In the Navy
Copyright© 2005/2020 to Argon
Chapter 54: No Mercy
May 1813
“Mister Durgan, another signal, if you please: ‘All captains report to flagship!’ Thank you!”
It was time now for Tony to inform his captains of the real plans. They would be a little offended over being kept in the dark, but that could not be helped. To ease the irritation, Tony first offered a light dinner, and he only spoke about squadron matters when the toasts had been brought out.
“Gentlemen, you already noticed that we have strayed from Cartagena quite a bit.” There were amused chuckles. “We shall not sail there; in fact, his Excellency the Governor never sent any messages asking for support. It was a ruse to mislead certain elements at Aruba and likely Curaçao, too, into believing that our squadron was sailing westward. The reason for this is that Admiral Crewes and I suspect that a band of particularly ruthless pirates are plying their damnable business in these waters. In the previous months, several laden merchantmen sailing from Aruba and Curaçao to Antigua have not reached their destination, but vanished without a trace. The Americans would make such successful captures known, the French and Dutch have no presence here, and the Spanish are our allies. The two Haitis have no naval presence, nor a history of freebooting. Pirates are therefore the most likely possibility, pirates who, after emptying the captured ships of anything valuable, put the crews to the sword and scuttle the ships. We also believe that certain elements on Aruba and Curaçao act as spies on the merchant shipping.
“The brig Marygold, Captain Leary, should have sailed from Oranjestad today, and the prevailing winds in this region dictate a predictable course by which she will head for Antigua. There is reason to assume that any pirates will try to intercept the ships from Aruba and Curaçao as closely to their port as possible, meaning east of Bonaire, and this is where we shall cast our net. Personally, if I were to ambush a ship en route to Grenada, I would have my ship lie in ambush behind Orchila Island. It’s an uninhabited, worthless rock, but high enough to hide the masts of a ship. We are now in a position to fan out in a wide, crescent-shaped formation, with our two fast ship-sloops five miles ahead of Saturn and Cossack, and to comb the waters to Bonaire in search of the suspected pirate ship or ships.
“Any ship coming in sight that tries to evade us, is suspected and to be apprehended. Upon sighting, you gentlemen will clear your ships for action. You will board them and keep them in custody until I make the decision to let them sail. If they resist, use adequate force. Mind, please, that we also want to catch the people behind those rascals, so use force with moderation. A sunk pirate ship can be replaced quickly by the people behind those rascals, and new rascals can also easily be found. Questions, gentlemen?”
Tony was surprised that the egos of his captains remained unruffled. They just nodded, with Stanfell showing a satisfied grin.
“You guessed our true purpose, Captain?”
“Yes, Sir Anthony. It is not like you to trumpet out your plans all over Aruba, nor the way you handled Captain Leary.”
“I shall have to take acting classes then,” Tony smiled ruefully, and to the amusement of his captains. “We stay hove-to until the morning, and I ask you gentlemen to announce our plans to your officers, also explaining the reasons for the secrecy. We shall start playing the broom with sun-up. If there are no further questions, I ask you to accept another glass of this fine wine to toast our success!”
Tony was up an hour before sun-up, to go through his morning routine and have a cup of coffee together with Andrew. The first rays of the rising sun were barely visible, when the free watch was piped up to set sails. Tony could see activity in his other ships, too, and before the sun cleared the horizon, the squadron was underway.
According to Mister Cray, the sailing master, they would reach Orchila Island well before darkness would set in, if the wind kept up. This matched Tony’s own calculations, which he performed according to Professor Inman’s arithmetics, something he had practiced ever since Saturn had sailed from Portsmouth. He also did the same calculations using the rough procedure learned twenty years before from his father, and to his secret amusement, the results were almost always the same. Of course, Andrew knew about this, but he knew that this was not done out of mistrust in Saturn’s officers but rather as intellectual pursuit.
The morning watch went by without incident. As expected, Blanquilla Island lay barren and lonely along their path. The trade wind blew faithfully as a six-knot breeze, but Andrew had seen fit to run under all plain sail, to keep up with their faster consorts. Still, for a ship of Saturn’s impressive firepower, she was moving along at a fair pace. Echoing his thoughts, Master’s Mate O’Houlihan appeared at the taffrail to cast the log, confirming that they were moving at a little more than 6 and a half knots. After noon, the wind even picked up a little, speeding them along over the weak rollers, and by the end of the afternoon watch, the first sign of Orchila Island showed over the horizon.
“Sir Anthony, Lynx is signalling. ‘To flag: sail ahead bearing west by south.’”
“Thank you, Mister Durgan. Signal to squadron: ‘General chase!’”
“Aye-aye, Sir Anthony!” Durgan answered, and soon after the signal flags flew up the halliards. In Saturn, the stunsails were run out, adding more canvas and making the sturdy ship leap forward.
“Sir Anthony, signal from Hazard: ‘Confirm sighting, in pursuit!’”
“Very well, Mister Durgan. Captain Lambert, may I trouble you to have our cabin cleared ahead of time and to bring our passengers to safety?”
“Aye-aye, Sir Anthony,” Andrew answered, obviously in agreement. The Trusk sisters were not used to clearing a cabin, and to bring them to safety earlier would avoid unnecessary delays later. It took almost a half hour before Saturn’s lookouts sighted the strange sail, since the two sloops were ahead by five miles, and Tony took the rare step to climb into the rigging himself to get a good picture of the evolving situation. He was quite out of breath when he reached the main masthead, and it took him a few moments to steady his hands, but then could see that they had caught the strange vessel, a large schooner from the looks, unawares. A straight escape had been blocked by the island behind which they had hidden, and now they had to round the long reef first, that extended the island by six miles in northern direction.
By now, Lynx was already five miles closer, and the way Hazard was rushing to cut off escape to the South, meant that the strange ship only had the West open for escape. This was good news. A schooner with its fore-and-aft rigging was ill suited for sailing before the wind compared with the square-rigged ship-sloops, which fairly thrashed along under all plain sail, with stunsails run out. West of Orchila, there were twenty miles of open sea. The chances of the schooner matched those of a snowball in — well, the Caribbean.
With a satisfied nod, Tony snapped his glass shut, stowed it in the holder around his shoulder, and climbed back down in leisure. Back on the quarterdeck, he smiled at Andrew.
“Mind that we keep in sight, Captain.”
The meaning was clear: to share into the expected prize money, they had to be in sight during the capture. This was not important for Tony; as the commodore he would receive one eighth of the fair value, but Saturn’s crew would profit.
“Aye-aye, Sir. Are the sloops catching up?”
“We caught those rascals neatly with the island in their back, and they can only escape downwind. In a schooner,” Tony added.
“That’s a tall order,” Andrew agreed. “I hope they won’t scuttle the schooner.”
“We’ll soon see. If they scuttle her at all, ‘twill be very soon, so they can reach Orchila in their boats.”
Just then, the lookout hailed from the foremast.
“On deck! She’s changing course, rounding the northern tip!”
“That’s our answer. There’s a lagoon of sorts in the shelter of that peninsula. They’ll beach the schooner and man the boats.”
“Sir, Hazard is cutting them off!”
Cooksley must have judged the intents of the pirates correctly, and rounded the island to face them off. Hazard’s six-pounders could be heard now.
“Masthead, what do you see?”
“The schooner is entering a shallow lagoon, Sir. Hazard is firing on her.”
Ahead, they could see that Lynx was also rounding the peninsula, and soon, they were past the main island and had a view across the narrow reef that shielded the lagoon. The schooner had lost its foremast and had run aground on a shallow. Men were frantically readying boats, but just as Tony looked, a six-pounder ball from Hazard hit one of the boats, causing it to capsize and sink in just a moment. Two more boats were being made ready.
“Permission to take the schooner under fire, Sir Anthony?” Andrew asked formally.
Tony thought only briefly. “Yes, let’s destroy it. Else, they’ll refloat it.”
During the brief chase, Andrew had cleared Saturn for action, and the guns were loaded and run out. The distance was perhaps three cable lengths across the small strip of rocks, easy distance for the 32- and 18-pounders. Andrew had the larboard batteries fire a broadside and then went about, getting as close to the shore line as possible. Sailing close to the north-eastern wind, they made little way over the sea floor, giving the starboard batteries ample time for three broadsides.
When the smoke cleared, the schooner was dismasted and a total wreck.
“Signal to Lynx and Hazard: ‘Send boats to take prisoners.’” Tony ordered, but Ludlow and Cooksley had anticipated the order, and Tony could see longboats and cutters leaving the sloops. Tony watched the efforts and saw that at least four men were picked from small rocks to which they had swum. Now it remained to search the wreck for hints.
The four men picked from the lagoon were a sorry looking lot, not at all the swashbuckling pirates people had in their imagination. These were cutthroats, with no Buccaneer codes guiding them. They also understood that no testimony they gave would save them from the gallows, and they kept a sullen silence when Mister Macallis, the 1st lieutenant, questioned them.
Fortunately, a first search of the wrecked schooner had discovered several items that tied the vessel to two of the vanished ships. A set of oars, splintered by one of Saturn’s cannon balls, still displayed the ship name ‘Henry Gavin’, one of the lost merchantmen. There was also the lid of a fine mahogany sea chest bearing the name of one Captain Elias Connover of the Dancing Lass brig, lost over four months ago. The guilt of the men was beyond question, but it would have been helpful to confirm the fate of all the missing vessels, but also learn the names of the men behind the piratical activity.
There was still hope, though. It was high tide, and work parties from the squadron had salvaged the heavy ordnance from the schooner, but also what shot they could collect. Now, using heavy cordage and a pulley system, a hundred men were slaving to pull the wreck to the close by sand spit. Soon, the bow of the schooner was slowly dragged up the small sandy beach until only the aft third of the hull was in the water.
“Excellent, Captain!” Tony praised the efforts, whilst the work party cast off the cable from the wreck.
“I shall send our young gentlemen to search the wreck more thoroughly, Sir Anthony.”
“Very well, Captain. We may still learn something.”
They did. Not a lot of time went past before the first items were recovered from the previously flooded part of the schooner. Salvage hooks were also dragged over the lagoon bottom were the schooner had foundered, pulling up several objects which had indubitably been thrown over the side. When the light faded, the finds confirmed the involvement of the schooner in the disappearance of the missing merchantmen.
Meanwhile, the four captured pirates were in irons in the brig, down in Saturn’s hold. John Little volunteered to eavesdrop on the prisoners, pairing up with Able Seaman Jeroen ‘Dutch’ Melkstraat, captain of the mizzen top, and born Dutch. They spent the whole night listening to the angry whispering of the shackled men, who — to nobody’s surprise — were angry with their spy in Aruba. At least two of them sounded willing to give up what they knew in return for possible lenience, but there was one prisoner who by force of his standing and his grim resolve, drove such ideas from their minds. Melkstraat could even identify that leader, and after they reported what they had learned, Tony conferred with his captains, and then had that leader brought up to the deck.
The man stood on the deck in a defiant stance, trying to spit at Tony, but his mouth was too dry, having gone without water for a full day.
“Your guilt is established beyond doubt, whoever you are. We found plenty of things in that schooner that belonged to those missing merchantmen,” Tony addressed him. “You’ll be hanged today, as you well know, but if you have family and want them to know about your fate, you better give up your name and where you hail from.”
“God rot you, but I ain’t telling you a damned thing. I’ll see you in hell!” the man croaked angrily.
“You’ll get there first. Keep me a place by the fire,” Tony gave back with a cold smile. “Captain, kindly have him strung up and dumped over the side. Let the sharks have their feast.”
“Aye-aye, Sir!” Andrew answered. “Master-at-arms, do your duty!”