william price and the thetis 9

 

Chapter 9

 

Emma’s vocal efforts covered what little sound bare feet made on the stairs to the main deck.  Jeb and Colin sprang up the steps to the quarterdeck, overwhelming the other pirate officer and the man at the wheel, by sheer impetus.

“You order them down from aloft, my voice has gone all reedy,” said Colin, to Jeb, who had rendered the officer unconscious whilst Colin was dealing with the brawny helmsman by the only expedient he could think of, sitting on the man’s face to suffocate him whilst trying to hold his hands down. “And you, quit wriggling, or I’ll fart.”

The wriggling did not cease, and Colin let fly with his best effort. There was coughing, and the struggles reduced.

“All pirate hands! Down from aloft and surrender or our sharp shooter will pick you off one by one!” yelled Walden. He nodded to Peacock, who hefted a rifle.

“Where the hell did you find that?” asked Colin, now trussing his choking prisoner up.

“Feltham ʼad one,” said Walden. “Seemed like a good idea to liberate it, like. It’s one o’ vem expensive ones by Durrs Egg, vat Swiss fellow.”

“I never saw it, it never went through the books, it’s Adam’s property,” said Colin.

Walden grinned.

“Yessir,” he said.

Some of the pirates were coming down, to be met and tied up by Colin’s men; three were preventing the man with them from surrendering.

A shot rang out, and the first of them fell, landing on the deck with a wet noise which always gave Colin the horrors.

“ʼE ain’t got Mrs. Price,” said Jeb. The one trying to come down managed to scuttle down, the other two went higher.

Peacock had reloaded, and the first fell; twenty seconds later, the other, whilst he was still wondering whether to surrender or not.

Colin fought the roaring in his ears.

They had done it.

“You sit there a minute, sir, an’ get yore breff back,” said Walden. “Reckon ʼe got an elbow in your guts. I’ll let the men know.”

Colin opened his mouth to say that he was unwounded, and shut it again. This was Walden’s way of saving his face for having a funny turn.

“Carry on,” he said.

 

Walden knew what to do.

“Sway Taffy an’ vat prisoner o’ ours up, an’ send vem ornery ʼands o’ prisoners dahn onto the lugger,” he said. He scratched behind his ear. “Put ‘em in one o’ the boats an’ bring the rest inboard.  Clear away the mess rahnd the spit, an’ collec’ anyfink left by the captain. ʼIs shoon for one,” he added. “Sir, shall we take the lugger in tow?”

“I’m not sure we can,” said Colin, “But if you look out, you’ll see the ‘Thetis’ coming to bear a hand; they can put a skeleton crew on her, and take her in tow.”

“Gawd save Mr. Price, allus vere when you wants ʼim,” said Walden.

 

Half an hour later the five ordinary pirates had been taken over to the far end of the mole and deposited, rather than lose a ship’s boat, Colin was given the aid of Nat Percival, who could not be asked to man a prize, but who was a handy man to have along, and the ‘John and Betsy’ was under tow of the ‘Thetis.’

“And what now?” asked Amelia. “We can’t man all these extra ships, and with a veritable fleet, any slavers will feel they have to flee, and we won’t catch them, not short-handed.”

“We’re going to go round Gran’ Canary, and beat up the coast and into the Med, to Gibraltar,” said William. “We cannot keep them all, and I dare not send off Erskine with the most of them and orders to return in one with the other ships’ complements, in case anyone tries to browbeat him. He can face a pirate with a cutlass, but not a bureaucrat with a sheaf of paper.”

“We’ll lose a good bit of prize money,” said Amelia.

“No we won’t; the port admiral of Gibraltar has no interest in it, as I’m under Admiralty orders,” said William. “However, I might haggle with him to split the prize money for the ships alone. I’ll mention that we have some fabric, liquor, and beans, and he’ll readily agree to having that condemned and sold under full shares. I shan’t mention that it’s top quality rum and coffee beans in the cargo of the Brig, which they were waiting to sell in Europe. The other three had no small packages, as they were resting between voyages, but the Brig had damage which needed fixing. Another day round and they’d have been gone.”

“Lucky. And so was Colin,” said Amelia.

“He knows that,” said William. “I want to pull into a small fishing village on the coast of Morocco and see if we can’t sort out that rudder, and redistribute the prize crews.”

“Are we likely to have trouble?”

“With the firepower we shall muster? Extremely unlikely,” said William. “But I don’t want to stop anywhere larger. The crew can take some shore time at leisure, and load with water as well, and trade with the locals.”

It would also give time to catch a good sleep each, rather than standing watch and watch.

 

What the fishermen and their womenfolk thought of the fleet which descended on their village, William would never know; but his men were happy, spending time trading and bartering, coming back with ceramics, bright fabrics, warm cashmere shawls, and native carvings; MacReady sampled street food, and discussed recipes, and returned with spices and notes. A few goats joined the ship’s herd, and the locals were delighted to take the pullets which had hatched from the nest the most awkward hen had hidden, and one cockerel, all of which were bigger than their poultry. The men splashed about in the shallows, and collected exotic shells, and if there were any children with lighter skin born nine months later, there were no complaints at the time. William paid gold for wood to replace his rudder, and if it was not the best, it would at least give them something better than what Gubbins described as a piece of junk as worthless and sturdy as the workings of the average midshipman.

William meanwhile wrestled with his prize captains, and placed Erskine in the brig, retaining Scully on the ‘Thetis;’ with the two brigantines under the Cosgrove brothers, and Hiram Gubbins in the schooner. Wilfrid Percival had the dubious honour of command of the lugger, ‘John and Betsy,’ being much like his own yacht, and Willliam hoped to retain it as a tender.  Frid could tell any admiral to go to hell – and would – if anyone tried to push him about, not being any kind of officer, warrant or commissioned.

“Are you angry that I thought we could take the brig, Mr. Price?” asked Colin, anxiously, once back on the ‘Thetis.’

“No, lad, you did well; I was angry you were readying yourself as a sacrifice for the other ships, but with the damage to your rudder getting worse, you had very little choice, and you were prepared to row away. Taking advantage of the opportunity to board and storm is what gets you one of three things; cut in half by roundshot, court-martialled, or knighted.”

“Will!  I thought for a moment I would be cut in half,” said Colin. “I arrived over the gun barrel as the gun captain recovered from us knocking them down like skittles.”

“And what did you do?” asked William, who knew very well, having been told by Walden.

“I shot him,” said Colin.

“So, you didn’t freeze. That was good,” said William. “I’m going to give you a big, brotherly hug, because I was scared silly for you, and you scared yourself a bit too, and I certainly need it.”

“I think I do, too,” said Colin, hugging William. “I liked being in command of a whacking great ship, but I’m just as happy to be back in my own cot.”

“An adaptable man usually goes far,” said William. “You found yourself a servant, too.”

“Poor little sprout, separated from his family,” said Colin. “I’ve persuaded him to learn to read and write and figure with the other boys. If he picks up seamanship I can always sponsor him as a captain’s servant and then midshipman when he’s old enough.”

“Indeed,” said William.

 

oOoOo

 

William’s orders brought his little flotilla into anchorage in Gibraltar in neat formation. Naturally, he was ordered to wait upon the Port Admiral.

He had managed to borrow an up-to-date Royal Kalendar from a post-office packet outbound from England, and knew that the admiral was Sir Edward Pellew, a man William greatly admired.

He was shown into the office of the admiralty at the extraordinary Rock of Gibraltar, and saw a thickset but not heavy man in his sixties, with grey hair, pock marks and kind eyes.

“Sir Edward! I have always hoped I might meet you!” stuttered William. “I read about your rescue of all those people at Plymouth by swimming out in outrageous seas with a line to bring them all to safety by life line!”

“Good Gad, boy, surely you are too young to remember that?” cried Pellew.

“It was the night I was born, sir; and when I read about your deeds later it made a great impression on me, that as I was swimming for my life in the waters of birthing, you were making an heroic swim for the lives of others, and I am babbling like a midshipman of twelve summers explaining his misdeeds to the gunner, I do apologise.”

“My dear boy, I have a sufficiency of sycophants that a genuine admirer and for a feat some discount next to my naval record is refreshing,” said Pellew. “What a strange coincidence!  And what a prodigy you were to manage to be nineteen years old a year and more ago, some seventeen and three quarter years since your birth! But I never was any good at such tedious calculations, so let us forget that… I’ve seen reports on you, and you have brought me five ships; slavers?”

“No, sir, pirates; my orders were to try to pick up Henry Feltham, and as I was fortunate enough to have the intelligence from him as to where he and his colleagues had a base, it seemed prudent to end that pirate scourge before embarking on anti-slaving. But I cannot man the prizes efficiently, so I want rid of most of them.”

“Honest enough. Could you not have sent them with one of your officers?”

“Not if I wanted to perform my duty seeking slavers. I only have two lieutenants; I asked for a third, in case of needing prize captains, but was turned down.”

“What of the officers you have kept with you?”

“The ones I work with best, sir; whom I would send out without a qualm to take a prize, but whom I would not want to lose if the navy swallowed my men with my ships. Though those commanding prizes do have written orders to return to the ‘Thetis’ and all are able.”

“Hedging your bets despite a professed admiration for me?”

“I didn’t know who was Port Admiral here until yesterday when I fell in with a Post Office packet,” said William. “Had I know it was a man who… shutting up for fear of making a comment less than complimentary about some officers.”

“I like a blunt man,” said Pellew.  “And I understand your dilemma. Suppose I found you a passed midshipman currently serving as master’s mate as your third; that do you?”

“I’d be delighted,” said William. “I’ve got a supernumerary as one prize captain as he owns a yacht in England.”

“Good Gad, you don’t have Withimere’s younger boy, do you?”

“I do, and I’m not going to betray his trust by giving him up,” said William. “He’s a good carpenter. I want to keep the lugger as a tender, too, if I may, and ship a new rudder for it. We made temporary repairs, but it could do with replacing. I was going to bargain the admiral’s share for the ships, as technically I’m not under your orders, sir.”

“Oh, I’ll not put my oar in; you and your lads won them. I wonder what your lads are worth?”

“One of my able seamen – who unfortunately lost an arm in battle with Feltham – can calculate things like that in his head, and he was chuckling that he’d have enough in the funds to live on the interest with a servant and a gig.”

“I wager you have no trouble with desertion, my boy.”

“None at all, sir. And I don’t want to lose any of a well-trained crew.”

“Have them report back on board to you soonest, and I’ll have watchkeepers set by nightfall,” said Pellew. “And keep your lugger; I’m sure fitting a new rudder will be no problem.  I’ll write to Withimere… after you’ve left.”

“Thank you, sir, I appreciate that, and so will Frid.”

“So, what cargos do you have, in addition to the ships?”

William beamed.

“Well, I don’t have to pass off a quantity of liquor, some beans, and a bit of cloth now; prime Jamaica rum, coffee beans, and Dhaka muslin.”

“Oh, very nice!” said Pellew. “I’m glad you’ve done well, you won’t get too much for slaver ships, and of course no cargo to sell on, so it should give your lads a nice cushion, and more compassion for others, thankless task that it is.”

“I’m not religious, but I shall be using the text ‘Inasmuch as you do for one of My children, so ye do unto Me,’” said William. “Just as a reminder.”

“I fancy most seamen would rather store up riches in their hammock than in heaven, but it’s worth a try,” chuckled Pellew.

 

It was going to take three days to arrange a new rudder, but William was not about to permit shore leave.

He had no intention of shipping any of the famous monkeys of the rock, and some of his men were far too susceptible to appealing animals.

 Meanwhile, William was to expect another lieutenant, who might be a mixed blessing, but anyone sponsored by Admiral Pellew was likely to be a good sailor if nothing else.

It was something of a relief when Robert Pigeon came on board. He looked like a jovial plough-boy, sturdily built, with a broad, countryman’s face, buck teeth, and little in the way of a chin, but he moved surprisingly gracefully. His eyes were grey in a pinkly peeling face, and his chestnut hair had bleached towards a more ginger colour on the highlights, and he beamed all over his face.

“Thanks for giving me this chance, sir, sight unseen as you might say,” he said. “My only influence is the accidental rendering up of a page of my log which was sequential caricature-style pictures of the operation, which the admiral saw, and liked considerably more than my captain.”

“Oh, I make you free to draw an illustrated journal of our adventures,” said William. “I’ll have someone purchase you a good sturdy book for the purpose.”

“I say, sir, really? Now I’m not just happy, I’m in heaven,” said Pigeon.

William reflected that an artist was always useful to have, and he had never come across a mean natured artist. He left Pigeon to the ministrations of Mr. Lord.