A Ship of War, page 37
It was some time before Hayden met the three ships, which all wore to escort him back to the fleet. As Raisonnable ranged up alongside one of the two-deckers, which proved to be the seventy-four Audacious, the captain came to the rail and hailed Hayden.
‘I have urgent dispatches for Lord Howe from the Admiralty,’ Hayden called after they had introduced themselves.
‘You may give them to me, Captain,’ Parker, captain of the Audacious, called back over the dividing waters. ‘I will deliver them to his lordship.’
‘I will deliver them myself, thank you, Captain,’ Hayden replied, feeling his choler rise immediately. The man would deliver Hayden’s dispatches in a vain attempt to bring himself to the lord admiral’s attention.
‘As you wish,’ Parker called back, realizing that Hayden would not be so duped.
Hayden waved a hand and ordered sail to be trimmed and very quickly he left the two seventy-fours behind, the frigate making sail to stay near.
Hayden overhauled the ships of the line one by one, until he finally came abreast of the hundred-gun ship Queen Charlotte, making the signal for urgent dispatches. Signals were almost immediately made from the deck of Howe’s ship and then she was manoeuvred out of line and hove to quite sharply.
Hayden had anticipated this and had his ship heave to within pistol shot and his boat in the water only an instant later. Two dozen strokes by the oarsmen and Hayden’s boat was laid expertly alongside and he was climbing quickly up the side, where he was piped aboard and met at the rail by the ship’s captain.
‘You have dispatches, Captain?’ Sir Roger Curtis said after introducing himself.
‘I do, sir.’
‘His Lordship will speak with you immediately.’
Hayden was led down to the admiral’s cabin, where he found Admiral Lord Howe eating a boiled egg.
‘Will you join me, Captain Hayden? My hens laid these fresh this very morning.’
‘Why, thank you, sir; I breakfasted but a moment ago.’
‘Then sit and take coffee. I do wish you had brought me a seventy-four, Captain, for I will tell you I have little use for a sixty-four. None the less, even your little ship may play some part. When did you leave Portsmouth?’
‘But six days past, sir. We missed your lordship off Brest by a day and have been most fortunate to find you so quickly.’
‘Indeed you have. Was Expedition still on station there?’
‘She was, sir, and the Brest fleet still at sea.’
‘Yes, the French fleet is somewhere before us,’ he waved a spoon in the general direction of the bow. Finishing his egg, the admiral wiped his mouth most fastidiously, pushed his chair away from the table and turned his attention to Hayden.
‘Let us see these dispatches.’
Hayden proffered the package and the admiral wasted no time in breaking the seal and opening the letters; at the same moment his servants cleared away. As he read, Howe’s lower lip pressed up so that two shallow, wrinkled dimples formed in his chin. Hayden thought the smallest tremor was just perceptible in the admiral’s head and hands.
Without looking up Howe addressed Hayden again. ‘It appears, Captain, that you were sent to meet with one of our friends in France?’
‘I was, sir.’
‘Do you give credence to this report of a significant invasion force being gathered in Cancale?’
‘I was unable to corroborate it myself, sir, but Mr Stephens thought it a matter of the greatest urgency to convey this information to you.’
‘And when did you meet with our friend?’
‘Some weeks ago, sir.’
Howe appeared to contemplate this a moment, staring off into the vague distance beyond the hull. ‘We have known for some time that the French had designs upon Jersey and Guernsey, but it was never contemplated that this might be only their first objective – England we believed out of reach.’ Again he stopped to consider the information that Hayden’s dispatches had added to the great deal of knowledge to which such a senior admiral was privy. ‘I cannot reinforce Admiral McBride’s squadron with the French fleet so near.’
It was well known within the service that Admiral McBride had been given responsibility for defending the Channel Islands. Hayden could not prevent his own mind from racing and he blurted out without thinking. ‘Is it possible that the French could attempt this crossing without fleet support?’
Howe ignored the impropriety of such a junior captain speaking out of place. ‘Only if the Channel Fleet could be destroyed or rendered ineffective.’ Howe glanced again at the letter and then set it upon his table. ‘I believed the French fleet had put to sea to effect the safety of the American convoy … Perhaps that is not their intention at all. Did you speak to this spy yourself, Captain?’
‘I did, sir.’
‘And he could not give you numbers of troops gathered?’
‘Only to say more than twenty-five thousand – perhaps many more. No doubt it is detailed in the Admiralty’s letter but I was informed by our friend that there were five or six ships of the line, two razees, five frigates and more than one hundred and fifty transports. His information was that one hundred thousand troops were to be gathered in the region of Cancale.’
‘And there was no misunderstanding between you?’
‘I speak French as a native, sir. I can assure you that I did comprehend every word he said most perfectly.’
Howe nodded, the distant look disappearing from his face. ‘Thank you, Captain. You understand that you are attached now to my fleet?’
Hayden said that he did.
‘Have you copies of our signals?’
‘Given me by Mr Stephens, my lord.’
Howe considered a moment.
‘Sir?’
Howe looked at Hayden and nodded.
‘My surgeon, who is an excellent man, has a patient whose symptoms concern him overly. He has asked that I enquire if we might carry this man to Dr Trotter aboard the Charon. My surgeon is of the opinion that the man will in all likelihood die if he cannot be properly diagnosed and given proper physic.’
‘I am certain Trotter would be pleased to take him. Nothing makes the man happier than a medical puzzle.’
‘Thank you, sir.’
Howe acknowledged this thanks with a curt nod. ‘Raisonnable has the character of a swift ship; do you concur?’
‘Very swift, sir. I saw service aboard her as a lieutenant and can assure your lordship that she is faster than many a frigate and very handy for her size.’
‘Then I shall have you act as an outlier. Once you have delivered your patient to Dr Trotter, station your ship to larboard of the lead ships in our weather column. If the situation requires I may signal you to support our advance frigates on the chance that strange sail is descried.’
‘She is perfectly suited to such duty, my lord, and will not disappoint you in any way.’
‘It is seldom the ship that disappoints, Captain. You may go.’
Hayden made the appropriate obeisance, and went quickly out. By the time he lowered himself into the stern-sheets of his barge, the Queen Charlotte was already making sail and getting underway. The second he climbed over the rail of his own ship, Hayden was waving for Archer and Barthe.
‘Stream this boat, Mr Archer. We have been given permission to deliver the doctor’s patient to the Charon and then are to take up position off the head of the weather column.’
‘We are not to be in the line, sir?’ Archer asked, not hiding his relief at this news.
‘Not at this time.’
Hayden looked around at his officers and midshipmen, who had gathered on the quarterdeck. A palpable tension – perhaps anxiety – was apparent among them. Even the new midshipmen understood that a sixty-four-gun ship was no match for a seventy-four. If they were ordered into the line they would without question meet a vessel of a superior fire power and the outcome of such an action was beyond doubt – Raisonnable would be severely mauled and probably forced to strike. The idea that he could lose his ship – his first command as post captain – and the second ship within a few weeks, was more distressing than Hayden could tell.
‘We are in a fleet now,’ he told the gathered men, ‘and must look always to the flagship and the vessels that are repeating her signals. Lord Howe is not a patient man and does not suffer incompetence. Let us be about our business.’
At the urging of Dr Griffiths, Hayden accompanied the doctor and his patient to the hospital ship, Charon. The former forty-four-gun ship, reduced to a single deck of guns and a crew of a little more than a hundred, now bore, upon a former gundeck, a hospital. Although she was under the command of the Royal Navy captain, George Countess, in many ways her senior officer was Dr Thomas Trotter, physician to the fleet. Countess might make all decisions to do with the handling and safety of the ship, but in every other way he was charged to serve the needs of the hospital and in this he took his directions, if not his orders, from the physician.
It was Countess who met them at the rail, but after the briefest pleasantries Trotter appeared and, upon the completion of introductions, the naval officer retired.
Immediately Trotter bent over the patient, who had been deposited in his litter upon the deck, took his pulse and felt his forehead. Very pointed questions were asked and very succinctly and clearly answered by Griffiths.
Trotter stood and rubbed his small chin as he gazed down at the man who barely seemed to return his gaze, so removed was he from the activity around him by illness. Motioning to men standing by, Trotter ordered, ‘Vale, Edwards, into the aft quarantine berth with this man. I shall be along directly to see to him.’
The two men, clearly not sailors, took up the litter and bore poor Allen, shivering, below.
Trotter, who was a pleasant-looking man with a high forehead and large, clear eyes, gazed a moment upon Hayden’s own surgeon. ‘Are you the Griffiths who wrote to me some time ago about the scurvy?’
Griffiths smiled. ‘I am surprised you should remember.’
‘It was a very insightful letter. I hope you were satisfied with my response?’
‘In every way. I believe we are very much of one mind on the subject of the scurvy and the effectiveness of diverse antiscorbutics.’
Trotter nodded, apparently satisfied with Griffiths. ‘Have you a moment to tour the ship? That is, if it would interest you?’
‘I should like nothing better …’ but he glanced at Hayden, clearly wondering if such would be possible under the present circumstances.
‘And you, Captain?’ Trotter wondered.
‘I should be delighted. From Dr Griffiths I have learned that the health of the crew is as important as the powder for her guns and sails for her spars.’
‘You will find my captain is a modest man, Dr Trotter. He had come to this realization some years before we first met, I assure you.’
‘If only the Navy Board and the Admiralty were so enlightened.’ Trotter waved a hand at the ship in general as they went down the ladder. ‘But here is a great symbol of progress, I believe, and Lord Howe is owed a debt of thanks by all seamen for it.’
To Hayden’s great surprise the first member of the medical staff encountered was a woman – one of several nurses, they were informed, just as though they were in a hospital ashore.
‘Five nurses, Captain Hayden,’ Trotter explained when questioned, ‘under the care of Mrs Simmons, our matron, whom no living man dares offend.’ A hint of a smile appeared at this. ‘A surgeon, two mates, three loblolly boys – all of them men, of course – six washerwomen and the most beloved man upon our ship – Chamberlain, the baker.’
In the place of hospital beds, cots were hung in neat rows athwart ship with enough space between for the medical staff to move easily and without danger of being knocked off their feet by swinging patients. There was an actual surgery, and separate quarantine berths for the fevered as well as a locked dispensary with every physic in such abundance that Griffiths could not hide his envy.
Scuttles brought air and light down into the hospital berth, and everywhere it was as clean as a nobleman’s house, new white paint everywhere so that one hardly felt shut up below decks.
‘Fresh air is a physic all its own,’ Trotter told them. ‘I am convinced of it. A sick-berth in the orlop contains disease and spreads it easily from one man to another, but fresh sea air is cleansed by nature. Once a ship has gone to sea, and all of the common ailments have run their course, you will find that the crew achieve uncommon good health, provided the scurvy can be kept at bay. Have you not both observed the same thing?’
‘I have been upon so few ships where the scurvy has not felled some members of the crew that I can hardly say,’ Hayden replied. ‘But for the bad luck of a virulent influenza on our last prolonged voyage, we would have done very well, for the antiscorbutics did keep away the scurvy.’
This caught Trotter’s interest. ‘I did hear about that and wondered if it was truly an influenza. I have never heard of one so deadly.’
‘Nor had I, Dr Trotter,’ Griffiths told him, ‘but I was afflicted with it myself and am quite certain it could be nothing else. No other disease, in my knowledge, would fit the bill so perfectly.’
The two medical men then fell into a discussion of the particular symptoms and course of the disease, Trotter listening with full attention, as though he might encounter the disease that very afternoon and should be as ready as possible to combat it. Hayden liked the man immediately.
The two medical men could have talked throughout the afternoon, and would have, had Hayden not gently cleared his throat after what he believed was an acceptable time.
Trotter accompanied them up to the deck, clearly a sign of his respect for Griffiths, Hayden thought.
‘We get very little news aboard our ship,’ Trotter said as they stood at the rail. ‘Has the convoy been intercepted?’
‘Not that we know of, Dr Trotter,’ Hayden replied.
The physician appeared very distressed. ‘Very many will starve if it does not get through. I know they are French and I should not care but I would imagine a good number of the victims will be women and children. Starving women and children … that is no way to prosecute a war.’
And with that he bade them goodbye and safe voyage. Hayden and Griffiths were back aboard their barge and the oarsmen pulling for Raisonnable in a moment.
‘Well, there was your Dr Trotter,’ Hayden observed. ‘Were you pleased with him?’
‘In every way. I do wish I could be the Charon’s surgeon for a sixmonth. I should learn a very great deal, I believe.’
Hayden was less certain. He held his own surgeon in the highest regard … and the modesty and desire to learn which he was presently displaying were two of the reasons he felt as he did.
‘Do you think the grain coming from America is destined for the French army?’ Griffiths asked suddenly.
‘Certainly some of it, but I believe Dr Trotter was correct in saying that the general population will suffer if we do manage to intercept it.’
‘One hardly knows what to wish for,’ Griffiths said so quietly only Hayden might hear.
Now you know how I feel at all times, Doctor, Hayden thought, but did not give voice to this.
Upon Hayden’s return to his ship orders were given to take in the boat and then make sail. Very soon, Raisonnable gathered way, and began to quickly overhaul the ships of the line, one by one. Hayden stood at the rail and admired the ships, some of them first rates of a hundred guns or more. The stalwart of the fleet, the seventy-four-gun ship, was by far the most numerous and there were at least fifteen of these, though Hayden could not make out all of the ships in the leeward column. Many of the ships he knew by reputation and more than a few by sight. ‘Billy Ruffian’ sailed in the weather column – the venerable Bellerophon. He also passed Russell, Thunderer, Leviathan, Royal George, Invincible. The pride of the British Navy in two smart columns, sails drawing, a weight of broadside that Hayden could not even calculate lying within the ships’ bellies – pregnant with destruction. His own ship – an object of his greatest pride but a short time ago – seemed very small and vastly less powerful. He could not escape the feeling that if Howe did not see fit to put his ship into the line of battle it would reflect badly upon him – as if the failing were his own and not the vessel’s. And if the admiral did see fit to place Hayden’s ship in the line of battle great loss of life would almost certainly be the result, if not the loss of his ship. Neither situation was to be hoped for, as far as he was concerned.
He had never seen or taken part in a fleet action, and despite all his reservations Hayden above all things was anxious to acquit himself honourably if such a battle were engaged. There were many stories within the service of captains who, sometimes through no fault of their own, were unable to get into the action or only tardily engaged the enemy due to a sudden localized calm and their careers never recovered. Hayden was determined that such an occurrence would not befall him if Lord Howe put him into the battle. There was no doubt in Hayden’s mind, however, that the price for this pride would be paid by his crew, and that knowledge unsettled him terribly.
For two days the horizon in all directions remained empty of sail. There was little communication among the ships and Hayden felt a growing sense of disquiet; he even wondered if the French fleet had proceeded into the Channel to support an invasion. Given the recent intelligence he had delivered to Lord Howe, he wondered if his lordship was not contemplating this same possibility.
Upon the third day after his joining the fleet, an outlying frigate made the signal for strange sail, and to his great satisfaction Hayden’s ship was detached immediately to discover what ships these might be. Orders to beat to quarters were given, and all sail made to support the frigates that lay less than a league ahead.
