Chapter 9: Austerity Measures

October, 1801

HMS Squirrel was lying at anchor in English Harbour, Antigua. Almost the entire Leeward Islands squadron shared the anchorage whilst the admiral and his captains tried to come to grips with the new situation. On September 30, 1801, the preliminaries of a peace treaty between Great Britain, France, the Batavian Republic and Spain had been signed including the immediate cessation of all hostilities. This in itself was tremendous news, but in the immediate follow-up, the ministry imposed a course of the strictest austerity on the Royal Navy. As a consequence, three forths of the ships, the line of battle ships foremost, were to return to their English home ports and laid up in ordinary, their crews released and their commissioned officers put on half pay.

For the Greys, the consequences were be even worse, for all promotions by the commanders of foreign stations not yet approved were revoked, and thus, Captain Theodore Grey of the Squirrel post-ship remained Commander Theodore Grey, in acting command of her, and even that would come to an end soon. The same fate, at a lower rank, befell Commander Paul Simms, now Lieutenant Simms again.

The admiral and his staff were now busy making sense of the orders and organising the return of the ships and their crews to England. All that was allotted to Admiral Duckworth were two frigates and two ship sloops to maintain order around the Leeward Islands.

A fellow Surrey man, Duckworth sympathised with Theodore Grey and the cruel coincidence that had robbed him of the coveted posting, and his orders to reinstate him as commander in the Cormorant sloop had just arrived. This would put him in at least a temporary employment, instead of taking passage home in ignominy.

At least, the purchase of the Haarlem prize was binding, and together with Cormorant’s prizes, the windfall of monies was soothing to the elder Grey, amounting to almost £9,000. Still, in the days after the news struck, Thomas saw his father drunk for the first time, out of frustration over the missed posting, a chance that as he well knew, might never come again, especially in times of peace. Now, having overcome the dark clouds in his mind, he was of clear eyes and a steady hand when he received the orders.

“We’ll shift back to the Cormorant, Thomas. I’m still her commander, and Simms’ll be my Nº 1 again.”

“Everyone says it’s a crying shame, Father, the way they treated you,” Thomas tried.

His father made a face. “Thomas, those behind the ministry have no sense for shame. They want the commerce with France, to make profits. Those islands which Duckworth wrestled from the Dutch and Danish with many a life lost, will be bargaining tools only for the benefits of West Indian planters and London shareholders. Profits will soar and taxes be lowered, so that the rich will be enriched. Strong, able-bodied men will be set free from Navy and Army and claim the meagre livelihoods of those crippled in the service. There’ll be so many of those now seeking work, the wages will drop, increasing profits even further.”

“Are you saying the whole fighting was for naught?”

“Well, we’ll be no better off had we left the French to their own business from the start. King Louis was never a friend of us, allying with the Americans against us. Why then bleed for him and his degenerate family for eight years?

“I have a mind to retire to our lands once we reach England again. With the prize monies we won, we can enlarge our land holdings and live a comfortable life. Your grandfather is not getting any younger, and he’ll welcome the help. Your mother, too, should be happier with me at home.”

“What about me, Father?”

“You can join the Naval Academy next summer, Thomas. When you finish, even when we’ll be at peace, you’ll be a midshipman and only two years away from being eligible for a lieutenant’s exam. Get that far at least and be counted a commissioned officer and gentleman.

“Another thing, Thomas. You are rated as a volunteer first class, and I’ll place you on the quarterdeck. That’ll give you more standing at the Academy. Enough of you playing the cabin boy for me!”

“Am I not too young, Father?”

“I have talked it over with Mister Tiernay. He is of a mind with me. God knows for how long they’ll allow me to sail the Cormorant yet, but at least you’ll be more than a ship’s boy when she’ll be laid up.”

A day later, Commander Grey was back in command of the Cormorant sloop, but over the next two weeks, many a familiar face in her crew who had been pressed into the Navy, was sent home in exchange for a volunteer not wanting to be mustered out. The ships to be sent home were manned with overjoyed men hoping for a speedy release and with moody volunteers unable to find a berth in the remaining ships of the Leeward Islands Station. Even small Cormorant had a top-heavy crew of volunteers, with men overqualified for the ranks they had to accept. There was even some grumbling about Mister Grey, the first-class volunteer.

Thomas was also reunited with his old friends, O’Neal, Burton and Wilkerson, who had signed up as volunteers as soon as they were released from their forcible enrolment. Wilkerson, of course, was captain’s coxswain, but the other two finagled their way into the captain’s gig, too. Thomas would have loved to serve in the gig, too, but he had classes to attend and watches to go now.

The remaining four men of war on the station were kept busy, too. With the final peace treaty still being negotiated, the French and Dutch islands were under British occupation until the politicians would haggle out the exact terms of the peace. Therefore, they all had to be patrolled, since many privateers previously sailing under letters of marquee from a belligerent nations, now turned to outright piracy.

Thus, Cormorant spent most of the following weeks at sea, sailing up and down along the chain of the Leeward Islands. Two French merchantmen were seized for trying to trade with British-occupied islands. They would not be prizes due to the armistice, but they were fined heavily and their goods were seized before being allowed to leave Antigua. This only helped the Treasury in London, and neither the officers nor the crews of the ships.

November went by, then December. The few remaining men of war sailed untold miles patrolling the British and British-held Leeward Islands, and for little gain. Thomas learned the duties of a junior watch officer and spent much time under the master’s teaching. He’d had a growth spurt, too, standing at 5 ft 5 in already, but weighing only little more than seven stone and a half. He was still strong for his age and height, and he was well at home in the rigging, often being posted as a lookout. This was stopped when his voice broke early in January, and his hails became unintelligible on deck. Instead, he was assigned to the three starboard carronades on the main deck, commanding the gun crews and directing their fire. Mister Simms knew that his captain wanted his son to be schooled in all things, and he also knew that Thomas rarely disappointed.

He spent less time with his father now, and they dined together only on Sundays and sometimes on shore when in port. He had moved to the gunroom and shared a mess with the two midshipmen and three master’s mates Cormorant could boast. They were all older than Thomas by five years and more and would have lorded it over him had he not been the captain’s son. As it were, he was mostly ignored, and that suited him fine.

He much rather spent time with his older friends, but also with Jamie Dougal and Marty Crows, his fellow brawlers of Bermudian fame. To them, he was still Tomcat, and with them, he could still be the boy of twelve that he really was. When on shore leave in port, they would roam the streets and try to sneak glances at young women and maidens, and then indulge in fantasies about them. Girls from the planter and merchant families they rarely saw and admired, as those were kept indoors and busy learning social graces. Therefore, the fodder for their youthful fantasies came mostly from the servant girls running about the streets tending to their tasks and duties, and those comprised African household slaves, girls from the Creole families, and a small sprinkling of Scots and Irish indentured servant girls. Whilst the latter were the prime objects of Jamie Dougal’s longing, Marty and Thomas had no preference and admired beauty in all of its shades.

Still, the opportunities to watch pretty wenches were few and far between. Cormorant still patrolled the islands, with no end in sight, and Theodore Grey was still in command of her. It would seem that their Lordships, to make good for the denied posting, left him the Cormorant when hundreds of captains and masters were begging now for commands.

Therefore, when Thomas’s thirteenth birthday drew nearer, he decided to discharge his son and send him home to Surrey and subsequently to the Royal Naval Academy in Portsmouth. It was fortunate that the Unite fifth-rate frigate was being sent home to England to be paid off, and her Captain Matthews agreed to exchange one of his midshipmen against Thomas for the home journey. By now, Thomas was a pretty competent junior watch officer, and on March 5, 1802, Thomas said good-bye to his father and to his mates, had his sea chest lowered into the side boat, and was rowed across the harbour and to his new ship.

HMS Unite, had been launched in 1787 as the French Gracieuse frigate of 32 guns, but was renamed Unitè by the revolutionary French navy in 1793. After being captured off Rochefort in 1796, she was taken into the Royal Navy and stationed in the West Indies. After 15 years of service and with the prospect of peace, the Navy Board had decided to pay her off.

As had become common practice on the station, ships bound for England traded crew members with ships which remained to accommodate the wishes of the now voluntary crews. There was, after all, much to be said for a service in the sunny Leeward Islands. Therefore, when Thomas Grey, volunteer first class, reported for duty, almost a third of her ratings and half her officers were new to Unite, albeit mostly experienced men. Still, after weighing anchor, Captain Matthews exercised his officers and crews daily in the first week, and Thomas found himself in charge of the four quarterdeck six-pounders when at quarters.

There was some resentment against Matthews’s unrelenting drills amongst a peacetime crew, but Thomas welcomed the experience, but also the novelty of not being under his father’s command. Nobody minced words with him when he made mistakes, which was frequent in the first days, and he realised how much officers and petty officers in the Cormorant and Squirrel had coddled him. Twice in the passage, his rum ration was withheld for a week for blunders he committed — not that he minded that much — but when the lookout sighted Ushant Island, the way point for entering the English Channel, the reprimands had dwindled off.

A week later, they arrived at Sheerness, in the Thames River estuary, and HMS Unite dropped anchor for the last time. Even for Thomas, with just a few weeks service in her, it was a sad moment when her flag was hauled down, for she was a beautiful ship, as only French shipwrights could build.

The crews were ferried to the shore, and the officers, too, had to find accommodations. Thomas, with over £23 of prize monies in his pockets, nevertheless shared a modest room with Midshipman Danvers, the closest in age to him in the gunroom, and they looked for transport. They could secure a passage upriver in one of the thousand Thames Barges that transported goods and passengers along the river and the eastern coast. Yet, on that first evening on English soil, Captain Matthews hosted all his officers in the Royal George inn. Thus, once in their small chamber with its two cots, they hastily cleaned, brushed and polished their best coats, breeches and shoes in preparation for the captain’s dinner.

Matthews was a kindly host, welcoming them and introducing them to his wife and his three daughters, the latter aged between fifteen and nineteen and pretty enough for the eyes of young officers starved for female beauty. Mistress Matthews distributed her daughters evenly along the table, with her eldest sitting with the commissioned officers, the seventeen-year-old with the junior wardroom members, and the youngest with the gunroom officers. Felicitas Matthews had a small monkey face, but her ready smile, her girlish giggles, and her talkative nature soon yielded her six adolescent admirers, including a barely thirteen-year-old volunteer first class.