The Baltic Prize

Chapter 21

After a hard winter of frigid easterlies it was glorious to feel the warmth of sunshine on the skin, then to see the ice retreat, break up into floes and vanish. Deeper into the Baltic the ancient ports were still locked in by ice, not yet ready for the flood of trade of the new season, but it would not be long.

Krieger looked about the little harbour in satisfaction. Here was a sheltered haven, two moles enclosing a natural indentation in the sandy coast, the five-fathom line a comfortable mile or more distant, keeping any sizeable English marauder well out of gunshot.

And being readied alongside was a fine pair of gunboats, both kanonchalups – Svane and ?nder.

They were full-blooded aggressors. Sleek and low, with a monster twenty-four-pounder long gun mounted on slides over the fore-deck and a nine-pounder on the stern-quarters, they were designed such that the whole boat was aimed with rapid manoeuvring at the oars, doing away with the elaborate tackling of larger ships.

Two-masted with a simple lugger rig, they could, if necessary, run out a bowsprit and jib and, with a try-sail aft, make good speed even in the lightest of winds. But it was the great number of double-banked oars that brought a deadly advantage: to be able to proceed directly into the wind. And in a calm, while a sailing-ship was dead in the water a gunboat could run rings round it.

It came at a price: to man the gunboat at least seventy men were needed on the oars and to serve the guns, and living conditions on any protracted passage would be nothing less than squalid. Krieger knew that this was not a limitation, however, as the boats would be, like here at Hornb?k, stationed locally, ready to dart out, snap up prey and return.

‘Peder – are you done with your primping?’ he threw at the officer in Svane. ‘I heard the English merchant jacks have grown restless and are off through the Sound on their own.’

What the big British fleet was doing in Gothenburg was anyone’s guess. Most probably it was something to do with the Swedish alliance, which, rumour had it, involved an invasion of Norway at Gustav IV Adolf’s goading – or was it intended to confront the Russians? Either way it was not troubling them, remaining at anchor and not convoying trade through the Sound.

‘I’ll have no slip-ups in front of the forbandet English,’ Bruun retorted. The right side of his face was still livid with gunpowder burns where his kanonchalup, Stubbekobing, had exploded during the frenzied, reckless fighting before the bombardment.

Swenson, the captain of ?nder, growled happily, ‘As every round shot is polished, the pikes will split a fly and we’ve men enough to make her dance!’

‘Well and good,’ Krieger conceded, hiding his pride. ‘You’ll get your chance soon enough – and then we’ll see if you remember your tactics.’

This was going to be the first trial of gunboats in the open sea instead of harbour defence and much was riding on how things went.

Hornb?k was well placed: on the north coast of Sj?lland at the mouth of the passage south where all shipping must funnel into the Sound. It had a sturdy church spire that served to keep lookout over the two or three miles to its centre, and the fishing town could well feed and house another hundred men.

They hadn’t long to wait. In the early afternoon came a clanging of the church bell – a sighting!

Merchantmen – typical Baltic traders, three brigs, about four hundred tons or so. In blithe trust that, with Kronborg well away into the Sound, they had nothing to worry about, they were under full sail four miles offshore.

The breeze for this time of the year was balmy and slight. Conditions were ideal.

‘Take ’em out!’ roared Krieger.

The signal gun thudded and men streamed from houses and workshops to converge on the harbour, finding their oars in the boat-house and manning the row-thwarts of the two gunboats.

‘Room for a passenger, Peder?’ Krieger shouted and, without waiting for a reply, boarded Svane’s broad afterdeck. There was no way he was going to miss the party.

They swept out of the mole and, ignoring the north-westerly, headed directly for their victims.

At first there was no change in their aspect: against the coast the oar-powered gunboats would appear anything but threatening and they pressed on across their front.

As they drew nearer, their intent was discovered and the scattered ships came together protectively in a loose gaggle.

The oarsmen stretched out like heroes. The rhythmic rise and splash had urgency in every stroke.

A mile away – it was time to close the proceedings.

Svane diverged to the right and the gun lashings were thrown off. Gunners swarmed over the weapon and the gun-captain indicated readiness.

‘Peder?’

A grim-faced Bruun took the tiller and aligned the craft, a gunner crouched ready. At the right time Bruun roared, ‘Oars!’ and with blades out of the water in respect for the expected recoil he chopped down his hand.

With a monstrous concussion the twenty-four-pounder fired and somewhere before the bow of the leading ship the plume of a shot-strike rose majestically.

For a space nothing happened. Then, as one, the three brigs slewed about to run downwind.

Swanson in ?nder knew what to do and his gun slammed out to raise a series of gigantic skipping splashes on the other side.

Krieger gave a satisfied smile. On the decks of those merchantmen there would be something like panic. Even the slowest-witted would realise it was as prizes that the gunboats wanted them, why they were aiming off – but they would know too that this was war, and if they did not yield, it was the duty of the gunboats to pound them to splinters with their giant guns.

One by one they struck sail and lay to, awaiting the gunboats to board.

But Krieger’s smile faded as they approached the workaday merchant vessels. This was no great victory: these were no more than common sailors following the sea and should not be expected to go up against such odds. Just how much duty did they owe their ship and its owners? They might take on privateers but there was no future in defying these ship-smashing naval guns.

They boarded a merchantman each, the sullen seamen on deck with their few belongings in sea-bags, one ship’s master shaking his head in disbelief. ‘To be captured is a hard thing, but by a pair o’ row-boats is a right humiliation.’

While they were taking possession of the first two, the third took advantage of their distraction and hastily made off but Krieger was well satisfied with his haul. Not only the value of the ship and its cargo but the insurance pay-out in London would hurt the English. A good day’s work.

It was easy – too much so? It did not take long to bring in the two prizes and they were ready to turn around and go back on the prowl. How long could it last before word got about? Better to spread the mischief: Gilleleje, along the coast further, would do.

They seized two independents who thought to take the alternative Great Belt route to the south – but several others got away. They needed more gunboats.