The King`s Commission

Chapter 2

Their tiny flotilla arrived in Britain Bay off Turk's Island before sundown, just at the end of the first dog-watch. The holding ground was coral and rock, so getting a small bower and the best bower secure in four or five fathoms of crystal-clear water was a real chore. They had to row out a stream anchor as well. The Tartar frigate was driven off her anchorage, losing an anchor in the process, while Captain Dixon from Drake rowed ashore under a flag of truce to demand the French garrison surrender. The prize, La Coquette, stayed out at sea, standing on and off as the winds freshened.

Once they could pause from their labors and consider Shrike safely moored, Alan could see French troops ashore in their white uniforms, drawn up on a summit overlooking the ships, which were not over a cable to two cables' length from the shimmering white beaches. It looked to be, Alan decided after plying his glass upon them, not more than the one hundred fifty to two hundred men that Lieutenant Lilycrop had surmised.

Captain Dixon's boat came off the shore just at the end of the second dog, around eight in the evening, with news that the French had refused to surrender. That response was thought to be pretty much a formality for the sake of their honor, the prevailing view being that once a determined landing party went ashore in the morning and a few broadsides had been fired off, the French would shoot back a few times and then haul down their flag in the face of overwhelming force.

During the night, Albemarle and Resistance fired a few shots into the woods overlooking Britain Bay to keep the French awake and in a state of nerves for the morrow. Shrike's people sharpened their swords and bayonets; the Marines went about hard-faced and grim, tending to their full uniforms (which were only worn for battle or formal duties in port) and seeing to their fire-locks, flints and powder. The rasp of files and stones on bayonets and hangers and cutlasses made a harsh, sibilant rhythm under the sounds of the fiddlers on the mess decks who went through their entire repertory of stirring airs before Lights Out.

At first light, just at 5 a.m., they stood to, ready to board their boats and set off for the shore expedition. Captain Dixon of the Drake brig would lead. Evidently, Tartar had not been able to keep good holding ground, for there had been no sign of her since she had lost a second anchor and been driven off shore in the night.

"Not much to the place by daylight, is there, Mister Cox?" Alan asked as their swarthy little master gunner strolled aft to the quarterdeck.

"Little dry on the windward end here, sir, true," Cox said in a rare moment of cheerfulness as he looked forward to some action for a change. "Same's most islands here'bouts. Might I borrow your glass, sir?"

Alan loaned him his personal telescope and let the man look his fill of the shadowy forests above the beach where the troops would land. There wasn't much to see, not in dawn-light. Sea-grape bushes, poison manchineel trees, sturdy but low pines and scrub trees that only gave an impression of green lushness rooted firmly in the sandy soil of a coral and limestone island.

"No sign of a battery this end, sir," Cox commented, handing the tube back. "And I'd not make those heights over forty-five feet above the level of the beach, even if there was. Good shooting for us."

Lieutenant Lilycrop came on deck in his best uniform coat, wearing his long straight sword at his hip, with a pair of pistols stuffed into the voluminous coat pockets. His face was red and raw from a celebratory shave, his first of the week.

"No stirrings from the French yet, Mister Lewrie?" he asked.

"Nothing to be seen, sir," Alan replied.

"Might be a white uniform in those trees, sir," Cox disagreed. "Sentries, most like so far. But no sign of a battery."

"They've had all night to prepare, even so." Lilycrop frowned. "Well, Lieutenant Walsham. Rarin' to have a crack at 'em, are ye, sir?"

"Aye aye, sir," Walsham answered, sounding a lot more somber than his usual wont. He was a recruiting flyer, the very picture of a Marine officer this morning, as if dirt and lint would never dare do harm to the resplendency of his red uniform. The gorget of rank at his throat flashed like the rising sun.

"Doubt we'll need springs on the cables," Lilycrop mused. "I 'spect the frigates'll cover the landin', and we won't be called for much firin', 'less they try to sweep 'round to flank us once we're ashore. If they do, they'll be in plain sight of our guns over there. And it ain't a full two cables to that low hill."

"Round-shot and grape should do it, sir," Alan commented.

"I'd worry more 'bout some Frog ship comin' in from seaward, if I were you, Mister Lewrie," the captain said, turning to look at the horizon from which the sun was threatening to rise. "Might've been more ships'n La Coquette and a sloop of war come here. Maybe a brace o' sloops already sweepin' the Caicos Passage up north to make some profit from this expedition of theirs. You keep a wary eye out for that."

"I shall, sir," Alan told him.

"An' you'll not muck about with my little ship while I'm gone, will you now, Mister Lewrie," Lilycrop said in a softer voice for him alone, not so much a question as an order.

"I'll not, sir, but I cannot speak for any French battery up in those woods." Alan grinned back, knowing by now that Lilycrop's blusterings were not as dire as he made them sound.

"Signal from Albemarle, sir!" Midshipman Edgar called.

"Were off. then," Lilycrop said with a grin. "Only wished wed o' packed a heartier dinner. Ready, Mister Walsham?"

"Aye. sir." the Marine said moving towards the gangway entry port.

"Boats are alongside to starboard, sir, so the French did not see any preparations," Alan stuck in. "Side-party!"

The seamen and Marines gathered to render salute to their captain as he stepped to the lip of the entry-port for the first boat, doffing hats and raising swords or muskets in honor as Lilycrop swung out and faced inward to lower himself down the man-ropes and battens to the boat.

The entire squadron was issuing forth its landing force, most of it from the two remaining frigates, as they had more men to spare from much larger crews, while the little brigs below the Rate were perenially short of hands even on their best days. By counting heads in the boats nearest him, and then multiplying by the number of boats issuing forth, Alan could determine that they were fielding around one hundred eighty to two hundred men for the effort, minus those whose duty it would be to stay on the beach and safeguard the boats. They would at least equal the estimated French troops ashore. And the gunfire from well-drilled fighting ships would make the critical difference.

"Pendant's down, sir!" Edgar shouted.

"Cast off! Out oars! Give way together!" the captain's cox'n ordered as the signal for execution was given.

It took about half an hour for all boats to gather before the frigates, line themselves up in some sort of order, and then shove off for the silent, waiting beach.

"Albemarle signals 'Open Fire,' sir," Edgar said.

"Mister Cox, make it hot for them," Alan directed. The ships began to thunder out their broadsides over the heads of the rowing boats, thrashing the woods above the beach and, the low hills behind with iron sleet.

"Slow but steady, boys," Cox shouted to his remaining gunnery crews, and Shrike's little six-pounders began to bark, one at a time, aiming high with quoins full out, which made the deck rock and seem to sag down with each blast. Cox and his gunner's mate walked from one end of the waist to the other as the guns fired, counting out a pace which would allow the forward-most gun to be reloaded by the time the after-most piece had discharged, so a continual hail of round-shot and grape canister would keep the French down under cover, never allowing them to rise between broadsides for a musket volley.

"A little low, Mister Cox?" Alan asked as he saw the trees and bushes just above the beach tremble to a well-directed shot.

"Aim'll lift as the barrels get hotter, sir," Cox said, replying with a touch of petulant whine to his voice, unwilling to be questioned at his science, or his skill in the execution of it. But Alan did note that Cox then sent a gunner's mate to correct the elevation of Number 4 larboard gun, which had been shooting too low.

The boats were having a lively time of it, even inside the reefs that should have protected them from the worst of the offshore rollers that swept in, driven by a fresh Sou'east Trade Wind. They rocked bow to stern, with the oarsmen slaving away to keep them moving.

Then the first stems were grounding on the sands, and Captain Dixon was ashore and waving back at the frigates. A signal went up from Albemarle, ordering "Cease Fire" so their broadsides would not hurt their own landing parties.

"Cease fire, Mister Cox!" Alan shouted down into the waist. "Mister Biggs, water butts for the gunners."

"Aye, sir," their weasely purser replied, sounding as if he even begrudged issuing "free" water.

"Looks like the landing is unopposed," Alan said. "Might be some French troops up in those woods, but they couldn't form for volleys under our fire."

"Marines are going in, sir," Caldwell pointed out.

Through the glass, he could see the thin red ranks form shoulder to shoulder, open out in skirmish order, lower their bayoneted muskets and start off for the interior, being swallowed up by the thick undergrowth almost at once, with the seemingly disordered packs of seamen in their mis-matched shirts following.

From then on, it was anyone's guess as to what was happening inland. There was no mast available for flag signals from the men ashore. Muskets popped, sometimes a whole squad fired by volley, and the rags of spent powder-smoke rose above the greenery, perhaps just above where they had been fired or perhaps blown through the trees before rising. It was impossible to know which side had fired, or where the true positions of whoever had done the shooting were. All in all, it didn't sound or look like much of a battle so far; just a little skirmishing and skulking, very desultorily conducted.

"Can't see a damned thing from the deck, sir,'" Caldwell growled.

"Aye," Alan agreed. "Nothing for it, then."

"Oh, send the lad, do, sir. Mind your leg," Caldwell replied, and, was it perhaps Alan's imagination, but he felt from Caldwell's tone that he was "on to him" about his earlier malingering.

"I told the captain I was spry enough, and I am, sir," Alan shot back, going to the main-mast shrouds. He ascended slowly, but he gained the fighting-top; though instead of trusting his leg's strength to go outboard on the futtock shrouds where he would have to dangle by fingers and toes like a fly, he took the easier path up through the lubber's-hole like a Marine or landsman.

Damme if I'm acting, he thought, massaging his thigh as it complained loudly at the demands made upon it. He sat down on the edge of the top facing inland, legs and arms threaded through the ratlines of the top-mast shrouds, and rested his telescope on one of the dead-eyes. Even from there, sixty or more feet above the deck and higher than the low hills of the island he could see nothing of note. The sun was up high enough to show him the small town on the western side, further down the coast. Was there a battery there, he asked himself, or was that a row of houses with their blank backsides to the offshore winds for comfort?

Mister Edgar came up soon after, scrambling and puffing at the exertion of ascending the shrouds (properly using the futtocks) and the concentration necessary to coordinate his body and mind to the task. He went on up past Alan to the cross-trees with the lookout, saying, "Mister Caldwell sent me, sir," on the way up.

As if his clumsy arrival had set events in motion, the lookout shouted not five minutes later. "Sail ho, to seaward!"

"Where, away?" Alan demanded, getting to his feet with a thrill of dread. Perhaps Lilycrop had been right, and a French ship had come back to check up on her new base. "Mister Cox, prepare the starboard battery to engage!"

"There, sir!" Mister Edgar called with excitement in his voice.

The ship headed for the anchorage was a brig, about five miles off, but she had the wind free and was making good progress. Perhaps a privateer or a French-what did they call them, corvette?

"Think you she's French, sir?" Edgar called down from his higher perch.

"If she is, we'll serve her like Hood did de Grasse at St. Kitts," Alan answered him. "Keep an eye on her, Mister Edgar."

"Oh, I shall…" Edgar replied as Alan glanced up at him, and Alan winced and sucked in his breath as Edgar, in swiveling back to gaze seaward, almost lost his seat on the slight support of the thin timbers of the cross-tree platform. Only the lookout's quick action in grabbing the lad by the collar had saved him from a deadly tumble to the deck. "Do have a care, Mister Edgar! Remember where you are!"

"Aye, sir," Edgar said, red with embarrassment and fright. He put his telescope back to his eye, then looked down once more. "One of ours, sir. Blue Ensign, and a private signal flag."

"Saying what?" Alan demanded.

"I, un…" Edgar stammered, searching his pockets for his sheaf of notes and almost over-balancing again. "Here it is, sir."

Alan shared a look with the lookout while Edgar thumbed through the papers, almost losing them to the fresh winds, until he found the month's private signals. The lookout raised his eyebrows and sighed heavily, making Alan grin back at him in a moment of secret amusement.

"Admiral Barrington, sir, hired Brig O' War," Edgar announced at last. "Lieutenant Charles Cunningham in command."

"Thank you, Mister Edgar. Why do you not go down to the deck and inform Mister Cox that he shall not have to engage her for now, but stand easy. I'd feel much easier with you there, sir."

"Aye, sir." Edgar nodded, and fumbled his way to a stay which he rode down to the quarterdeck bulwarks.

Admiral Barrington exchanged signals with Albemarle, then took course to Britain Bay, and anchored about an hour later. She was much like Shrike, a brig of only twelve guns, and from the looks of her decks, had only seventy or eighty men aboard total; not much reinforcement.

As she did so, there was more firing from inland, some volleys quite substantial, though they still couldn't see where they were coming from, or from which side. To Alan's ears, though, it sounded as if there might be more firing from higher up and inland, after a while. And more firing than about one hundred fifty French soldiers could make. There were, finally, some larger puffs of smoke and louder cracks of sound that could only come from field-pieces. So the French had artillery on the island, perhaps in some well-sited works, to deny the landing party any further progress towards the town.

Sure enough, around ten in the morning, a runner appeared on the beach and took a boat out to Albemarle to report. And a few minutes after that, small boats made their way from the flagship to the brigs. Alan slung his telescope and stepped out of the top. If his leg was quarrelsome this morning, there was nothing wrong with his arms. He rode a stay to the deck in proper sea-manly fashion, making sure to land on his good leg. Even so, the shock made his game limb twinge.

"Ahoy the boat!" Fukes called.

"Passing!" the bowman shouted.

"Ahoy, Shrike!" an officer in the stern-sheets demanded. The hands eased their stroke to loiter near her side. "Have you an officer aboard?"

"Lieutenant Lewrie!" Alan replied, using a speaking trumpet.

"Lieutenant Bromwich, sir, second into Albemarlel Lieutenant Hinton and I are to take charge of the brigs and direct them to weigh. Captain Dixon is checked by a strong work, and requests we make a diversion with artillery opposite the town, sir. Do you need any assistance in so doing?"

Goddamn the man! Alan thought cynically. Do they think aboard Albemarle that we're cripples? "No, sir, we shall weigh directly. I think we may cope, sir," Alan drawled back.

"Very well, sir!"

"Mister Cox, secure from Quarters. Mister Fukes, hands to the capstans and prepare to weigh. Veer out on the stream anchor and heave in to short stays on the best and small bowers. I'll have the kedge served out for later use. Slip the stream cable once we've loosed tops'ls, and buoy it. We'll pick it up later."

"Aye aye, sir," Fukes replied, knuckling his thick brows.

Within half an hour, their evolutions were complete. They got up the bow anchors, and were held in check only by the smaller stream anchor off their stern. The fresh winds made the ship strain down from that anchor, and when they loosed tops'ls to put a way on her, and let slip the stream cable, they were underway and under complete helm control from the moment the cable was let go, as smoothly as anyone could ask for, which made Alan grin inside at the ease of it.

It was only a couple of miles to a new anchorage opposite the town, with the leadsman singing out four or five fathoms the whole way, even though the waters were so clear they could see sharp coral below them as if they were skating over glass.

"Bring to. Mister Svensen," Alan ordered at last. "Round up into the wind and back the fore tops'l. Ready forrard!"

Her progress checked against the wind, they let go the best bower and veered out half a cable. The cable thumped and shuddered a few times before they found good holding ground.

"Kedge anchor into the boat and row her out, there," Alan said, pointing aft and a little to larboard. "And once she's holding, place springs on the cables to adjust our fire."

"Aye, sir." Fukes nodded.

It felt good, Alan decided, to have complete charge of Shrike, with Lieutenant Lilycrop off ashore. There were none of the nerves he had suffered before, in being asked to shift their anchorage or commit her to battle against a shore battery, if battery there were. Some concern that he did not look ridiculous, but none of the nail-biting fear of taking any action at all he had once experienced. With a wry grin, he was forced to believe that the Navy had drummed enough competency in him at last, enough to make him aspire to more opportunities for independence from someone's leading strings.

"Springs is rigged, sir," Fukes reported.

"Very well. Mister Cox, stand by to open fire!"

Drake, as the flagship of their extemporized little subdivision, hoisted a signal, and all ships began a cannonade against the town.

"Seems a shame, sir," Caldwell said, after measuring any change from shore marks that would indicate Shrike was dragging her anchors or being blown out of position.

"What is, sir?" Alan asked off-handedly.

"Well, sir, looks as if the Frogs has already torn the town up for building material, and here we go, shooting the rest of it apart. It may not look like much to our lights, but it's their homes, sir."

"Umm, not for much longer, at this rate," Alan commented as the round-shot from the light guns tore holes in walls and roofs.

"Who was it, sir, one of those pagan Roman poets, said 'they make a desert and call it peace'?" Caldwell mused.

"Tacitus, perhaps," Alan answered. "Couldn't have been Virgil or Caesar. They were too proud of making deserts."

"Batt'ry, sir!" Cox shouted as a wall of gunpowder erupted from shore above the town. A round-shot, almost big enough to see in mid-flight, came howling over the bulwarks, and passed close enough to create a little back-eddy of wind.

"Damme, sir, that was a twenty-four-pounder, or I'm an Arabee!" Caldwell groused with un-wonted vehemence, shaken from his Puritan demeanor for once enough to curse.

"Mark that, Mister Cox?" Alan asked, scanning through the smoke of the broadside for sign of the guns.

"I think so, sir. There, or close enough as makes no diff'rence."

The newly discovered French battery began to put shot around all the brigs. As Cox re-laid his guns to respond, Alan counted the shots, and tried to gauge what caliber they were.

"Mister Cox, let's concentrate our fire on one embrasure, if you will!" Alan shouted down to the waist. "That one, there!"

"Aye, sir!"

"Six-pounders, there," Alan said. "About four or five of them."

"Seems about right, sir," Caldwell replied, his voice still a little shaky.

"And at least four twenty-four-pounders," Alan added, feeling a little grim himself. "This is going to be warm work for three little thin-sided brigs. And works with field-pieces up towards Britain Bay to counter Captain Dixon's shore party. More Frogs on this island than a dog's got fleas, more than reported, at any rate."

They had to duck as one of those twenty-four-pounders placed a round-shot close aboard, close enough to raise a great waterspout that fell over the quarterdeck and wetted them down in a twinkling as it skipped overhead to fall into the sea on the disengaged side. Shrike was, at least, out of the main line of fire, a little more sheltered than the Drake or Admiral Barrington. As the day wore on towards noon, Drake took a ball aloft which brought down the gaff of her spanker, and the Admiral Barrington was hulled with solid thonks of iron smashing wood.

The artillery killed the wind; that was something Alan had heard mentioned before but had never witnessed for himself. Where before there had been fresh winds offshore that stirred up the waters of the deep passages and set the brigs to rocking like cradles, now the sea was flat as a mill-pond, and the wind had died to almost nothing. The ships were wreathed in their own palls of smoke, and the fort ashore could only be espied by looking for the base of the towering pillar of spent powder. It didn't do much for their aim, but at least it made the job of the French troops serving their larger pieces just as hard.

"Signal from Drake, sir," Edgar said at his side, coughing on the sour smell of burned niters. "Cease fire."

"Very well, Mister Edgar. Mister Cox, cease fire!" Alan said. "Mister Edgar, my compliments to the purser, and tell him it's past time for dinner. Have him issue some cold rations and small-beer for the hands."

"Aye aye, sir."

A rowing boat sped down from the frigates anchored in Britain Bay, and went aboard Drake while the men were eating and curing their battle-induced thirsts. After half an hour, the boat came back along the anchored brigs.

"Sir, Captain Nelson directs me bid you to weigh," the midshipman in the stern yelled, his voice cracking a little; he was awfully young. "You are to return to Britain Bay and re-embark your party."

"Very well," Alan replied. "Well, that's another fine mess we've made," he added, turning to his quarterdeck people. "It'll take the frigates down here tomorrow to shoot that battery silent."

"And make another landing, maybe on the other side of the island, now we know where the Frogs is concentrated, sir," Cox said, free of his gun deck. He and his gunners looked black as Moors from all the grime of powder smoke on their skins. Alan could see the closest gun being sponged out with a water-soaked wool rammer, and other hands hoisting up buckets of seawater to sluice off the muzzles and touch-holes. The guns were hissing as the water cooled them like sated dragons.

"Bowse 'em down to the port-sills and secure, Mister Cox," he said. "Mister Fukes, get your people ready to veer out on the bower and take up the kedge soon as the gun crews are available. Wind's coming about a little more westerly. Quick as you can, both of you, or we'll end up rowing her out with the sweeps if the wind goes foul and leaves us on a lee shore."

The wind had swung, not so noticeable during the cannonading that had deadened it; now more southerly, with a touch of westing. Sure sign of a change in the weather, and that was usually a sign of worsening weather, especially in the Caribbean.

They got the kedge up, heaved into short stays on the bower, but could not get it to release from the bottom. Damme, and this was going so well! Alan thought sadly.

"Flukes hung up on a coral head, feels like, sir," Fukes told him. "I can almos' see 'er down there."

"Belay what you have, Mister Fukes. Hands aloft! Let go the driver and jibs! With a little forward way, we might sail her off."

"Aye, sir." Fukes sounded dubious. And with good cause. The anchor obstinately refused to let go her grip on the coral bottom, and no amount of straining at the capstans was going to shift her. The ship sailed up until she was almost standing directly over the anchor, with the cable bar-taut, and if anything, inclined slightly from the vertical, bent back under Shrike's forefoot and cutwater.

"Least this'un ain't the best bower, sir," Fukes offered after coming aft from the beakhead. "An' them other brigs ain't havin' much more luck'un us'un. Drake's arready cut, sir."

"The captain will have my hide if I lose an anchor, even the small bower, Mister Fukes," Alan groaned, thinking what a tongue-lashing he would receive when Lilycrop came back aboard.

With nowhere else to go forward, Shrike was now beginning to circle about her anchor, and the timbers around the hawse-holes were groaning alarmingly. The bow was slightly down and thumping.

"Well, shit," Alan sighed, giving in to the inevitable. "Cut the cable, Mister Fukes. Aloft there, loose tops'Is! Helm hard alee and hold her wind abeam if you can. Braces, shift the braces to the larboard tack!"

It was a sad trek back to Britain Bay, making slow progress until they could come to anchor again and clew up the sails to allow the boats to come alongside. Doctor Dorne and his loblolly boys from the surgery appeared, ready to receive any wounded men from the shore party, and Alan thought to have a bosun's sling rigged from aloft to help hoist injured men aboard.

Then their first boat was coming up to the starboard entry port, and Alan could look down into her. Rossyngton had the tiller, and Alan was ready to rate him for preceding the captain's boat to the chains, but a quick look at the second boat showed no sign of their captain, either. Yet Lilycrop's old cox'n was in the first boat. Was he dead?

"Sir!" Rossyngton shouted up as the boat thumped into Shrike's chainwales. He was filthy and sweaty, his hat gone somewhere. "It's the captain, sir!"

And there was Lieutenant Lilycrop, splayed out amidships between the oarsmen where he could not have been seen, his cox'n supporting his head and shoulders, and another man helping hold his legs up out of the bilges. He was gritting his teeth in agony and rolling his head back and forth to keep silent before his men.

The bosun's chair was lowered immediately, and Lilycrop helped into it and secured with a line about his waist. Gentle hands were there to ease his passage up the side, to keep him from bumping against the timbers. The stay-tackle hauled him up and over the gangway bulwarks and swung him over the waist. Lieutenant Lilycrop's right foot had been wrapped up in someone's shirt for a bandage, tied with small-stuff to keep it from falling off, with another length of twine about his leg above the knee to control the bleeding. Even so, his sodden wrap left a trail of blood droplets as he was lowered to the deck.

"Make haste here, damn your eyes, Mister Lewyss!" Alan called as he gained the waist and knelt over his stricken commander.

"Calm as does it, Mister Lewrie," Dr. Lewyss urged in a soft voice, patting Alan on the shoulder with a blood-grimed hand. "The captain already knows he's hurt, and we don't want him to take fright from all this yelling. Got to gentle the wounded, so ye do, like one would with a colt. Make 'em feel they have a chance, else they take fright and go all cold and grey. Seen it happen, and then you lose them, sure as Fate."

Lewyss shouldered on past him and knelt by the injured leg. As the loblolly boys were readying a carrying board, and Lilycrop was being freed of the bosun's sling, Lewyss unwrapped the bandage. Once he saw the wound, he could not help wincing and sucking air in through his clenched teeth at the sight.

The captain's right ankle was shattered. The shoe and stocking had been removed, though pieces of silk stocking still clung to the wound. The foot was a wine-dark horror, swollen beyond recognition, and hanging from the ankle by only a few remaining tendons at an obscene angle. Lewyss spanned his hand above the ankle, as though deciding just where he would start sawing to take it off, and found another wound, this one a bruise with a small blue-black hole in the center that oozed blood.

"Captain, sir," Lewyss said with as much false good cheer as he could summon. "We'll get you below to the surgery and fix you right up. Nothing for a man to worry about. 'Tis going to be a handsome thing as the ladies'll gush over in future. Take a few sips on this while my lads get you below, and there's more where that came from."

"Oh, shut up, you bloody Welsh fraud." Lilycrop grimaced. "I know you're to take my foot off. Gimme that bottle and get on with it, damn your eyes."

Lewyss offered him a small pocket flask of rum, which the captain bit the stopper from and spat out. He drained it at one go.

"Hurry. Mister Lewyss. I beg you," Alan urged in a harsh whisper.

"Lewrie, that you?"

"Aye, Captain."

"Don't stand there lookin' like a specter, sir. Ship alright? No wounded aboard?" Lilycrop asked between waves of pain.

"All well, sir," Alan said, close to tears. "We lost the small bower, sir."

"Small enough price." Lilycrop groaned as he was rolled over onto the carrying board and lashed down. "Doctor, have you no more rum fer me, damn you? Let's get goin'! Get it over with, for the love of God!"

Lewyss nodded to his hands, and they lifted the captain up to carry him away, gripping onto the loops of rope in the carrying board to maneuver his form down the steep ladders of the main hatch to the surgery aft in the cockpit.

"It'll have to come off, of course, sir," Lewyss whispered sadly. "I could leave him most of the calf, but for that second wound. There's a musket ball about a hand-span above the ankle, and bones sure to be broken there. At least he'll have half his calf, and the knee, of course. Make things much better for him when it comes time to fit him for an appliance. He may walk almost naturally."

"Then you'd best be about it, Mister Lewyss," Alan snapped.

"Time enough, sir," Lewyss said, not to be hurried. "Let him have some more rum first, and let the numbness set in. If you will excuse me, sir."

"No one else wounded, Mister Rossyngton?" Alan asked, once the doctor had taken himself below to his sad duty.

"No, sir. Just the captain," the midshipman reported, shaken into somberness. "The landing was pretty much unopposed, sir, just some pickets to slow us down in the woods. But we came up against some heavy volleys once we were over the first hill. And we went to ground there, sir. We sent for a diversion against the town, as I expect you know, sir."

"Aye."

"The French fell back to a work above the town," Rossyngton went on, between sips of small-beer from a large wooden piggin. "And they had field guns there, maybe four of 'em, six-pounders. We could see seamen as well as soldiers, sir. Hundreds of 'em. Captain Dixon had just ordered us to retire-not much we could have done in the face of that work-and the captain gave a little grunt, sort of, sir. This cannon ball came rolling out of the bushes, spent almost, but it hit his foot and just flipped him arse over tit, sir, like an acrobat. How he got the second wound, I don't know, sir."

"Signal from flag, sir!" Edgar called. "It's… 'Captains Repair On Board,' sir."

"Damn that fool yonder!" Alan spat. "And just how does he think our captain can manage that, I wonder?" He was feeling a heavy wave of guilt. If he had not been malingering, acting as if he was incapable of fulfilling his duties as a whole man, Lieutenant Lilycrop would still have a foot. It was his fault that that good man, a man who had treated him more than fairly, was now undergoing the horror of Lewyss' knives, saws and probes. Then again, he rationalized, it could be him on the table, turning into a maimed figure of fun for the street urchins back home, who would taunt "Mr. Hopkins" at any person with any sort of deformity.

"Um, think you'd better go in the captain's place, sir," Caldwell suggested, interrupting his furious musings. "To the flag, that is."

"Hmm. Me?"

"Yessir, with the captain down wounded, you're in charge for now, sir," Caldwell repeated.

"Damme, I suppose I am, ain't I?" Alan nodded, slowly comprehending it all.

Alan's boat ground against Albemarle's side by the main-chains, with Cony holding fast with a painter and Andrews at the tiller as a temporary cox'un. It was with difficulty that he got up the man-ropes and battens to the deck. He was greeted with the shrill of bosun's pipes and the side-party due a captain, which made him shrivel up with guilt once more. He had not known where the other officers stood in seniority to him, so he was the last aboard, and once he had doffed his hat in return salute he limped over to join the others.

"I am Lieutenant Osborne, first into Albemarle, sir. And you are?"

"Alan Lewrie, first officer of Shrike, brig o' war," Alan replied.

"Sir, allow me to name you to the others. Lieutenant Lewrie of Shrike; Captain James King of Resistance, Lieutenant Charles Cunningham of Admiral Barrington, Captain Charles Dixon of Drake. Our second, Lieutenant Martin Hinton, and our Lieutenant Joseph Bromwich. I believe you have already met earlier, have you not? Captain Nelson shall receive you in a few moments."

It was not exactly a pleasant social gathering. They all looked devilishly grim after being checked ashore and obliged to cut and run from the heavier French battery.

"Get that ashore, sir?" Captain King asked, noticing Alan's slight limp.

"No, sir. A few weeks ago on the Florida coast, when we were still part of Sir Joshua Rowley's Jamaica Squadron," Alan replied.

"Any casualties, Charles?" Dixon asked of Cunningham.

"Six wounded, sir," Cunningham replied. "Including the bosun."

"We suffered two, one of 'em our sailing master," Dixon told them all. "Damned fortunate, for all the damage we took. Gaff shattered, rigging cut up pretty well, and we have an eighteen-pounder ball in the timbers. Thank the good Lord they didn't run to heated shot. And how did Shrike fare, sir?"

"No one aboard is hurt," Alan said. "One wounded ashore with you-our captain, sir, Lieutenant Lilycrop."

"Hurt sore?" Dixon asked.

"He's losing his foot at this moment, sir," Alan stated.

"Ah, I'm damned sorry," Dixon sighed. "I tried to keep our casualties to a minimum ashore. No sense making a useless demonstration against their works and getting men killed for nothing."

"Trevenen says we should have reconnoitered last night, sent a boat ashore," King said. "Might have saved us the trouble."

"Oh, him," Lieutenant Cunningham sniffed. "I'm sure young Jemmy will put pen to paper about this."

"Excuse me, sirs, but Captain Nelson will see you now," Osborne told them, coining back on deck. He led them aft and below to the great cabins. Alan stuffed his hat under his arm and waited to see what their putative "commodore" looked like.

Well, stap me, he thought at his first sight. I do believe if they made me a post-captain tomorrow, I'd look older than this'un.

Captain Horatio Nelson was a skinny little hop o' my thumb, not much taller than some minnikin, slim and coltish as a young whippet, and a good breeze looked enough to blow him right away. His light hair was long, lank and unpowdered, tied back in a Hessian tail of such length that it rivaled Lieutenant Lilycrop's seamanly queue. His captain's coat was the full-dress "iron-bound," stiff with gold lace, and of a fashion more suited to the last war, with over-sized pocket flaps. Altogether, he looked like an actor in some Drury Lane production portraying a Sea Officer, deliberately mis-cast in some parody.

"Gentlemen, well met," he began in a high, slightly nasal voice. "Though I fear we meet not in a victory worthy of British Sea Officers. Lieutenants Bromwich and Hinton inform me they were obliged to cut and abandon the cannonade on the town battery. How many guns?"

"At least four or five twenty-four-pounders, sir," Cunningham said. "And near on five or six six-pounders, by my count. A substantial work. And they were manned by seamen, I believe. Very accurate gunners."

"And Captain Dixon, you encountered at least four more guns, of at least six-pounds shot, at a work blocking your advance?" Nelson asked.

"Aye, sir."

"Quite a packet to be transported by La Coquette and that prize sloop now with the Dugay Trouin frigate," Nelson said, playing with the stock of his shirt. "And how many troops did you encounter ashore, sir?"

"I would estimate over two hundred men, sir," Dixon said evenly.

"I want to commend your sagacity, sir," Nelson told him with a small, shy smile on his long, narrow face. "Another commander would have tried to force the issue against that work, and would have been repulsed with heavy casualties. Obviously, there are a lot more men ashore than the captive French officers in La Coquette told us. Captain King, did you learn any more from them?"

"No, sir," King replied. "They said they'd escorted ships here, and La Coquette had given up five of her twenty-six guns to form a battery. I estimated that they could not have landed much more than one hundred fifty troops, plus seamen gunners."

"But to man that many guns, and provide a guard force for both works, and still leave at least two hundred troops free to operate against Captain Dixon, would make how many, do you think?" Nelson asked, trying not to give the impression that he might like to tear King's head off, even if he did. "If there were other ships escorted here, of which I now am informed."

This is damned interesting, Alan thought, watching the young man grill the older (and, surprisingly, senior) post-captain over the coals. So post-captains can act just as ill with each other as any pack of surely midshipmen fighting over shares of a pudding?

"It would make over five hundred men, sir," Alan guessed aloud. "My captain says there's nothing much on the other islands, so Grand Turk is the key, and they must have located all their force here."

"And you are. sir?" Nelson asked, turning to face him. He didn't look pleased to be addressed, and thrown off the topic.

"Lieutenant Lewrie, sir, of the Shrike brig. First officer. I stand in for my captain, Lieutenant Lilycrop, who's in surgery now."

"The officer wounded ashore with me, sir," Dixon added.

"Yes, Mister Lewrie, over five hundred men, with twenty-four pounders," Nelson said, turning to address all of them. "We put, what, about one hundred sixty-five men up against a French regiment, and a fortification with artillery heavier than any piece we have at our disposal. But, we may still seize the day. I propose to shift the frigates opposite the town to reduce the fortification. If we start now, we may pound upon it all night if need be. As for the brigs, make a demonstration above Britain Bay, at the far end of the island, to get the field troops marching that direction. Then, at first light, we land here, after taking anchor in Hawk's Nest Anchorage, on the other side of the island from the town and battery. They shall have to abandon the work up north, and we may now concentrate our forces against theirs properly."

"Would it not be better to blockade the place for now, sir?" Captain King advised, shaking his head. "Send one of the brigs off to summon Admiral Hood? He must be back on station by now, after watering at Port Royal. Heavy guns and Marines from the liners…"

"Weakening the blockade of Cape Francois, Captain King," the diminuitive "commodore" replied, rejecting the suggestion with an energetic wave of his hands. "Perhaps their expedition had that as a secondary goal. No, we have a chance to confound our King's enemies here and now. With enough energetic action, enough alacrity, we may still prevail."

"I'd like to point out, though, sir," Captain Dixon said with a heavy look, "that even if we stripped every vessel present, the French can still field more troops, and once ashore, we'll have no field guns to counter their battery. It was dirt, and they could dig guns in anywhere they wish, once they see where we land. They hold the upper hand when it comes to moving on interior lines, whilst we are forced to sail all around the island to find another beach."

While Nelson was digesting this view of things, there was a rap on the door, and Nelson bade whoever it was enter, with an exasperated tone to his voice.

The officer who entered was Lieutenant Osborne, first officer of Albemarle. "Excuse me for interrupting, sir, but the winds are come more westerly, and still quite fresh. Another hour and we'll be on a lee shore."

"Yes, thank you for telling me, Mister Osborne," Nelson answered, massaging his brow with long, slim fingers. He used his other hand to spin the map of the island about to stare at it. "There is no good holding ground on the eastern side. Shallow reefs and shoals, and then a steep drop off to truly unfathomable depths. Hawk's Nest Anchorage is possible, but under the guns of the battery, and too far for useful fire from our pieces." He gave a heavy sigh, a bitter realization that even the seas and the winds conspired against him, and Alan felt quite sorry for him. The man had rushed in hoping that he would gain a quick victory against light forces, and he had been misled by the intelligence he had received. The French ships taken by Resistance and the other frigate had not carried the expedition, they had escorted other merchantmen or transports, who had equipped the place for a long defense, with heavy guns. Now Nelson would have to admit defeat, and sail back to his admiral with news of his repulse. Better he had done what King suggested in the first place; keep an eye on the island and send word immediately to bring line-of-battle ships that could shoot the battery and works to flinders, land nearly a regiment of Marines and reduce the garrison.

"Even the sea and winds aid the damned French," Nelson mused, as if God had turned out to be a Hay-Market tout, and had given him a false report on some horse on which he had bet the family estate. "Gentlemen… let us weigh anchor at once and work off this shore before we start dragging anchors in bad holding ground. No sense losing a ship, or another man, on this miserable island."

"And the expedition, sir?" Captain King asked, as if he liked rubbing salt in wounds. Or had the tact of a mastiff.

"I fear I must concur with Captain Dixon's estimate of the situation at the last. No, weigh and head back for the squadron off Cape Francois." Nelson scowled, turning away to look out the transom windows, unable to face them in his moment of failure.

"How is the captain?" Alan asked, once he was back aboard his ship.

"Mister Lewyss thinks he'll live, sir." Caldwell told him in a soft voic. "Left him a good stump, sir. Didn't suffer much, nor make a sound."

"Thank God for small blessings, anyway. Mister Caldwell, I'd admire if you took over as first officer, acting lieutenant. Your mate to rise to sailing master."

"Aye. sir," Caldwell preened. "Though I hate to prosper at the captain's sorrow, sir. I must advise you, sir, the wind's come westerly and…"

"Yes, get us under way soon as you can. Lay out the sweeps if you think they might be necessary. Easier than being towed out by the boats. Mister Fukes, prepare to get under way!"

"Aye aye, sir!"

"We still going to try something else against these Frogs, sir?" Caldwell asked as the bosun's pipes shrilled for all hands on deck.

"No," Alan snapped. "They're too strong. The captain's going to lose his ship for nothing. Goddamnit, I'm getting tired of this."

"You and me too, sir," Caldwell agreed.

They veered out to take up their stream anchor, hauled back up to short stays on the bower, and got under way. The wind and waves were too much, and she paid off immediately, rolling her larboard rail almost under, even under bare poles. "Sweeps, Mister Fukes!"

Like an ancient oared galley, Shrike extended her sweeps, too few to Alan's eyes, but they needed strength to finish hauling up the anchor by the capstan, fish it in and ring it up on the catheads. More hands were already aloft, loosing the spanker and jibs, leaving only twenty or so hands to pull at the long oars. It was enough to hold her head up to the fresh breeze until the rudder could bite, and the fore and aft sails could give her forward motion.

Not trusting to square-sails until they were out beyond the reefs, they short-tacked away from the lee shore, employing the sweeps to get her head around on each tack and keep her driving forward no matter how slowly, until the sails could fill and impart drive. The leadsmen in the forechains swung their shorter sounding lines continually, until they reported no bottom. Then, when even the deep-sea lead could find no bottom, they hauled their wind to the south and loosed topsails and courses, now out over the abyssal depths of Turk's Island Passage.

Some of the other ships had had to use their row-boats to tow them out against the wind until they had room to pay off when loosing sails. Shrike had to stand off and on the coast until all vessels were safely at sea and in company together.

"Neatly done, sir," Caldwell told him once the off-duty watch had been allowed to go below and the ship was out in her proper element.

"Yes, we hadn't worked with sweeps before, but they did well," Alan replied. "We did a lot better than the others."

"Aye, sir. Um, I'll expect we should have someone strike for master's mate."

"How would Mister Rossyngton do, would you think?"

"Well, sir, he's a bit flighty for me." Caldwell frowned. "Long enough in the Navy, I expect, but my word, sir, he's a terror."

"It did me a world of good to get some little responsibility as acting master's mate. And it is only temporary. Let's give him a try."

"Aye, sir. Um, something else, sir. What about the captain?"

"Well, we can't sail for harbor for one wounded man, and I'm sure the captain would not let us, once he comes around," Alan replied. "We'll rejoin the squadron and see what they say. If Mister Lewyss thinks he will recover, he'd probably prefer to do it aboard his own ship. If we can be fitted with a false leg below the knee, he should do alright."

"No, sir," Caldwell said, throwing water on the tiny flickering embers of Alan's hopes. "They'll pack him off home, whether he heals or no. New commander for us, looks like."

"Poor old bastard," Alan muttered, feeling guilty all over once more about staying aboard during the landing. "Should be me in there less a foot."

"I think he would have gone, even if you'd been whole, sir," the sailing master told him, taking off his glasses and pulling out a large pocket kerchief to polish them clean of salt spray. "Something grand to do before the war ends, to make a name for himself. It was his last chance."

"Just like this Nelson fellow." Alan nodded. "Like my old captain in Desperate. To make amends for an earlier failure."

"Aye, sir. Like that thing up in Florida. Clear his name."

"But damnit, Mister Caldwell, we didn't fail in Florida!" Alan protested.

"Somebody thinks we did, sir, and that's the same thing." The older man shrugged. "Wonder what Captain Nelson failed at before, to make him so eager to tackle the French here?"

"Who knows?" Alan replied.