Dewey Lambdin - The King`s Coat

‘What?" Lieutenant Swift shouted back through a speaking trumpet.

Lewrie left the glass with the lookout and descended rapidly to the quarterdeck by way of a backstay. ’Three ships to the south and southwest, sir," Lewrie said. ’ Due south a topsail and what looks to be a gaffsail together. ’

‘A brigantine or schooner." Swift nodded impatiently. ’Aye.’

’Aft of her two topsails… a brig most-like, sir. And three topsails to the southwest, perhaps a full-rigged ship. ’

‘Mister Swift, signal again to those damned merchantmen to close up," Captain Bales said. "Then have Dauntless move to the southern comer. ’

‘Aye aye, sir. Mister Rolston, bring your signals, sir.’

Six bells of the watch chimed from the forecastle belftyseven in the morning. The sound of the signal gun had brought everyone up from below out of curiosity. The other officers now congregated on the quarterdeck. ’Mister Lewrie," said Kenyon, "where is your glass, sir?’

‘I left it with the lookout at the crosstrees, sir, for him to see the better. ’

‘Good. You'd better take your portion of the watch below now. I doubt if you'd have much chance for breakfast if you waited 'til the end of the watch. ’

‘Aye, sir. Thank you." But Alan only got as far as the wide companionway to the lower gun deck before the first lieutenant called for all hands to hoist more sail and shake out their night reefs to make more speed. With a sigh, he dashed back to the ratlines.

Ariadne turned due south away from the easternmost end of the convoy, which by now had seen the possibly hostile sails for themselves and were fleeing northwest away from them. Alan presumed that they would pose a threat, well up to windward and ready to dash down on the raiders as they tried to close. He was much too busy for many minutes to pay attention. as Ariadne also set her l' gallants for more speed.

But by the end of the watch, they were faced with a new alignment. The schooner furthest east was now behind the convoy, and had crossed Ariadne's stem; while a fast privateer brig was dashing dead north for the convoy with the wind on her quarter; while the frigate-sized ship was challenging Dauntless for passage to the west of the convoy. Alan turned from the bulwarks and the hammock nettings, now full of tightly rolled and numbered hammocks which would act as a barrier for the Marines when action was joined within musket-shot. He saw some ship's boys gathering with their drums and fifes and trumpets. The Ariadne was beating to Quarters, really stripping herself for a battle! He could see the captain on the quarterdeck, pacing back and forth by the foremost netting rail overlooking the waist of the ship, looking like a fat duck on his thin legs. · Alan took himself down to the waist, then down to the lower gun deck, which was his station at Quarters. The deck was rapidly being transformed, as mess tables were slung from the overheads, the hammocks already removed, as were the screens and partitions from the Marine and midshipmen's berths. Chests and furniture were being carried below to the holds for safekeeping, and to lessen the danger of being shattered and turned into deadly clouds of wooden splinters.

The Ariadne was a 3rd Rate ship of the line, mounting a total of sixty-four guns, twenty-eight of them on her lower gun deck, massive thirty-two-pounder pieces that weighed over 5,300 pounds, fourteen to each beam. The ideal crew would be thirteen men to each gun, but since there was little likelihood of fighting on both sides at once, there were only three men on the disengaged side to starboard, while the bulk of the men slaved to prepare the larboard guns for action.

The deck was gloomy, for the gun ports were not yet opened, though the guns had been rolled back to the extent of their breeching ropes for tompions to be removed and to be loaded with cartridges and balls. Gun captains stood ready with powder horns, portfires with a burning length of a slow-match on one end and a pricker on the other to clear the vent of their gun and pierce the cartridge bag. Bundles of firing quills were ready to hand, goose quills filled with a fast-burning and finegrained powder that had been soaked in wine (and supposedly a bit of gunner's urine) that would be stuck down into the cartridge bags and lit off to transfer the spark that would fire the gun. Loaders rolled cannonballs from the thick rope shotgarlands or the shot racks around the hatches to find the roundest, most perfect iron balls, which would fly straight for long-range work. Rammer men plied their tools to tamp the cartridges down snug against the vents, then a hairy discshaped wad, a ball, and another wad. Other men stood by with crows and handspikes to shift the guns from left to right with brute force once they were drawn up to the sills and run out. Most of the gunnery crew stood by at the side-tackles and overhauled the train-tackles to haul those guns up to firing position. Lieutenants Roth and Hann had charge of the lower gun deck, though should they close to pistol or boarding range, Hann, as the fifth lieutenant, or lieutenant-at-arms, would go on deck to oversee the boarding parties which he had trained at musketry and the use of the pike and cutlass. ’Bout time, you," Harm fairly spat at Lewrie. ’I was at the masthead, sir.’

’Take station to starboard and stay out of the way. You might be good enough to run messages, if you've wit to remember them.’

Ariadne was allotted a complement of sixteen midshipmen, and it was galling to see the youngest and smallest boys getting assigned to the engaged side while Lewrie was rated more useless than even Striplin, an eleven-year-old who was not half the height of an average sailor. Harm and Roth, and their quartergunners in charge of four guns, had to put tools in the hands of some men, shove others out of the way of possible recoil, while Alan, who had found that gunnery exercise was one of his least hated duties, had to stand aside, silent and useless.

Once the lower gun deck was arranged to Roth's satisfaction, the deck became fairly silent, and long minutes passed as Ariadne drew up to their foe.

Alan amused himself reciting the fourteen steps of gun drill he had memorized. He daydreamed about delivering brave messages to the quarterdeck, or having both officers shot dead before him… Please God, most especially Lieutenant Harm… and himself taking charge and performing some feat that would go down in glory. When that grew dull, and he realized that an immediate commission to lieutenant might not be in the cards, he worked on other remembrances and fantasies. There was what he would have liked to have done with Harrison's slim little West Country wife, her with her burring accent from Zealand. There was that last glorious night with the little chambermaid to be relished, or the lady at Vauxhall Gardens who had found him so pretty she had taken him home to her lodgings and half-killed him with kindness. Then there was a ball in the country, where he and his hostess had struck an arrangement after the host had drunk himself into a stupor. The crotch of his slop trousers became uncomfortably tight just remembering what a rogering buck he had used to be. If I don't get ashore for some mutton in New York this trip, I don't know what I'll do…

Muter what seemed an age, little Beckett dashed down and spoke with Roth, who ordered the gun ports opened. As they hinged up out of the way, the deck became a painfully loud cavern as the heavy guns were run out to stick their black muzzles from the ports. Alan made his way to midships and knelt down to spy their target. It was the rebel privateer brig, tacking heavily to make a dash past Ariadne's bows to get at her prey in the convoy! "Stand by," Roth called. There was a loud bang from the upper deck. "As you bear.. .fire!" One by one, each piece discharged with a monumental blast that had Alan's ears ringing most painfully, but it was glorious! So much noise, so much power, so much smoke and recoil and the great guns all rolling back to snub at the end of their groaning breeching ropes! He had not taken part in a live firing yet, merely drills, yet he knew at once that if he could play with cannon, he could make a career in the Navy and not half mind all the rest of the stupidity.