The Midshipman Prince (10 page)

      
By noon, the British fleet had sorted itself into the proper order and the frigates had all come back in and positioned themselves to serve their signal relay duties. The British battle line was divided into three divisions. The leading division, called the van, was commanded by Admiral Hood and consisted of six ships, plus the frigates
Richmond
and
Santa Monica
. Next in line was the center division commanded by Admiral Graves, who also had overall command, and his seven ships, including the massive 98-gun flagship, the
London
. Bringing up the rear was Admiral Drake’s division with his six ships.

      
At 1:00 Smith sang out, “Signals from flag, sir. The signal for ‘Line ahead’ has been taken down. They’ve just run up...” Smith quickly consulted his codebook. “‘To all ships,’ ‘Form an east-west line,’ ‘Heading West by South,’ and ‘One cable separation.’” Graves had ordered the line to turn and head toward Cape Henry where he knew the French would have to come out.

      
“What do you think, Mr. Rooney? Will the weather hold?”

      
Rooney looked skyward and gave his usual noncommittal sniff when adjudging the weather. “It’ll get a bit squally, sir, but nothing that’ll affect us.” He held up the eyepiece to his telescope again. “What I am more worried about is the fact the tide is ebbing and the French are finally getting underway.”

      
Within five seconds, every officer with a telescope had it to his eye to confirm Rooney’s observation. Within one minute, word of the French getting underway had transferred itself from the quarterdeck to the fo’c’sle at the other end of the ship. Within five minutes, every person aboard the ship from the mainmast lookout, to the man checking the water level in the bilge knew of it.

      
“It looks like we’ll have the honor today,” Hudson said to Rooney. “Obviously Graves wants to pin each French ship between us and the land as they come out. They’ll have to run a gauntlet of our ships as they exit the Cape Henry gap and they’ll bloody-well run into our division first. It will be glorious, Mr. Rooney. Glorious!”

      
The tension on the ship rose yet again as everyone who could steal a glance over the bulwark at the French, did. On the opposite side of the bay, the French were making a mess of it. Twenty-four major ships were trying to get underway at the same time. About a third were trying to rendezvous with their squadron leaders, another third were trying to force their way out any way they could, and the final third simply looked lost. The
Pluton
was about to run her jib booms into the
Marseillais,
who had just cut off the
St. Esprit
, who shouldn’t have been anywhere near either of them. It was like that all over the bay.

      
By 2:00, the French had sorted themselves out and they came pouring through the Cape Henry Gap.

      
“Signals from flag, sir. ‘To all ships:’ ‘Execute on my command,’ ‘Wear ships on larboard tack.’ ‘Form line ahead,’ ‘Heading east.’”

      
This time Captain Hudson, watching the signal flags himself, had decoded the message before Smith. “No, it can’t be.”

      
Rooney was more practical. “All hands man the braces. Standby to wear ship. Helm standby to come four points to larboard.” Rooney was responsible for the navigation of the ship and didn’t have time to question the order. He had to make sure that the
Richmond
could make the turn and still keep perfect station on the
Barfleur
.

      
Upon his command, all British ships were to make a simultaneous 180 degree left turn and, yet again, form into a single file line, only this time heading due east. This would place the British line parallel to the French line and headed in the same direction. He then, amazingly, ordered his entire fleet to back their sails and come to a stop. In short, Graves was letting the French come out of Cape Henry without challenge.

      
It only took a few minutes for word of this maneuver to reach all hands aboard the
Richmond
. The response was predictable with expressions of disgust emanating in four known and one unidentifiable language. The British would not challenge the French when and where the French were the weakest. They would wait until the French had emerged and formed themselves up, and
then
fight them.

      
Worse, from the standpoint of Captain Hudson, his division was no longer in the lead. When it did its “about face” the British line had reversed itself so that now Admiral Drake’s division was in the van, Admiral Graves’ division still in the center, and Admiral Hood’s division, along with the
Richmond
, in the rear.

      
For the next two hours the British and French fleets ran parallel to each other with the British fleet having the weather gage. In other words, the British ships were up-wind of the French, which gave the British a major advantage. By having the weather gage, the British could attack at the time of their choosing and have the wind at their back. If the French wanted to attack first, they would have to sail against the wind to do so. The ball was clearly in the British court.

      
At 2:30 Graves had decided the British line was stable in its new formation and ordered the
Shrewsbury
, the lead ship in the formation, to “Lead the formation more to starboard.” He repeated the command at 3:17 and again at 3:34. The problem, however, was that the wind that was blowing from off the British larboard beam was also pushing the French ships away from them.

      
Finally, Graves had had enough. It was after 4:00 and they would be running out of daylight soon. He had to attack now or postpone the attack until tomorrow—and who knew if they would even be in contact with the French in the morning.

      
The same alternatives had occurred to the men of the
Richmond
but the betting heavily favored the notion that no fight would be happening this day. That was not necessarily a good thing from a morale standpoint. The men were willing and, more importantly, ready to fight. They had resigned themselves to that fact and were mentally prepared for what was to come—at least as prepared as one could be. To have to stand-down from that readiness would make it that much harder to achieve again the following day. Besides, the men also knew that the two fleets would lose visual contact with each other when night came. In the dark of night, either fleet could lose the other just by sailing off in a slightly different direction.

      
“Two signals from the flag, sir. To all ships. ‘Maintain line ahead,’ and ‘Bear down and engage,’” Smith shouted.

      
Hudson screamed: “Smith, damn your eyes, pay attention to what you’re doing sir or, I swear by God Almighty, I’ll have you busted to midshipman before the day is out.”

      
Hudson’s face was red with fury while the blood seemed to have drained completely from Smiths.

      
“Those are two completely contradictory orders, damn you,” Hudson continued. “‘Line ahead’ means the ships must remain in single file, bow to stern; and ‘Bear down and engage’ means the ships are to break ranks and engage their opposite in battle. You can’t have both at the same time ‘midshipman’ Smith.”

      
Smith’s hands were shaking, but he retained enough presence of mind to snap the telescope up to his eyes and look again.

      
“I am sorry, sir; but those
are
the flags that are flying.”

      
“By God, he’s right, sir,” chimed in Rooney looking through his telescope. “Both flags are flying at the same time.”

      
“Then it’s a signal mistake. Does it look like they’re about to correct it?”

      
“No, sir. I can see the flag hoist,” Rooney replied. “I can even see two officers standing in the vicinity; but no one’s moving to change anything.”

      
“Then what’s he doing?” Hudson muttered. “What in God’s name is he DOING?”

      
In the British rules of engagement, it was called a “Lashing Approach.” Drake would lead the line to starboard, approach the French from an oblique angle to form a “V” with the converging lines, and make first contact. This was to be followed shortly afterwards by the center division (Graves) who would open fire on the French center division, followed shortly thereafter by the rear division (Hood) who would arrive and do the same to the French rear division.

      
The problem was that the maneuver was designed for two lines of ships that were running in perfect lockstep order. The British had such a line but the French did not. Whether by a fluke of wind and sea, brilliant tactical planning or bad seamanship, the French line was staggered. The van was the closest to the British, the center was offset about a half mile farther away, and the French rear division was a half-mile beyond that. In order for the British center, and especially the rear division, to reach the French more or less together, they would have to really crack on some sail.
That
was what Graves was trying to convey with those two signals. He was saying: “Let’s keep our line ahead formation, but center and rear... you’re going to have to aggressively close with the enemy because your counterparts are each so much farther away.” But there was no signal in the British codebook to communicate that intent. So, he ran up
both
“Maintain line ahead,” and “(Aggressively) Engage the enemy” in hopes the squadrons would figure it out.

      
They did not.

      
When everyone saw the contradictory signals, the British line broke into chaos. Admiral Drake, in the lead division interpreted the flags as: he should close with the French and begin the battle. Admiral Hood, in the rear division, knew that according to British rules of engagement the “Line ahead” signal superseded all others, so his division remained doggedly in line, in the rear, and never fired a serious shot. The center division was split. The lead ships, the
Europe
and the
Montagu
headed off after Drake’s ships to join in the fight. The middle two ships, the powerful
Royal Oak
and the
London
, decided to bombard the French from afar while slowly closing. And the rear ships in the division, the
Bedford
,
Resolution
and
America
fired a few long-range shots but stayed in line ahead.

      
Walker could contain himself no longer. He worked his way over to the main mast ratlines and climbed part way up so he could have a clear view of what was happening. What he saw took his breath away. The six ships in Drake’s van had closed to within 40 or 50 yards of the French—point blank range for both sides—and simply started slamming shot into each other.

      
Walker knew that the British approach to naval warfare was to fire solid shot into the other ship’s hull. When the balls penetrated, they would shower the French personnel on the other side with wooden splinters, very much like the shrapnel that would be used in future wars. The theory was that you couldn’t fight if you had no men to fight with. The French approach was different. The lower gun decks were tasked with firing round shot at point blank range, like the British and for the same reasons. In addition, the upper gun decks would fire bar-shot at the rigging and masts of the British ships. Bar-shot consisted of two half cannonballs joined by an iron bar. When it came out of the barrel centrifugal force would cause the bar-shot to spin. This whirling object would then rip through the British rigging, sails, and masts, tearing them apart. The theory? You can’t fight if you have no masts or sails with which to control the ship.

      
Two different philosophies of warfare were being brought to the ultimate test before Walker’s eyes. 517 guns were blasting away at “pistol shot” range—225 on the starboard sides of the six British ships and 292 on the larboard sides of the eight French. By way of comparison, while this battle was occurring General Cornwallis was facing a
total
of 100 American guns spread across the whole Yorktown peninsula—and this was virtually every cannon the American military owned! At sea, 517 naval guns were in action and the center and rear divisions of both fleets had yet to commit themselves!

      
Within minutes, the hulls of the ships on both sides were obscured from Walker’s view by gun smoke. All that could be seen were mastheads sticking out above the smoke clouds and flashes coming from within them. Walker would forever remember the flashes. Terrible flashes. Two here. One there. Then three in a ragged volley. They followed each other in rapid succession like random lightning flashes in a deranged storm cloud, followed a few seconds later by the driving “boom” of their report.