Across to America: A Tim Phillips Novel (War at Sea Book 9) (15 page)

It was bitterly cold that evening. Master Commandant Elias Harrison of the United States Navy was in Parson Darby’s church tower with his night glass observing the approaches to the harbor. There was a British frigate out there keeping a close watch on the port, with, who knew how many others waiting for unwary shipping to venture forth. Harrison’s sloop, the USS Ethan Allen, had been towed last night out to an island in the outer harbor that screened her from view by the frigate’s crew.

Parson Darby was something of a weather prophet. He and his father before him had kept careful records of the weather and Darby was famous for being able to predict the onset of bad weather long before it came. While the weather had been cold and clear earlier, now it was clouding over and it was Darby’s prediction it would deteriorate by early morning with strong winds and snow.

Darby thought there would be a good chance the wind would be fair for leaving the harbor. It was just possible the snow might hide this departure from the eyes on the British frigate. If the prediction came to pass, Harrison aimed to take his sloop out to sea in the midst of the British blockade. He had his boat waiting at the waterfront now, to take him to the ship.

Darby pointed upwards as heavier cloud cover moved in, blocking out stars. The wind was picking up also. He spoke to the naval officer. “Elias, it is time you went to your ship. It may be a while before you get another chance.”

His men were huddled under cloaks, taking turns to warm themselves beside a brazier burning on the dock. Bosun’s Mate Harkins was in charge of the crew and reported them correct and mostly sober. Someone had produced rum which all had had a pull on to attempt to get some warmth in their bodies.

Leaving the brazier burning to amuse the lookout on the British frigate in the outer bay, they boarded the launch and made for the ship. It was a long pull, with visibility dropping constantly. By the time they reached it, they were depending on the boat compass to keep on course.

The Ethan Allen was a twenty gunned ship-sloop of the United States Navy. She had been tasked to get to sea and harry British commercial shipping sailing up the eastern coast. At the last minute, a letter from the Secretary of the Navy reported a pirate in the Caribbean area was preying on the few American commercial ships that had been able to get to sea. Harrison, in addition to attending to any British commerce he could intercept, was also charged to attend to the pirate.

It was not the economic trouble the pirate was causing that disturbed the Secretary. The British blockade was a much more serious factor there. It was the sheer savagery the pirates were inflicting upon innocent seamen and travelers that caused his ire.

Harrison was not quite sure what he could actually do about the pirate. It had been reported pirates had taken over a French frigate left behind on one of the former sugar islands when British troops took them from the French forces. The frigate had been moored in a creek mouth, and was unable to sail because of the lack of provisions and supplies. The crew attempted to burn her just as the British forces approached, but a sudden rain squall quenched the fire.

The British Infantry forces, with other matters on their mind, left the ship for their naval brothers to care for. Locals however, with an eye to the future, managed to get sail on her and somehow made it to an offshore island where she was hidden in a creek mouth that was camouflaged with vegetation.

As more locals became involved, some of the more corrupt among them became active and she soon became crewed by some very unpleasant pirates. The French had removed most of the ship’s guns previously, but the pirates found a little powder and shot and used that with the few guns remaining to overawe a few trading ships when the frigate sailed out on short cruises. Using materials robbed from the cargoes of those ship, the frigate became more capable every week.

Originally, many of the crew were former peasants or ex-slaves with little knowledge of the sea, but soon some crewmen aboard captured merchants opted to join the pirates rather than fall victim to their little ‘amusements’. Last month, an interesting addition to the crew had been found. The present captain and chief of the band had decided the hiding place for the ship was becoming too well known, so it was decided to move the ship to another island.

A major problem was, nobody in the band could navigate properly. Sometimes fishermen among the crew were able to find their way around familiar waters just by studying the water’s depth and the composition of the bottom. Outside their familiar area however, they were as helpless as any peasant.

It was necessary to move the ship frequently, so the British forces did not locate it. While the ship was being piloted gingerly to an island out of sight, they came across a small fore-and aft local sailing cutter ahead. Normally, they would not have wasted their time on such a worthless boat, but the captain thought he might learn from the boat crew exactly where they were. There was a surprise on this boat though. A British naval officer was aboard, trying to make Spanish Florida, he said. The pirate captain thought, surely there would be worth-while entertainment that night, perhaps the next also, if the victim did not expire too early.

While they were discussing his fate as well as the problems of navigating these waters, the naval officer, the runaway Lieutenant Granger, began to speak. He was fluent in French and knew a bit of Spanish also. He informed the captain he could navigate for them and eliminate all of this blundering around.

Captain Henri Poulain commander of the pirate crew was a mixed blood creole, He had gained his position among the pirates solely because of his ability to seize the opportunity and murder his opponents in an efficient and rapid manner. With not a smattering of any kind of education, he had assumed he could watch the English officer navigate and soon be able to do the same himself. This did not work out at all. With no understanding of mathematics, or even the ability to read or write there would be no hope of his becoming a navigator.

He had assumed he could have his hoped for entertainment later in the week after he had learned what he needed to know. Not a naturally stupid man, Poulain soon became aware of his limitations in the navigational field. After the ship was safely brought to safe harbor of the designated island, Poulain had a conference with Granger.  It was acknowledged between them that Poulain would remain in actual command, but Granger would assume the position of that of a sailing master in a King’s ship. Since no one else in the band had ever sailed in anything but a small fishing boat, it was becoming necessary for a skilled professional to handle the actual working of the ship. Accordingly, besides navigation, he would make sure the supplies on board were stowed in a safe manner, as well as seeing to the actual maintenance of the vessel. Perhaps he might train the crew into some semblance of professionalism.

He soon became a valued asset to the pirates and helped instill some training and discipline among the crew.

Granger soon showed the others how to pick their victims to gain the more useful spoils. From their prizes, they seized weapons and needed supplies. Soon, their gun ports, which had been mainly empty, were becoming filled as they seized guns from many of their prizes. Granted, the guns were of varying sizes and patterns, but they would serve the pirate ship’s purpose. Many ship owners placed a few guns on their merchant ship, but then failed to provide the ammunition and training to the crews. The frigate ‘Hortense’ would not make this mistake.

Monsieur Poulain learned some interesting intelligence one night from a recent captive who was ‘entertaining’ them by his screams from the torture session. This person had been a Spanish officer assigned to an old fortress guarding a seldom used harbor on a neighboring island. When the pirates became active, the local authorities decided to staff the long abandoned fortress to offer protection to local vessels seeking refuge there.

Supplies and ammunition was shipped there and Señor Ortega was ordered to proceed to the island with his artillery troops and bring the fort to life. Unfortunately, Ortega’s unit was one that had served for a lengthy period in the area and many of its senior ranks had died or retired. Ortega’s predecessor had learned it was profitable to refrain from replacing those people. Simply by adding a fictitious name to the roster, he was able to put the pay for that invisible person into his own pocket. When Ortega assumed command, he followed the same practice, and it was a very small unit of artillery men that garrisoned the fort.

Poulain had learned from the nearly dead captive there was plenty of ammunition at the fort but few defenders. Guided there by former Royal Navy Lieutenant Granger, the ship arrived at the island in the dark of night, its crew travelling overland and storming into the sleeping installation at cock crow. The ammunition was seized, as well as some newly installed twelve pounder long guns that were on naval carriages. The ship remained a week, loading everything they wished and celebrating their good fortune.

In any event, Master Commandant Harrison had no need to worry about pirates just yet. The first order of business was to just get out of Boston Harbor. As the night wore on, the snow began to come. The westerly wind blew it almost horizontally, and both wind and snow increased as dawn neared. At last he could wait no longer. It was nearly blowing a blizzard now and he must leave. It was going to be a dangerous departure since he had no visual aids to depend upon. He was familiar with the harbor’s bottom and had relay teams of leadsmen who would throw out the lead that would measure the water’s depth as well as the type of bottom. With this information he would have some idea of the ship’s position even when blinded by the weather.

At present they were moored behind the island that was hiding them from the enemy frigate. In addition, they had a cable out to an anchor to the north of the island. When Harrison judged the moment right, he ordered the cable slipped to their mooring and at the same time ordered the men at the capstan to start winding in the cable to the anchor.

At enormous effort, the ship was dragged away from its position behind the concealing island and out into the outer harbor. Away from the island, he was now ready to set sail. With the wind whipping at near hurricane strength, he feared to set too much canvas. He ordered just a scrap of fore staysail shown to the wind and a corner of canvas from the fore tops’l exposed. An axe man standing ready with his sharp blade, severed the anchor cable and USS Ethan Allen began scudding before the wind at an alarming rate.

Blinded by the blowing snow, it was necessary to have some means to determine just where in the harbor the ship might be.

The leadsmen were having difficulties. It was necessary to swing that lead weight far enough ahead to allow it to sink so the lead line was vertical in the water to allow the leadsman to read off the depth. And, it had to be done over and over again, constantly. Judging the bottom this way was the only means they had of determining their position in this weather.

With the frigid temperatures and the icy water from the lead line, the hands of the leadsmen became useless after only a few minutes. Exposed to the full force of the frigid wind and spray, their bare hands soon became numb and their fingers unable to distinguish the differing materials attached to the lead line every fathom. Without that touch, it would be easy to mistake a depth by a fathom or more. Men were brought up from below deck every half glass to take over the lead. Unfortunately, there were few trained leadsmen on board who could almost instinctively read off the depth of the sea.

It seemed they had been only under weigh a few minutes when they flashed by the silent, snow-covered outline of the British frigate. There was no indication she had seen them, and there would not have been time to respond anyway. The sun nominally came out shortly after leaving harbor, but there would be no sight of it today. The snow lasted until midmorning and by then they were out of sight of the blockading fleet and the shore. Lookouts were replaced every glass because of the frigid temperatures, especially for those aloft exposed to the full force of the wind. A humane captain might have brought them down in this weather, but their eyes were necessary to keep the ship and crew safe from patrolling blockade ships. Every ship she would spot would likely be a probably foe, and they must be spotted in time for the sloop to evade.

USS Ethen Allen sailed west until well out in the Gulf Stream where she patrolled for the enemy trade. Much of the commerce from the islands in the Caribbean came this way and the sloop of war was in the proper position to interfere. An order in council over in Britain had decreed all commercial shipping must sail in convoy, but that was not certain protection.

A week after venturing out, the lookout spotted a north-bound convoy. Dozens of ships of varying sizes in two columns, wending their way north toward Halifax. An old 64 gun line-of battle ship took the van, off the windward column. A brig of 16 guns was off the windward column in the center, and a sleek 32 gun frigate brought up the rear.

About the time the Ethen Allen’s lookout spotted them, the signal flags began working on the escorts, so there would be no hope of surprise.