HMS Athena: A Charles Mullins novel (Sea Command Book 4) (6 page)

Not wishing to spend the time beating against the wind and current to return to Antigua, Mullins took Athena and her prize brig to nearby Anguilla. There were few facilities there, but the garrison commander was willing to take custody of the privateer’s crew. Some transports and their escort were expected shortly, and doubtless, the prisoners could be loaded on the empty ships and sent on to more secure facilities.

The prize presented a problem. The island had no dockyard or professional staff, which could repair its extensive damage. After a careful examination, the ship’s carpenter gave his opinion that the brig could not be economically repaired.

Aside from the damage caused by gunfire, which was extensive itself, her timbers had been severely stressed by the heavy load on her upper decks caused by the weight of the big guns. The extra stress caused by firing the guns with full charges had also caused much of the damage done to the fabric of the brig. Mullins decided she could not safely be sailed to a dockyard capable of repairing her and even if that were possible, it would likely cost more in repairs than she would bring at auction. In the end, he landed all the undamaged stores and equipment from the prize, then stranded her on the beach. The island’s inhabitants were invited to strip her of needed timber and firewood.

Mister Farver took the ship out to sea and they set course for Halifax. Janders, back in English Harbor, had decreed that destination. Mullins did not feel bound by the order. He was under Admiralty orders and felt he was perfectly within his rights to disregard that destination and sail home. Halifax was a logical waypoint though. Anguilla was not overly supplied with ship’s stores and he thought he could more easily replenish his supplies there. Also, there would be little profit in needlessly antagonizing Janders. Halifax, it would be.

Cruising up the American coast, they met many coastal craft. From a fishing boat off the coast of Delaware, Mullins purchased that boat’s catch. Fresh fish would be a welcome change for many of the crew, whose diet of boiled salt beef and pork was becoming monotonous. The master of the fishing boat informed them of a schooner that had been loitering in the area for the past week. This craft had formerly been a French privateer during the Quasi-War, but now seemed to be a pirate. No longer just preying on France’s enemies, she was now suspected of taking any ship of any nation her captain thought he could manage. Manned by a mixed crew of various nationalities, they seemed to be cruising for unarmed or lightly armed merchantmen. Several American flagged vessels had disappeared under mysterious circumstances recently.

The fishing boat master reported his own boat had been rummaged, his catch for the day appropriated without payment. Feeling lucky to have his boat released, his crew unharmed, the master had not complained. Mullins thought he had performed his own duty in capturing Reynard earlier. He did not feel it necessary to pull the Americans’ chestnuts out of the fire by haring after this pirate. Of course, should he happen upon her or learn she was molesting British shipping, he would, of course, do his duty.

Anticipating his arrival in Halifax in a few days, with light winds and a bright day, Mullins decided to heave to and beautify the ship. He had a little paint below in the bosun’s stores, and he decided to use what he had to improve the ship’s appearance.

Consequently, Athena was motionless in the sea, tops’ls aback, with stages over her starboard beam and men over the side at work painting, when the schooner appeared. Despite the fisherman’s warning, she was not initially seen as threatening. A half-dozen similar craft had been seen along these shores, and this was supposed to be an itinerant trader. After she loitered off their stern starboard quarter for an extended period of time though, suspicions were aroused.

Apparently, the craft did not recognize Athena as a warship. Her ports were closed, and the port lids newly painted the same color as the sides of the ship. She was flying neither her ensign nor her commission pennant, both having become tattered. When the stranger made up her mind this small ship with no apparent gun ports or commission pennant might be profitable prey, she set her fore and main topsails and trimmed her canvas to the wind. While she was speeding directly at Athena’s stern, Mullins had to make a decision. He quickly realized this was probably a pirate up to no good, He could bring his ship around immediately and fire his broadside as she approached. While he had no fear for his own ship, he really wished to take this pirate. Unless he crippled her though, the nimble craft would likely escape.

He informed his officers they would wait until she was closer, before putting Athena about. This could give the pirate a chance to come up against their beam and unload her boarders, not a welcome prospect. Consequently, Athena’s crew must be ready and armed. With the schooner closing as rapidly as she was, there was no time to completely clear the ship for action. Consequently, the painting stages were dropped over the side as soon as the hands had scrambled aboard. The schooner was almost upon them before Athena had set sail and began to move. As soon as the rudder began to bite, and the ship had a little way he ordered the ship about and asked Mister Howard to have the ports opened.

The schooner had no sooner fired her forward four-pounder gun, when the 6-pounders mounted in Athena’s stern opened fire. Both rounds struck the schooner in the forward starboard quarter as she began to overtake. The schooner’s crew, alerted to their danger now, attempted to go about. Before she could do so however, her way brought her alongside Athena and the guns on both vessels began to thunder.

The schooner had three guns on her starboard broadside, a pair of four-pounders as well as a six. Athena however had a dozen nine-pounders, as well as a pair of thirty-two pound carronades. The broadside from these weapons devastated the fragile schooner. The pirate’s foremast came down and she went dead in the water. Had she been a legal combatant, her commander might well have decided to haul down his flag to save lives.

The schooner however, had no commission or letter of marque. Her captain and crew were pirates, subject to the death penalty when captured. All of them knew their lives would be forfeit, just as soon as they were taken ashore and brought before a magistrate. Most of them would fight as long as they had breath in their bodies.

The guns of the pirate were soon knocked out by fire from Athena. Mister Farver, blood-lust in his eyes, wished to board the enemy and defeat the buccaneers hand to hand. Even without their big guns though, many pirates were still on their feet, fighting with hand weapons. Not wishing to have any more of his men injured, Mullins decided to lay off the schooner’s beam and pound her with grape and case shot until her fire ceased.

After return fire from the schooner ceased, Mullins had the sailing master bring Athena alongside the wreck and boarders dropped down on her deck. The captain was one of the first to drop onto her, followed by Midshipman Archer, his dirk in one hand and a seaman’s cutlass in the other.

Few pirates were still on their feet and those either surrendered at once or were shot where they stood. The captured vessel was sinking rapidly, so Mullins dispatched Archer and a party of seamen to search below for any person still alive.

Upon their return, the victors were astonished to see the party bearing what looked at first like two bundles of rags. It was soon apparent thought that these bundles were actually women, although badly injured. The person in the arms of a burly bosun’s mate might have been a woman of middle age, although her face had been savagely smashed and the rags covering her were soaked with blood.

The other woman could have been younger, but she too had been badly mauled. The younger one seemed to be conscious since her one open eye followed them, but she remained mute.

Only when Mullins went over and started to put his hand on her shoulder did she recoil and whimper. The other woman seemed to be unconscious or dead. Mullins first thought was to call for the surgeon, but there was little time for that. The schooner was settling fast in the water, and all of the survivors needed to get off her at once.

Now on board Athena, the women were taken into Mullin’s quarters to be examined by the surgeon in some privacy. When Mister Adkins came out to report his findings, he took Mullins aside, away from the throng wishing to learn the details of the women’s ordeal, and quietly explained. Both women were now awake but hardly able to speak. Both had been repeatedly raped and otherwise abused. The older woman had many of her teeth knocked out and her nose broken.

The younger woman seemed to be in better condition, probably because of her age, but she too had been through a horrible ordeal. Since the older woman could not chew her food, Mister Adkins said he was going to ask his fellow wardroom officers to give up one of their chickens for the cook to boil, so the women could have some nourishing broth to sustain them. Mullins immediately offered up any of his own cabin stores that might be useful.

The women remained in Mullin’s sleeping quarters while he had the carpenter construct a hanging bed in the chart room for himself.  The younger woman, Jane Rawlings, would speak to no one on board save Mister Archer. He had found the two women in their compartment in the sinking schooner and she apparently regarded him as an unthreatening youth.

The other survivor, Ruth Hancock, after a few hours’ rest and a dose of laudanum, began speaking of their ordeal. Hancock seemed to have the more severe physical injuries but Jane Rawlings seemed to have mental injuries which were not understood. Mullins sat at Hancock’s bedside with the surgeon as she related the attack on the ship ‘President Adams’.

Hancock had accompanied her niece on a visit to relatives in North Carolina. On the return voyage to their home in New Jersey, they met a pair of ship’s longboats, crammed with men, in the morning’s mist. The master of the Adams, thinking they were seamen in distress, backed his tops’ls to allow them to approach. The men in the boats swarmed aboard and took control of the ship. They later rendezvoused with the schooner in the lee of a barrier island near the mainland. There, the males aboard Adams were slaughtered, while the two women suffered indignities Mrs. Hancock would not speak of.

Their treatment, harsh enough at the beginning, had progressively became worse as their ordeal continued, and Mrs. Hancock was certain it would have been a matter of days before their throats would have been cut, as had happened to the crew of the Adams.

Jane had apparently been an attractive woman, before the abuse became so frequent and violent, and the pirate captain had kept her for himself for a few days. Imprisoned in his cabin, as she was, she noticed he marked a chart with their position every day. She took careful note of the chart one day when he went on deck to supervise their entrance to a tiny harbor on the barrier island.

There was a small hamlet on this island, and the cargo of the Adams was unloaded there, before the ship was taken out to sea to be sunk. Jane Rawlings was no sailor and not familiar with charts or maps, but she had an hour to memorize the shape of this one. There was no name on the chart, but she told her aunt she would recognize the island if she saw it on another chart.

After the pirate captain tired of her, he turned her over to his crew, to use as they wished. Now, with her mind damaged, the only persons to whom she would speak were her aunt and Mister Archer.

Mullins was of two minds about his next duty. Of course, he really had no business in pursuing this matter further. The pirate vessel had been taken and the crew killed or captured. On the other hand, he might be able to locate the lair they had been using to receive the pirated goods. Perhaps there might be more pirates remaining there.

The location of this lair was in United States waters, and there could be international outrage if a Royal Navy ship was discovered administering justice in a North Carolina hamlet. Of course, piracy was a scourge that affected all traffic on the sea, from any nation. Perhaps he could locate this place and then alert United States authorities of the matter. He was only a few days’ travel to the north of the location, and he was under no time restraints.

Accordingly, the ship put about and made her way south against the current. This leg of the journey took longer than expected and Jane’s condition was beginning to improve. Her physical injuries were beginning to mend, if not her mental ones. But she would still speak only to her aunt and to Mister Archer.

Midshipman Archer was furnished with a collection of the sailing master’s charts and took them to her. She at first would not look at them, but by treating her as an injured child, Archer was able to slowly proceed with her until one day she could examine them. She tired easily and Archer feared to press her, but one day she recognized the image on one chart as the island where she had been initially held.

By this time, HMS Athena was close by this island and Mister Cartwright had found the passageway to the inland waterway between the island and the mainland. As they neared the location Jane had indicated on the chart, hands in the tops sighted a longboat traveling ahead of the ship in the same direction.

The boat, upon sighting them, immediately turned to shoal water near shore, but the ship was faster than the tiring oarsmen, and the boat was overhauled before reaching safety. There were six men in the boat, all dressed in backwoods garb. All armed with long rifles, of a type Mullins had not seen in years. As a young midshipman, a former captain had owned one similar to these and allowed him to fire it occasionally.

Ordered aboard the ship, the oarsmen were indignant and assured Mullins they would report him to the sheriff. Athena was not flying her ensign or commission pennant and her name on the counter had been painted over. He was not overly concerned that his actions would be reported to the Admiralty, but still, it was time to be discreet.

Assuring the men, he meant them no harm, he invited them into his chart room for a drink of rum, to which they agreed. Seeing Archer at his post by the women’s door, he quietly told the lad to fetch the women.

The women came into the chart room together, but it was Mrs. Hancock who first recognized one of the backwoodsmen. Hearing her gasp, Jane looked at the strangers and uttered a muffled scream.

The chart room was crowded with all these people, but one of the newcomers attempted to raise his long rifle. There was not really room enough for a weapon of that length in the confined space and Mullins produced his double-barreled Manton pistol from his sash, shouting for Lieutenant Sawyer as he did so.

The Marine officer came at the double with a file of his men. The occupants of the room moved out on deck where Mullins asked the women where they had seen the men before. Jane stood mute and shaking, while Mrs. Hancock pointed to the individual who had tried to threaten them with his rifle.

“This one was on the schooner when we were put aboard. He attacked both of us.”

Mullins then asked if either woman had ever seen any of the other men previously.

Mrs. Hancock again replied, “I do not think we have ever seen these other men before.”

Mullins ordered the Marine officer to place the individual Mrs. Hancock had identified with the other pirates, while the other five men were to be kept under guard on the foredeck.

Approaching this group, Mullins announced, “Men, this ship is here investigating instances of piracy. One of your party has been identified as having participated in such piracy. He will be transported to Halifax with the other pirates we have in custody to face his accusers. What I want from you men, is an accounting of why you are here in this place, armed and in company with a known pirate. You will now be held separately, to be interviewed by my officers. I may well release one or all of you, once I have received truthful information about any of your possible involvement with this piracy.

Segregating the five men on deck so they could not conspire together, he went back in the chart room to reassure the women. After saying what he could to them, he went onto the quarterdeck where Lieutenant Farver was interviewing one prisoner and Lieutenant Sawyer another. When the officers were finished with these men, two more prisoners were called for their interview.

The questioning continued until early evening. The consensus was all of the prisoners were lying, all of them telling significantly differing stories. However, one fact had become evident. The pirate captain had decided he needed some men skilled in long range shooting. These would pick off crewmembers of merchant vessels they were attacking. One of the pirate crewmembers was an American backwoodsman. This man received money to hire as many men as he could. An incentive for these new recruits was the gift of a new rifle for each man.

Draper, the pirate’s recruiter, had gone to a gunsmith on shore and ordered the necessary weapons, while he had scouted for the proper men. This activity had taken the better part of a year, during which time he had gone back to the ship twice, making forays with the rest of the crew both times. After the last raid, he went back inland, collected his men and gave each of them a rifle.

Each of these new men told a different story, hoping to escape justice. Deprived of the opportunity to compare stories though, each had his own version. Deciding he had accomplished what he had set out to do, Mullins ordered Athena set sail. He freed none of them. Deciding that all of the new recruits had voluntarily chosen to become pirates, he secured them below with the others. It would be up to a magistrate to decide their fate. Their rifles, he sent below to the armorer to care for.

He wished to clear this coast before being spotted by any warship of the United States. While he had been working to suppress piracy, he had in fact, operated inside American territorial waters, which might be difficult to explain to the Americans. Accordingly, as soon as the new prisoners were secured below, Athena set sail.

Athena was twenty miles east of Philadelphia when she was signaled to ‘heave to’ by the US Revenue Cutter Vigilant. Knowing he was in international waters, he elected to ignore the command. The cutter came alongside and its deck officer questioned Mullins what his ship was doing there.

Mullins picked up the speaking trumpet and announced he was about the King’s business, in international waters, which involved suppressing piracy at this moment. After some delay, a more courteous request came from the cutter, requesting permission for an officer from the cutter to come aboard Athena. This permission was granted and a boat soon delivered a short but trim officer in the uniform of a United States Revenue Service officer of the grade of Master/Commander.

After the welcoming ceremony, Mullins invited the officer into his chart room for a drink. Once the opening greetings had been exchanged, Master/Commander Schultz wondered about the piracy Athena was suppressing.

In answer, Mullins shouted for Midshipman Archer. “Mister Archer, would you ask the ladies if it might be possible for them to meet a guest from their own country?”

A few moments later, Archer reported the women awaited their visit. Mulling quietly warned the American captain. “Sir, these women you will meet were taken recently from their American ship, the President Adams and held against their will by pirates on the pirate schooner ‘Trois Freres’. The younger of the women, Jane Rawlings is in a fragile state of mind and finds it difficult to speak of her ordeal.”

“Mrs. Hancock, the elder, was also brutally handled, but will speak readily.”

Schultz asked, “These women, I presume are British?”

“No sir, actually both are American. From New Jersey, I think. We took them from the pirate schooner that mistook us for a merchantman and attempted to attack us.”

Entering the main cabin, Commander Schultz introduced himself to the women. Jane remained silent but Mrs. Hancock readily answered his questions. Satisfied, the American thanked Mullins for his courtesy to the women and stated he would now deliver the ladies to their country.

Mullins replied that while he would not hold the women against their will, he earnestly requested them to continue on to Halifax where their testimony might well be vital to obtain a conviction. Schultz wondered why he could not just take delivery of the pirates himself. He thought a United States court could prosecute the pirates properly.

Mullins vigorously stated he had captured these pirates, his crew shedding blood in the endeavor. He assured Schultz he would deliver the pirates to a British court in Halifax.

Bowing to the inevitable, the American asked the women if it was their wish to go on to Halifax or return to the US.

Hamilton answered for both. “Sir, if it will mean watching these men at the end of a rope, we will travel to Halifax a hundred times.”

Captain Schultz was pulled back to his cutter and the Vigilant sailed off in the direction of Philadelphia while Athena continued her voyage to Halifax.