ziv Stark. No time to speculate, give the smoke time to clear slightly and call his men to follow him into an infernal depiction of hell, smoke, a few flames where the explosion had happily caught onto the fat of whatever the meal had been, and bodies thrown and twisted into attitudes too grotesque for Hieronymus Bosch to have imagined in his own depictions of the infernal regions. He heard Arthur Cosgrove tell Sam, who was heaving, ‘It’s all right to be sick for your first body, but try not to do it in here, unless you did the killing, right, Sam? There’s enough of a mess, without you adding to it. Nip up and breathe in the air, and shoot the cat over the rail… Brent, Higgins, go with Mr. Price in case he has company.”

Scully nodded. Both the Cosgroves were steady lads. He was glad he had been assigned the younger of them to offset Sam Price, who tried, but did not always succeed.  Mr. Erskine had all the marines, so he had Cornet Ashe. Mr. Price was without young Prescott, and his poachers; but he had George Cosgrove, to leave in charge. Young Lord was efficient enough, and at least enthusiastic, and Adou adored the captain. Mr. Gubbins had Seth Porkins and Martin Beck, and the supernumerary, Wilfrid Percival, and should have no trouble sailing the ‘Thetis,’ when it was time to cut and run, if anything delayed the captain.

Scully swallowed dry, not wanting to think of anything delaying Will, his best friend, since anything which delayed Will was likely to be fatal.

He pushed thoughts of such things from his head, and made his way aft, clearing any resistance as he went, scrupulously capturing any who surrendered, who would be going back to the ‘Thetis,’ with the majority of his men. Like Will, he simply told the whores he found to get out, but having no idea as to the Spanish needed, simply glared at them, and indicated with his thumb to get out of his way. It worked as well as Will’s attempt.

Erskine was happy to be working with the marine Lieutenant, whose explosive ideas seemed good to him. Ziv had made some pasteboard bombs as well, which would cause no real damage, but would make a loud popping noise, and spread smoke. Erskine and his men had wet kerchiefs to wear over their mouths and noses, and must needs put up with running eyes from the acrid smoke; but at least should be able to breathe without coughing. It was a trick some gunners used in the thick of battle. The smoke bombs drove all aft, where they might be rounded up, and clapped in irons. 

Each of the captured ships sent back the majority of those dispatched to effect the capture, each keeping a second in command who was a warrant officer, which might be a midshipman, and eight men, the minimum needed for the sail handling.

Scully kept Albert Cosgrove, who was as good as any topsman and was no mean hand at gunnery, leaving Sam Price in charge of taking back the now surplus crew. The dead could be put overboard once they were well away.

And having counted each of the boatloads back on board, ‘Thetis’ signalled, ‘648-302-167,’ ‘Prizes prepare to follow commodore.’

Thetis was now no longer listing, and if anyone had been listening, the pumps had long been silent. The spring on her anchor brought her about, and she prepared to beat her way out of the harbour. Colin, in the ‘John and Betsy,’ also on a spring, stood by to follow the prizes.

Mr. Scully got under sail first, which Colin found scarcely surprising, the graceful lines of the ‘Arbella’ picking up speed.  Mr. Erskine and George Cosgrove were neck-and neck, the familiarity, by now, of the schooner’s rig aiding Erskine and whoever his second was. George ceded second place to the second lieutenant, and followed.

Colin was about to get under way, utilising his own spring for a fast exit, when something made him look back towards the Brig.

It was suddenly weighing anchor, the sails let loose, sluggishly, as if there were insufficient hands, which there may well be whilst it was being fitted out. But it was in pursuit, and two ominous black eyes opened at its bow, and Colin could imagine he heard the bow-chasers be run out.

“Mr. Walden, the boats on tow over the sides on the starboard side, if you please, let loose the spring and men aloft to drop all canvas  and be prepared to come hard to larboard on my command,” said Colin. “And then be down from aloft soonest and stand by to abandon ship.”