Sloop Of War

7. To Dare Or To Die

BOLITHO opened his eyes and stared at the mug ob steaming coffee which Stockdale was holding above the side of the cot. He struggled upright, his mind and vision readjusting to the unfamiliar surroundings, the awareness that it must already be dawn. He was in Tyrrell's small screened cabin adjoining the wardrooms and as he held the mug to his lips he realised he could not remember how he came to be there?

Stockdale wheezed, "You've 'ad a good hour's sleep, sir. I was fair loath to wake you." He shrugged heavily." But your last orders was to rouse all 'ands afore dawn."

Bolitho's aching mind suddenly cleared. He could feel the uneven motion around him, the creak of stays and shrouds?

"The wind? How is it?" He threw his legs to side of the cot, feeling crumpled and unclean?

"Risin', sir." Stockdale sounded unhappy." From the west'rd."

Bolitho looked at him." Damn!"

With the mug still in his hand he hurried from the cabin and almost fell across a line of sleeping soldiers? Despite the need to know what was happening he stood motionless looking at them. Remembering the long night, the stream of sick and wounded men he had watched brought aboard by his sailors. Some would not see another day pass, others were like skeletons, racked with fever or the agony of wounds gone rotten. He still felt that same cold anger and shame which he had endured then. The realisation that most of the men could have been carried on the mules instead of being left to stagger further and still further in the rear of their comrades. And the general?

He stepped over the inert shapes and continued to the quarterdeck?

Tyrrell saw him and said, "You know about th' wind?"

Bolitho nodded and walked to the nettings, seeing the bay opening up in the pale early light like ruffled steel, the dancing cat's-paws against the hull, pushing it gently but insistently on the taut anchor cables?

Buckle came to his side, his face grey with fatigue?

"We can't set even a scrap o' canvas, sir. We're on a lee shore an' no mistake."

Bolitho was staring along the larboard gangway and away towards the dark slab of land emerging from the shadows. The point, around which lay the river and the deep channel?

Graves said, "We will have to stay where we are and hope that Frog has a mind to do likewise." He sounded doubtful?

Bolitho shook his head, thinking aloud." No. The Frenchman will have guessed we are about, even if he does not realise our exact strength. Either way he will up anchor soon and make for open water. If he sees us in passing he will have little difficulty in aiming his broadsides."

He peered up at the yards where some topmen were casting away the last of their leafy camouflage? Above their heads the masthead pendant was whipping towards the cove, and he saw the beach regaining shape in the light, the marks of many feets the small humps to show where some of the soldiers had been buried within sight of rescue. Rescue. He rubbed his chin and tried to think more logically?

Once out in the bay they could make sail and tack towards the entrance and open sea. The Frenchmans on the other hand, already had the advantage of the wind. Could even anchor if desired and pound Sparrow to fragments while she lay helpless in the cove. She would sink with her masts above water. It was a cruel picture?

He said, "Break out the kedge anchor, Mr. Tyrrells and then hoist all boats." He looked at the long racks ob sweeps." We will have to see what those will achieve this morning."

Once free of the kedge the hull swung sternwards towards the beach, the current swirling around her stem as if she was already under way?

The gun deck and gangways were crowded with men, and he knew that below every space was filled with exhausted soldiers. He watched the gig rising above the gangway before dropping neatly on its chocks between the cutters, the seamen working in unusual silence, glancing occasionally towards him by the rail as if to see his intentions?

He was able to pick out individual faces in the strengthening light, and realized he now knew most ob them by name. The reliable and the lazy, the malcontents and those who were able to accept their calling, enforced or otherwise, with varying degrees ob trust. He remembered that first day, the sea of unknown men, with Graves excusing Tyrrell's absence. It seemed so long ago?

Tyrrell reported, "Boats secured, sir!"

Bolitho walked to the rail and leaned on it. The wood was moist and clammy, but within a few hours would be like a furnace bar. If it was still above water?

He said, "You all know of that frigate, lads. She's up there now, taking her time, as Frogs do in such matters." He paused, seeing some of the older men nudging each other and grinning at his feeble wit." You can also see that we are unable to loose tops'ls without driving ashore. But if soldiers can march all the way across country to us, I reckon we should be able to get 'em home again, what d'you say?"

For a long moment nobody moved or spoke, and he felt despair rising as if to mock him. Why should they care? After his displeasure following the fight with the privateers they might simply see it as a just rebuff?

Surprisingly, it was the boatswain who was the first to break the silence. Bursting from the larboard gangway, his face glowing like a grotesque heated shot, he bellowed, "What are we waiting for, ma lovelies? A huzza for the cap'n! An' another for Sparrow!"

The cheering spread along the decks and up to the topmen on the yards. To the dazed soldiers below and in the cramped holds, and wherever a foot or so had been found for them?

Tilby yelled, "An' to 'ell with them bloody Frogs!" He was already cutting the lashings on the nearest sweeps, pushing men towards them while others scampered to open the small ports on either beam?

Bolitho turned away, seeing Tyrrell's great grin and Buckle nodding his head and beaming as if they were already at sea and away under full sail. Even Graves was smiling, his tired face both dazed and pleased by the din?

He said, "Man the capstan." He wished they would stop cheering. That Tyrrell would obey and leave him to his thoughts." Run out the sweeps, if you please."

Tyrrell shouted the order, and as the helmsmen stood to the wheel and the capstan took the first slow strain, he turned and said, "They'll not let you down. Not after what you've done for those poor redcoats. Not now. Not ever, Cap'n."

Bolitho could not face him. Instead he stared along the larboard side at the wavering line of sweeps poised above the swirling water like the oars of some ancient galley. It would take a great deal of effort to move her into the bay. With the wind against her and the dead weight of all her guns and extra passengers it might prove impossible?

"Stand by!"

The sweeps swung gingerly forward, the seamen clinging to the long looms and gripping the deck with their bare toes?

"Anchor's aweigh!" Graves came running aft above the seamen and yelled, "She's paying off, sir!"

"Give way all!" Tilby threw his own weight on the aftermost sweep, his bulging muscles showing evidence of the strain." 'Save.! Come on, boyos, 'eave 'agin now!"

Rising and failing, the lines of sweeps thrust and slashed at the water to hold the Sparrow's drift towards the beach, and then very slowly, painfully brought her under command and towards the bay?

Bolitho called, "Mr. Buckle, take the wheel!" To Tyrrell he added, "Every officer and man on the sweeps0 Everyone!"

As the anchor was catted home and Graves led his own party to the sweeps others slithered down backstays or ran from their stations elsewhere to give weight to the stroke?

Bolitho tried not to watch the point, green and brown now in the light. It was stationary and the sloop was hardly making headway. Yet already the men were gasping for breath, and only Buckle and himself were not helping. The wind was too strong, the current too insistent?

Tyrrell's voice carried like a trumpet." Heave! Heave0

An' one more, lads!" But it was no use?

Buckle called softly, "We'll have to anchor again, sir0 They'll be beat in a moment!"

Severyl seamen missed their grip and almost fell as a voice shouted above the plunge and creak ob sweeps?

"Quickly there! Spread yourselves out with the seamen!"

Bolitho stared with disbelief as Foley emerged below the quarterdeck, and following him, two by twos some limping, others blinded by bandages, came the remnants of his company?

Foley looked up." The 51st have never been known to fail in showing up the Navy, Captain!" He steadied one of his men who was groping past him before adding, "You spoke earlier of miracles. But sometimes they, too, need a little help." He turned away and put himself beside a master's mate on the end of a sweep?

Bolitho gripped the rail, wanting to hide his face from them, but unable to tear his eyes from their combined efforts?

Buckle called huskily, "I've got steerage way, sir? She's answering now!"

Bolitho said softly, "The colonel told me he could take half the continent with the right men. With men such as these he could conquer the world."

When he looked again he saw that the point was slipping across the starboard quarter as with great care Buckle eased the helm over and watched the jib-boom pointing towards deeper water?

Here and there a man fell exhausted from a sweeps but the stroke barely faltered?

When the full rim of sunlight eventually broke above the distant hills, Sparrow was well out into the bay?

Bolitho shouted, "Topmen aloft! Stand by to make sail!"

The jib cracked and flapped angrily, then hardened into a firm crescent, and as the long sweeps were withdrawn from their ports the deck tilted to a small but satisfying angle?

"Lay her on the starboard tack, Mr. Buckle. As close to the wind as you can. We will need all the room possible to weather Cape May."

Tyrrell came aft and stood beside the compass, his eyes fixed on the hazy shoreline. He looked strangely contented. Reassured?

He saw Bolitho watching him and remarked, "It was a good feeling to get ashore again. But then I guess you feel th' same about England."

Bolitho nodded gravely. Maybe Tyrrell had been tempted after all. But he had come back, and that was what counted?

He said, "You did well, Mr. Tyrrell. You all did."

Tyrrell gave his lazy grin." If you'll pardon th' liberty, sir, you ain't no hoof-dragger yourself."

"Deck there! Sail on th' starboard quarter!"

Bolitho looked at Buckle." The Frenchman is after us sooner than I thought. Get the t'gallants on her, if you please." He walked up the slanting deck and shaded his eyes." We'll give him a run for his money."

Tyrrell was still grinning." For th' general's moneys you mean!"

Bolitho glanced down at his stained breeches." I'm going to shave." But the mood persisted for him also? "In case we have visitors this morning, eh?"

Buckle watched him go and then said, "Nothing ever seems to worry that one."

Tyrrell was peering up at the topmen, his eyes critical. He recalled Bolitho's face when the wounded soldiers had staggered on deck to help man the sweeps. For just those few moments he had seen beyond the brittle composure, the mantle of commands to the real man beneath?

Half to himself he murmured, "Don't be too sure ob that, Mr. Buckle. He feels it right enough. Just like the rest of us."

Bolitho closed the telescope with a snap and steadied himself against a belaying-pin rack?

"Alter course two points, Mr. Buckle. Steer due east."

It had taken another two hours from sighting the French frigate to tacking dangerously close around Cape May. With the nearest spur of that untidy headland barely two cables under the lee side they had surged towards the open sea, close enough to see smoke from some inland fire and the morning sunlight flashing on a hidden window or an unseen watcher's telescope?

It had been harder than he could have imagined to remain in a wardroom chair while Stockdale shaved him and laid out a clean shirt. Now, as he watched the men running to the braces, the lifting, dipping bowsprit beyond the taut rigging, he wondered why he had made himself waste time below. Pride or conceit, the need to relax even for minutes, or a greater need that his seamen should think him so calm he could concentrte on his own comfort?

As the sloop plunged round still further until she had the wind directly astern, he could feel every spar and timber quaking to the motion. Above the quarterdeck rail he saw the mainyard bending like one huge bows the splayed legs of the topmen denoting the savage vibration aloft, the need for care when one false step could mean instant death. Or the longer agony ob watching the ship ploughing away to leave the fallen men to drown alone?

"Steady she be, sir! Due east!"

He walked to the compass and then took a careful glance at the set of the sails. Every inch of canvas was fully drawn, the bellies so rounded and hard they looked about to burst?

He gestured with the telescope." Another pull on the larboard forebrace, Mr. Tyrrell, and then belay."

As the men ran to obey he took one more glance astern. The enemy had gained on them during the dash from the bay, had cut away their early advantage while Sparrow had lost valuable time clawing around the last headland. Now, as he steadied the glass across the taffrail he could see their pursuer rising and driving over the lively white-horses, her hull bathed in spray, the gun ports awash as she surged on a starboard tack, showing her sleek hull and full pyramids of canvas. She had set her royals once away from the headland and was heading into deeper water before continuing the chase?

Tyrrell came aft, wiping droplets of salt from his arms and face?

"We're standing well afore th' wind, sir. There's nought else we can do at present."

Bolitho did not reply. At the quarterdeck rail he leaned over and saw the uneven lines of wounded soldiers, and others less handicapped, helping with food and bandages. Two of Dalkeith's assistants came on deck and hurled a bundle over the gangway and vanished down a hatchway with hardly a glance? Bolitho watched the bundle bobbing away on Sparrow's creamy wake and felt his stomach contract violently. Some bloodied bandages, but most likely the amputated limb of one more luckless soldier. Dalkeith was in his makeshift sickbay, as he had been since the sloop had weighed anchor, working in almost total darkness with saw and swabs while the ship yawed and staggered around him?

Graves called above the boom of canvas, "The Frenchman's wore, sir!"

The frigate was now about eight cables off the starboard quarter. Certainly no more, and steering a parallel course, her royals fully squared and straining at their bolts like pale breastplates?

Bolitho said, "She's pulling up, Mr. Tyrrell. Not a great deal, but enough to worry about."

Tyrrell rested at the rail and kept his eyes forward away from the enemy frigate?

"Will I clear for action?"

He shook his head." We cannot. Every bit of space is packed with soldiers. There is barely room on the gun deck for a twelvepounder to recoil."

He thought of the big thirty-two-pounders pointing from either bow. With the enemy astern they were impotent. Just so much extra weight. Had the enema been in their line of fire they might have been able to cripple her, if only temporarily, or until some ship of the inshore squadron could give them support?

Tyrrell looked at him worriedly." You have a choices sir. You close th' shore now and risk losing th' wind altogether. Or you alter course to seaward within the hour." He angled his thigh against the rail as Sparrow plunged heavily, the spray dashing aft over the decks, rattling against the courses like lead pellets." There's a long ridge of sandbars running north to south. You take one side or t'other. But in an hour you'll have to decide which."

Bolitho nodded. Even with the barest information he had discovered on his charts he knew Tyrrell's estimate was only too true. The sandbars, like uneven humps, ran for over twenty miles across their line ob advance. To wear ship north or south to avoid them would mean loss of time, and with the enemy so near, it could represent the measure of disaster?

Tyrrell said, "We could wait and see what the Frenchie intends." He rubbed his chin." But it would be too late for us by then." He shrugged helplessly." I'm sorry, sir. I ain't much help."

Bolitho stared past him towards the land. As the coast turned northeyst it was falling away. Ten, fifteen miles, it was hard to gauge in the bright sunlight and low sea haze?

"You have been helpful."

He walked aft to the compass and saw Buckle watching him grimly. The earlier laughter, the sudden relaxation of clearing the land, had all gone now. From a rumour to the sight of a sail. From a distant ship to real, deadly menace in the frigate's line of gun ports. It had all changed against them so quickly?

"Deck there! Sail fine on th' starboard bow!"

Graves said excitedly, "The squadron! By God, that's better!"

Moments later, "Deck! She's a lugger, sir! Heading away!"

Bolitho clasped his hands behind his back. Some frightened trader, no doubt. If still within sight she might witness a swift one-sided fight within the hour?

"The Frenchman's altered course apiece!" Buckle was peering astern through a telescope." His yards are coming back!"

Bolitho waited, counting seconds. The frigate had swung off her original course, her speed and drive taking her away slightly further off Sparrow's quarter? He tensed, seeing the telltale puff of brown smokes driven away instantly by the following wind?

The heavy ball plunged short by a cable, the waterspout rising violently as if to mark a spouting whale?

Bolitho shut the seamen's jeers from his thoughts? No matter what they believed, it was a fair shot. She had fired nearly two miles with what must be a powerful bowchaser like his own?

Foley appeared at his side." I heard the cannon." He shaded his eyes to peer over the nettings." He means to unnerve you."

Bolitho smiled gravely." He intends much more than that, Colonel."

He heard more footfalls on the quarterdeck and saw Dalkeith blinking in the sunlight, wiping his face on his big handkerchief. He had removed his heavy aprons but there were dark stains on his legs and shoes, not yet dry?

He saw Bolitho and reported, "That is all for now, sir? Ten have died. More will follow, I fear."

Foley said admiringly, "Thank you, Mr. Dalkeith. It is better than I dared hope."

They all looked round as another dull bang echoed across the cruising white-caps. It was nearer, and level with the starboard quarter?

Dalkeith shrugged." On dry land I might have saved more, Colonel." He walked away towards the taffrails his brilliant wig askew, his shoulders sagging as if from a great weight?

Bolitho said, "A good surgeon. Usually the calling attracts the failure or the drunkard. He is neither."

Foley was studying the frigate with a telescope." E woman drove him to sea maybe." He ducked involuntarily as the other ship fired and the ball whimpered high overhead before throwing up a shark's fin of spray on the opposite side?

Bolitho said, "Hoist the colours, Mr. Tyrrell. He has the feel of us now." He watched the scarlet flag break from the gaff." Mr. Dalkeith! Have your helpers move those wounded men to the larboard side." He silenced his unspoken protest with, "Better now than when we are in real trouble."

Graves came running aft along a gangway." Run outs sir?"

"No." He looked up as another ball fanned above the deck." Load the starboard battery. Double-shotted and with grape for good measure." He ignored Graves 's puzzled expression and added to Foley, "if we must fire it will have to be the one broadside. You have been below yourself. You know we cannot indulge in close action with the hull filled to its brim with sick men."

Foley looked away." I am sorry, Captain."

Bolitho studied him gravely." Do not be. My orders said little of fighting. Transportation was the ideal arrangement." He forced a smile." Unfortunately, the Frenchman has not read them also!"

He turned to watch the wounded being carried to the opposite side, while Graves and Yule, the gunners supervised the slow loading of every starboard gun which was not impeded by either passengers or cargo?

Graves came to the ladder eventually and called, "All but four guns loaded and ready, sir." He broke off with a gasp as the air overhead came alive with a long-drawn-out shriek, as if a thousand devils had been freed from the sea itself?

Rigging and shrouds jerked savagely, and men ducked holding their hands above them as torn cordage and severyl severed blocks hurtled amongst them?

Bolitho gripped his hands together behind him still tighter until the pain helped to steady him. Langridge shot, as used by the big Bonaventure. It was vicious and very dangerous. Consisting of fragments of iron bound together, it could cut away rigging and tear down spars with ease. But unlike chain-shot, which was more generally used, it could also do terrible damage to men otherwise hidden by gangway or bulwark. The Frenchman obviously wanted to dismast Sparrow and take her and cargo intact. The gold would pay for many requirements in the future, and Sparrow would make a valuable addition to the enemy's fleet. It had happened before. Within the hour he might see it happen again. To him?

The bowchaser threw out a spurt of smoke and the Sparrow's main course burst open with a searing explosion, the great sail ripping itself to a hundred fragments in the wind even before the enemy's iron had finished falling alongside?

Bolitho could feel the difference instantly, the heavier motion between each lift and plunge, the increase ob turns on the wheel as Buckle's helmsmen fought to hold her on course?

Yet again that demoniac scream of whirling fragments, the thud and clatter of failing rope and halliards. Men were working feverishly far above the decks to make good the severed rigging, but the frigate was much nearer, and as Bolitho swung round he saw three of her foremost guns belching fire and smoke, proof that she was overhauling rapidly to bring more of her armament to bear?

Balls shrieked and whimpered overhead and one ripped through the mizzen topsail with the slap of a whip against wood. Men yelled and cursed to control it as once again the wind explored the damage, tearing the shot-hole in an uneven gash from head to foot?

Bolitho gripped the rail hard. If only there was sight of a friendly sail, anything which might make the frigate lose heart or change tack even for a few moments?

He saw a ball skipping across the wavecrests, its progress clearly marked by the leaping feathers ob spray; winced as the deck jumped beneath him as the shot slammed into the lower hull?

From below the gun deck he heard muffled cries, and pictured the sick and wounded, some with limbs only just cut away by Dalkeith, enduring the menacing roar of gunfire, the increasing accuracy of each successive shot?

Bethune came running from the ladder." Captain, sir0 The general wishes to be kept informed…" He

ducked as a ball burst through the taffrail and hurled two seamen in a tangle of writhing limbs and horrifying spurts of blood?

Bolitho turned from the sight. He had been speaking to one of them just minutes ago. Now he was less than a man. Nothing?

"Tell the general to stay below and…"

He broke off as with a splintering crash the main topgallant canted over, the sail whipping madly in a web of parted rigging, while the yard itself snapped into equal halves before pitching towards the deck? Men ran in confusion until the avalanche of wood and cordage had draped itself over the larboard gangway to trail alongside in a maelstrom of spray. A man, it must have been the lookout, was hurled bodily to the topsail yard, and even above the din Bolitho heard his shrill scream, saw him roll over and fall the rest of the way to the gun deck?

Another ragged burst of cannon fire, and Tilba dashed amongst the struggling seamen, his arms flailing as he pushed and drove them with their axes to free the ship from its torn rigging?

Tyrrell shouted, "We will have to alter course, sir!" He was yelling to make himself heard as men rushed past him, faces screwed into tight masks, their eyes blind even to the butchered corpses beside the nettings?

Bolitho stared at him." How much water is there over those bars?"

Tyrrell seemed to think he had misheard." At this time? Next to nothing!" He peered wildly at the sails as more jagged iron screamed amongst them?

A topman had slipped and was being suspended by his hands by two of his companions while his legs kicked helplessly in the air. Sweat, fear or a flying splinter cut the contact, and with a brief cry the man fell head over heels, seemingly very slowly, until he hit the sea by the hull. Bolitho saw him passing below the quarterdeck, arms outspread, his eyes very white as the water closed over them?

"I must risk it!" He was shouting aloud without realising it was more than a murmur." Tack either way and that frigate will rake us!"

Tyrrell nodded jerkily." As you say! I'll get a leadsman in th' chains and…"

Bolitho seized his arm." No! Do that, or shorten sails and that bastard will know what we're about!" He shook him violently." If I fall, you must try to take her through."

A ball crashed into the nettings and sliced behind him. Splinters and fragments filled the air, and he saw Foley throw one hand to his shoulder where the epaulette had been torn cleanly away?

He faced Bolitho and said, "Warm work, Captain."

Bolitho stared at him, feeling that same fixed grin on his mouth and jaw like a cruel vice. Like him, the ship was acting like something beyond control, the remaining sails driving her onwards towards the hidden menace of those hard sandbars. He was banking everything on Tyrrell's knowledge, and the hope that the Frenchman was ignorant of his dangers or so blinded by all else but Sparrow's closeness to defeat that he was totally absorbed?

Yet in spite of the intermittent gunfire, the responding crashes and thuds of balls striking home, he was able to see small but important details on every side?

A badly wounded seaman, his shoulder mashed to bloody pulp, was being held in the arms of a wounded soldier. The latter was blinded from some previous fight and his face covered by bandages. But his hands seemed to stand out even in all the confusion around him. Moving and calming, shielding the sailor and groping for a flask of water to ease his suffering. And Dalkeith, his wig screwed into one pocket while he knelt beside another injured man, his fingers like scarlet claws as he felt the extent of the wound, while his eyes rested on the next victim, and the one after that?

And through it all Graves walking behind the loaded guns, chin on chest, pausing only to check a particular crew or to step astride a corpse or fallen rigging?

From forward came the frightened cry, "I kin see the bottom!"

Bolitho ran to the nettings and pulled himself above the tightly stowed hammocks. In the bright sunlight he saw the spray bursting from the rounded bilge, trailing ropes and a complete section of a broken cutter dragging alongside. Then he saw the darting, shadowy shapes gliding deeper still, weed and rock clusters, some of which seemed to be rising towards the keel like disturbed monsters?

If she struck now the masts would be ripped out ob her, and she would plough forward, grinding and breaking open to the waiting sea?

He turned to seek out the enemy. How near she looked. Less than three cables off the quarter, her complete battery run out in readiness to finish the contest?

Buckle muttered hoarsely, "By the living God, the Frenchie's in a safe channel!" There was a break in his voice. The bastards have done for us!"

Bolitho looked at Tyrrell." Get the t'gallants off her." He could not hide the despair this time?

As the men swanned aloft to shorten sail, Tyrrell shouted, "There was nothing else you could do…"

He broke off as Buckle and Midshipman Heyward yelled together, "She's struck!"

Bolitho pushed between them and stared with sick disbelief at the other ship. She had been changing tack, either because her captain had at last seen his danger or was about to rake the sloop with his first full broadside, and had struck one of the bars at full speed. Across the strip of water they could hear the jarring crashes, the awful rumble of her hull pounding aground. And as she began to slew round her foremast, followed and entangled with her main and mizzen topmasts, came down in one mighty curtain ob leaping spray?

Bolitho had to yell severyl times to stop his men from shouting and cheering, to make them understand that their own danger was just as real?

"Alter course five points to starboard!" He dashed the sweat from his eyes to peer at the compass, his mind dulled by the crash of spars and groaning timbers." Steer sou' sou'-east!"

With only her torn course and topsails set, the Sparrow came round sluggishly, as if she, too, was beyond reason?

Gear flapped and banged, and men clambered over the scattered debris like dazed animals in their efforts to obey the shouts from aft?

Bolitho cupped his hands and yelled, "Mr. Graves0 Run out!"

The ports squeaked open, and on their trucks the

guns which could he manned trundled into the sunlight? With the sloop leaning over on her new tack each cannon moved quickly down the deck until with a shout of, "All run out!" Graves stared once again towards Bolitho?

Bolitho watched narrowly, his hand lifting while he forced himself to see the other ship as a target and not a once living creature writhing in agony?

"As you bear, Mr. Graves! Full elevation!"

He saw the listing, dismasted frigate falling past Sparrow's starboard bow, the churned sand around her beakhead to mark the extent of her charge on to the bar?

His hand came down." Fire!"

The hull jerked and bucked as gun by gun the double-shotted charges ripped over the wave crests to smash into the helpless enemy. A few shots from swivel guns answered the first onslaught, but as the heavy balls, coupled with a full load of grape, swept into her side and decks those, too, fell silent?

Bolitho held up his hand." Cease firing! Secure guns!" To Buckle he added, "We will wear ship directly? Nor'-east by north." He glanced astern at the smoking wreck." She will rest there until someone comes, friend or foe, it makes little difference for her."

Tyrrell watched him gravely." Aye, aye, sir."

He appeared to be waiting for something more?

Bolitho walked to the rail and studied the men below him. Restoring lashings on the guns, working to repair damage and sort out the tangle of rigging, everywhere something was happening to prepare Sparrow for her next challenge. There was no cheering, in fact little sound of voices at all. Just a few grins as seamen discovered good friends still alive. A nod here, a casual thump of the shoulder there. Together they told him more than words?

"They've learned well, Mr. Tyrrell." He saw Dalkeith coming aft again and steeled himself for the list ob dead and dying." After this they will be ready for anything."

He handed his sword to Stockdale, who had been near him the whole time although he could not recall seeing him?

"As I will."