HMS Athena: A Charles Mullins novel (Sea Command Book 4) (2 page)

Mullins knew his staff aboard ship must include both a warrant carpenter and bosun. He asked Hudson to take the name of the present bosun’s mate. Before reporting aboard the flag, he intended to interview this petty officer with a view to determine his suitability for promotion.

The previous carpenter had left the ship before she was commissioned. There were no carpenter’s mates presently aboard ship who Mullins could consider promoting.

After examining Bosun’s Mate O’Hara extensively, he informed the petty officer he would present his name to the admiral for consideration for promotion, giving him an acting warrant on his own responsibility. O’Hara had the single boat that Athena possessed, brought around and furnished with a crew. These men were mostly specialists of one sort or another who rarely performed such tasks as pulling on an oar.

Nevertheless, the need was recognized, and the boat carried Mullins up to the hulked second-rate flying Vice Admiral Colpoy’s flag.

He went aboard with much more ceremony than he had received from his own ship and was courteously greeted by the flag captain. From him he learned that Sir John had been expecting his visit, and he would be granted time for a short meeting with the admiral. He was asked not to exceed fifteen minutes of the vice admiral’s time, as he was an extremely busy man and had much work to do to get this fleet out to sea.

Much of his allotted time with the admiral was spent being questioned about the state of the ship. Mullins had to explain the obvious, Athena had just come out of ordinary, had minimal crew and needed extensive repairs before she could go to sea.

Sir John Colpoy informed Mullins of the haste needed to get the ship to the French coast where she must help prevent any of Bonaparte’s new landing craft that were being constructed from putting to sea.

Colpoy promised to provide officers and warrants to help speed the work and said he would see what he could do to hasten the Impress Service to provide hands. In the meantime, he ordered Mullins to set up recruiting rendezvous in neighboring villages and to begin meeting incoming merchants with a view to impressing seasoned hands.

The admiral’s efforts bore fruit almost immediately. Early the next morning, a boat from the flag came alongside. Beside the midshipman in the stern sheets was a youthful naval lieutenant clad in his best uniform, his sea chest up forward. The officer climbed aboard and reported to Captain Mullins.

“Lieutenant Howard sir, formerly fifth lieutenant on the flag. Reporting aboard, sir.” Offering first a salute, then his orders and finally a juvenile grin.

Mullins quickly glanced over the paper, decided it was genuine and told the youth to go below and change into his working rig, then come up ready to work.

The youth had hardly left the deck lighter when a similar craft hooked on and disgorged a mass of disgruntled seamen. The officer in charge, an elderly lieutenant of the Impress Service reported these men were taken from a recently arrived East India convoy.
As the day progressed, more people came aboard. Several blue-coated warrants boarded, one of them was Mister Drake, a badly needed carpenter, as well as a recently warranted Gunner, Mister Flowers.

Another lieutenant came aboard soon after, this one of more mature years than the youthful Howard. Lieutenant Farver had been in the navy for fifteen years, nine of them as a midshipman. He seemed to be the responsible officer one would expect of a man of his years.

Mullins called Howard up from the hold, where he was supervising the stowing of a quantity of pork barrels that had just come aboard. Mullins introduced the officers and advised Howard he had lost his position as first officer.

Next, another blue-coated warrant came aboard from a ship’s boat. This was a middle-aged master’s mate from a third-rate in the harbor, given an acting warrant as master from the admiral and assigned to Athena.

These were many individuals it was necessary to become acquainted with and learn their respective strengths and weaknesses. Asking the acting-master if he knew how to stow a hold, Mister Cartwright assured him he did, so the new acting master was sent below to assume the task Howard had earlier begun.

Two dozen Marines came aboard with their lieutenant. This gave Mullins motivation to send out recruiting parties. He had hesitated before, for fear of losing experienced hands from desertion.

Now though, he had a corporal and sergeant of Marines to send out with a few privates. These would reinforce the recruiters and possibly discourage desertion.

The navy would not pay for the recruiting effort, so Mullins had to open his own purse. Mister Farver used money from that purse to hire two wagons with teams. These would be sent out with the recruiting parties to outlying villages. Seamen and Marines would accompany each wagon. Lieutenant Farver would accompany one wagon and Lieutenant Sawyer, the Marine officer the other, both mounted on hired horses.

Upon reaching their assigned territory, each party would set up in a public house, offering free drinks to those deemed likely to sign on. Mullins gave each officer money to hire local musicians to entertain their prospects, as well as to feed and house the crews.

Marine Lieutenant Sawyer’s party returned first. The wagon itself loaded with footsore prospects, with a dozen more people walking along behind, shepherded by Marines and armed seamen.

Sawyer explained they had first set up their rendezvous in a village pub. The village being a farming community, many of the locals were unfamiliar with naval recruiters and flocked to the pub when word spread that free drinks were being offered.

The first lieutenant said he had begun giving the males in the pub ale at first, then switching to gin for those he felt might be useful on the ship.

This strategy was not completely successful. When a prospect succumbed to the drink, he was led or carried out to the wagon and laid in its bed. Physically restraining their catch was made difficult by loud outcries from the populace, with threats to call the magistrate.

Eventually, after losing many of their harvest when the victims sobered up and escaped, the party moved to another village ten miles away. This time a large barn was hired where the victims could be secured out of sight.

The new recruits were led off as soon as they became intoxicated and no one in the pub was the wiser. They did lose a number of men on the march home, but it was regarded as a successful recruiting mission. As Mullins saw it, the only flaw was the recruits were all farm laborers, with no seafaring skills among them.

Lieutenant Farver’s party had a slightly differing result. He set up their rendezvous in a little fishing port. Most of the male inhabitants supported their families with the meager income they made from the sea.

When Farver took his seat in the pub, he too supplied free beer, but instead of deliberately getting his victims drunk, he merely allowed them to drink what they wished while talking with them. He learned what hard lives they led as fisherman and how dangerous it was to go out every day in all kinds of weather in their small craft to feed their families.

For his part, he admitted he needed good seamen but his ship was large and in good repair, not likely to succumb to Channel storms. When men questioned him about the pay, he informed them of the present pay given able seamen, one pound, thirteen shillings’ sixpence for each lunar month. Ordinary seamen were paid slightly less. It would be up to the new hands to demonstrate their skills as seamen before receiving their rates.

In addition, all hands would receive their share of the value of any enemy craft that might be seized by their ship. After consulting among themselves, many of the seamen in the pub realized they could earn more on a King’s ship than on their own small fishing vessel.

It was well known among seamen the navy was lax in paying the men promptly, but against that one might consider that with the number of men on a warship, the work was apt to be lighter than that aboard a fishing boat with a small crew.

Many of the older, married men opted out, but enough of those younger hands accepted the offer to make this recruiting party a success. The added inducement of an extra two months’ advance for a volunteer probably convinced many of the new hands to sign on.

The ship was now beginning to come together. The new carpenter went right to work, tearing out damaged and rotted wood. There was a severe shortage of seasoned timber, and the shipyards had first call on that, but the funds from Mullins own purse persuaded suppliers to find needed material.

The new hands went to work caulking the deck, to inhibit rainwater and spray from making its way into the ship.

At first, some of the new hands brought aboard were unimpressed with this leaky, water-soaked hulk, but as repairs were made, sentiment changed. The fishermen volunteers were well used to the damp conditions on their fishing craft and found the conditions on Athena an improvement.

When Mister Burns, the surgeon, came aboard, he was tasked, along with Mister Cartwright the master, to inspect all provisions coming aboard to ensure all foodstuffs were acceptable.

The entire load of beef in casks on a lighter was sent back to shore when it was discovered the provisions had already been condemned as rotten and of short weight. Apparently, a merchant had purchased the condemned food for a pittance and put it into new casks for resale to the navy.

When Mullins was called to the flag to explain his actions, he took the precaution of bringing a cask of the spoiled beef with him in the boat.

When he was called into the admiral’s quarters, a senior official of the Provisioning Board was already there.
Sir John welcomed him with a frown on his face, introducing him to the official sitting before his desk. Mullins was not invited to sit, but was asked to explain his refusal to accept the shipment of salt beef recently dispatched to Athena by said board.

Mullins attempted to explain the meat was foul and of short weight. The official erupted with a tirade, giving him the lie, assuring Admiral Colpoy the meat had been freshly packed and salted down.

When the admiral asked his captain to explain his belief the meat was rotten, Mullins said he had an unopened cask of it in his boat alongside for anyone to inspect.

The victualling board officer then moderated his tone, again assuring the admiral the meat was wholesome, but it would gladly be exchanged if there was any question.

Sir John rose from his seat with a groan, saying he had been sitting at his desk too long and he for one would find it welcome to step out to the quarterdeck.

Once out on deck, Sir John asked his flag captain if the cask in Captain Mullin’s boat could be swayed up on deck and opened. He was curious to inspect the contents.

In short order, the watch on had the cask on the deck and a cook’s mate had it open. As the head came off, a viciously foul smell covered the deck. Sir John stepped forward bravely and peered into the cask. Stepping back hastily, he addressed the Victualling Board official.

“Mister Marshall, I had intended to ask my cook to prepare some of this meat and serve it to all of us this afternoon. After inspecting the contents of this cask though, I recoil at the idea of serving it to any guest, let alone the crews of my ships.”

“I shall immediately order all of my ship commanders to inspect any provisions secured from your office and determine their palatability. All unsuitable provisions will be returned at Victualling Board expense.”

Sir John left the quarterdeck, a scowl on his face. The official scurried away to find his boat, leaving Mullins on deck with the first officer. He learned from this officer that the men’s food had become progressively worse, but Sir John’s cook had been successful in obtaining better supplies for the cabin.

The admiral had not realized the foul nature of the food being supplied to the seamen of the fleet. Now, the first officer expected better food for the entire crew.

Back aboard Athena, Mullins ordered the ship’s cook to notify Mister Cartwright of any foul provisions, and upon the master’s approval, return that food to shore.

The Impress Service sent aboard what was said to be the last draft of hands, The Impress officer assured him the receiving ship was nearly empty and other captains were loudly demanding men. Seamen on shore had become wise in the ways of evading press gangs and were difficult to find.

About the only men available today were unskilled farm workers and equally unskilled county quota men. Mullins already had a plentiful supply of the former and had little desire to take on quota men, many of whom were petty criminals, newly released from prison.

The Impress Officer, with whom Mullins had discussed the matter, disclosed a convoy from Halifax was expected any day.

HMS Athena already had most of a crew, sufficient at least to get out to sea. Her captain resolved to sail and hope to find this convoy. It would be strange if he could not press enough hands to fill out his roster.

Accordingly, he set Hudson to work drafting such a request to the port admiral. Hours later, the flagship hoisted a signal to Athena granting permission to sail.

There was still the tail end of the ebb tide and the wind would just serve. The topmen were sent aloft with the rest of the hands being put on the capstan. This last was unfamiliar to the new hands, but fortunately required little skill, just the brute muscle power of the men.

The anchor cable was wound in and when the master’s mate up forward reported ‘at short stay’, meaning the bowsprit was over the anchor, the first officer shouted, ‘Make Sail!’

The topsails were loosed and the straining canvas pulled the anchor right off the seafloor. In an instant, the ship became alive, making her way out to sea.

Once out in the Channel, Lieutenant Farver began exercising the crew. Sail drill was of the first priority, especially for the new hands, but it was important for the hands to become familiar with the guns also.

The crew had a week to learn their new skills when a hail from the maintop alerted the crew to ships coming up the Channel.

Standing out to meet them, it was found to be a convoy with a single escort, an elderly sloop-of-war. A third-rate liner had accompanied the convoy for most of its journey, but a gale had injured the liner’s foremast, so she had put in to Gibraltar for emergency repair.

The captain of the sloop was a commander of long service. A month ago, he would have outranked Mullins. Today though, the new post captain was his superior. He could have ordered the commander to come aboard Athena, but decided to avoid subjecting the elderly officer to a wet boat journey.

Approaching within hail, he shouted through his speaking trumpet to the sloop’s captain, informing him of his plans.

In return, the commander informed him of the ships in the convoy most likely to have men he could use.

The first of these ships was a timber carrier with a deck cargo of mast sections and spars from the Canadian forests. He sent his second officer, Mister Howard to see what he could find. Before he left, Mullins ordered him to take a selection of some of the more useless hands on the ship with him as boat crew.

If the master of the timber carrier assured him he would be unable to make port if he lost any of his hands, Howard could offer to supply him with these hands in trade.

An hour later, Howard’s boat left the merchantman with a full load of men. When it hooked on to Athena, Mullins learned that Howard had nearly stripped the ship of its trained men, leaving behind the mostly unskilled landsmen sent over in the boat. Although the replacement hands had no skills at all to offer their new master, at least they had strong backs and were near their port. The ship could deliver its badly needed cargo safely enough.

Visits to the other convoy members produced additional skilled hands to fill out Athena’s crew. She spent another week offshore drilling her crew, then put back into port. Mullins regarded this crew as one of the better ones he had ever had.

After receiving additional stores to replace those used during their short exercise, a signal from the flag required Mullins to report for his orders, then it was off to the coast of France.

The work there was the same as he had experienced late in the last war. The enemy was assembling a fleet of small craft intended to transport an invasion army to the shores of Britain. These craft were being built in small yards along the coast and then sailed to Boulogne or ports nearby. These were often hastily-built craft; many were made from green timber that had little or no seasoning.

Bonaparte had funded this building program by unusual means. Earlier, he had taken ownership of the vast area to the west of the United States from Spain. The United States had offered to purchase New Orleans from France to secure a port at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Deciding it would be difficult to defend his entire Louisiana holdings from British or American incursions, he offered to sell the entire property to the United States.

Banking houses in London and Amsterdam handled the financial arrangements and Bonaparte received fifteen million US dollars, which he used to fund his proposed invasion attempt against Britain.

Mullins knew this entire building program was wasted effort for the French, since there was no way they could make their way across the Channel save under a combination of good weather and a protective shield of French warships. The crude, poorly constructed craft could only make it across the Channel by only the greatest of good luck. Even with this good luck, there was still the British Channel Fleet to pass. His navy being vastly inferior to Britain’s Royal Navy, Bonaparte was throwing his money to the winds.

HMS Athena, newly commissioned and manned, needed time at sea to have any defects, whether in the ship or her crew, discovered and repaired. In addition, her crew needed to learn how the ship needed to be treated.

All of one stormy day that summer, Athena paced a small enemy convoy on its way toward Cherbourg. Close-hauled, some of the vessels in the convoy were having heavy going. Athena remained inshore of the convoy, heading off any attempts by the escorting corvette to reach port with her flock. The convoy itself was composed of newly constructed small craft meant to carry men of the invading army across Channel.

As they neared the menacing French coast, Mullins approached to leeward of the convoy, while the escort came in to meet her. In other conditions, this could lead to serious problems for HMS Athena, but her captain was unconcerned.

The individual members of the convoy were of no menace at all to Athena’s safety. Lightly built, poorly constructed and mostly unarmed, they could be dismissed as posing no threat.

The corvette was a different matter. Many of these were well built and properly manned, could give a good account of themselves. In fact, once taken, these corvettes were proving valuable in British service. Athena herself had once been a French corvette. Consequently, he hoped to take the warship, while allowing those crude invasion craft to escape, if they could.

The corvette was doing her best to fend off this predator, but she had problems of her own. Many of her seamen had received little training and her trained gunners had been transferred to the army, replaced recently by conscripts.

Intending to get to seaward of this lee shore, Mullins made for the center of the convoy, threatening a large sailing barge. Designed to transport guns and horses across the Channel, this craft, unable to evade, was helpless to the threat.

The corvette, now with the wind behind her, charged back through her flock, touching one of the larger sailing barges, whose bowsprit fouled the corvette’s rigging. This gave Athena opportunity to approach the struggling corvette.

The escort managed to break free from her entanglement before Athena’s arrival, but her subsequent broadside was fired too early, before her guns bore on their targets, with most of her shot going wide and into the sea.

Athena continued her approach and closed the enemy, port-side to port-side. At long musket shot range, she fired, with no response save for a single French eight-pounder gun.

This single shot accounted for much of the damage Athena received during the engagement. The ball struck the helm, severing the tiller cable besides killing one helmsman and seriously wounding another.

The bosun led a party below to steer the ship from the rudderstock. There was a short delay with no control over the helm, which might have given the enemy an opening, but she had her own difficulties.

Struck at point-blank range by a dozen nine-pounder balls, serious damage was caused to the corvette, including a pair of her guns dismounted and her foremast wounded.

Her more serious problem however was with her crew. The corvette had few professional seamen aboard, being served mainly with newly-conscripted soldiers sent aboard just before sailing.

Many of these hands were already incapacitated from seasickness and now the rest, faced with the destructive cannon-fire at close range, were frozen by fear.

Athena continued past her foe, cutting across her stern. Some of her guns had been loaded, this time with grape, and her terrible fire continued.

Mullins thought the corvette would strike her colors at any moment, but then one of the convoy, this one little better than a raft with lee-boards, and a single gaff-rigged lugsail, crashed into her beam. Athena’s crew was occupied for critical minutes clearing the wreckage away. By the time she was clear, the corvette had escaped into shoal waters where Mullins did not wish to venture.