Alexander Kent - Command a King`s Ship

The word made him feel uneasy. He could even picture Undine dismasted and wallowing amongst her own dead and dying before her final plunge. Like the one he himself had just destroyed. Like Nervion, and so many he had watched crumble and perish.

The stage was set. Two ships, with not even a seabird to watch their manoeuvres, their dedicated efforts to outwit each other.

'There, sir! He's setting his t'gallants!' Carwithen's voice jarred him from his thoughts.

Herrick exclaimed, 'He intends to outreach us after all.'

Bolitho watched intently as the Argus's upper yards filled with freshly-set, bulging canvas. He could see the instant effect it had around her raked stem as she bit into the waves and thrust forward with sudden haste.

From his position behind the rail it looked to Bolitho as if the other ship's jib-boom was actually touching his own, although she was still over a mile away. Smoke wreathed above her hull, and he held his breath as the bright tongues of fire licked from her exposed ports.

The sea boiled and shot skywards as the heavy balls ploughed into the wind-ruffled water, or ricocheted away far abeam. One ball smashed hard down alongside, the shock transmitting itself to the very mastheads.

'Trying to rattle our wits!'

Herrick was grinning, but Bolitho saw the anxiety behind his eyes.

Le Chaumareys had not seemed the kind of man who wasted gestures on the wind. He was preparing his gun crews, showing them the range, probably telling them right now in his resonant voice exactly what he expected of them.

'By God, the devil's shortening sail again!'

Bolitho saw the topgallants vanishing along the Argus's yards, and leaned across the rail.

'Stand by, the larboard battery!'

Perhaps he had found Le Chaumareys' one real weakness. That he needed to win and to survive. Bolitho knew that the two did not always walk hand in hand.

'Alter course three points to larboard!'

He heard the rush of feet, the confused shouts as his orders were relayed to the waiting seamen.

Mudge asked, 'Is that wise, sir?

Bolitho waited as the helm went down, and then turned to watch the bowsprit swinging slowly and then more quickly to larboard, the other frigate suddenly enmeshed in the criss-cross of rigging and shrouds.

'Hold her so!'

He waited impatiently while Herrick bellowed -through his-trumpet, and the hands on the braces hauled feverishly to retrim the yards.

'Nor'-east by north, sir!' The helmsman sounded breathless.

With the wind sweeping tightly across the larboard quarter, Undine swept straight down towards the other ship, as if to cut her in halves. More flashes darted from the Frenchman's side, and Bolitho clenched his fists as metal shrieked overhead, parting rigging, slapping through sails and hurling spray in profusion on either beam.

'Now we shall see!'

Bolitho craned forward, gripping the rail, his eyes stinging painfully in the hazy glare. Another rippling line of flashes, the sounds of the broadside rolling across the water like the thunder of mighty drums. He felt the hull stagger violently, and saw some of the seamen below the quarterdeck exchanging quick, desperate glances.

Argus was still holding her course and speed, lying across

Undine's path and growing in size with every agonising minute. More shots, and a savage jerk below his feet told Bolitho

Undine was being hit again. But Argus's broadsides were more ragged now, and fewer balls were falling near their target. Herrick said fiercely, 'He'll have to do something!'

Bolitho did not reply, but stared fixedly through his telescope at the cluster of figures on Argus's quarterdeck. He could see Le Chaumareys' powerful bulk, his small cropped head bobbing as he shouted commands to his subordinates. He would be missing his first lieutenant, Bolitho thought quickly. As he would have missed Herrick, but for their unlikely reunion.

He called, 'The wind, Mr. Mudge?' He dared not look at him.

'Backed a point, sir! From the pendant, I'd say it was near sou'-westerly!'

Herrick shouted, 'Argus is standing away, sir!'

Somebody gave an isolated cheer, but Bolitho snapped, – 'Keep the people quiet!' He added quickly, 'Stand by to alter course hard to larboard! I'll want her as close to the wind as you can lay her, Mr. Mudge!'

He watched, barely able to move, as Argus's yards edged round, her outline shortening as she stood off, making a triangle between the two converging ships. She loosed another slow broadside, and Bolitho heard a scream from aloft, then saw a marine fall headlong on to the nets, blood gushing from his mouth and splashing on the gun crew immediately below him.

Le Chaumareys had mistaken Bolitho's headlong charge as an act of empty bravery. He had waited for the right moment before swinging clear to present his full broadside, to cripple

Undine completely as she attempted to cross the bows.

Bolitho held up his hand, praying that those flashing guns would give him time to act.

'Larboard battery! Fire as you bear!'

Relieved, eager to hit back, the gun crews pounced on their weapons.

'Stand by!'

Davy watched as Soames hurried to the leading gun.

'Fire!'

Bolitho felt the hull quiver, and drew breath again as the smoke billowed away from the hull towards the enemy.

'Stand by to alter course!' He held Herrick's gaze. 'No, we are not going to embrace him just yet!' He felt the insane grin on his lips. 'We'll cross his stern. He has left the door open!'

A heavy ball smashed through the larboard bulwark, upending a twelve-pounder and painting the planking and gratings in bright, spreading scarlet.

Screams and curses were drowned as Soames bellowed, 'Stop your vents! Sponge out!' He glared wildly through the smoke. 'You, Manners! Take that handspike and move yourself, damn you!'

The man in question was gaping at his legs which had been spattered with blood and fragments from the neighbouring crew.

Bolitho dropped his hand. 'Now! Helm a'lee!'

To the mounting wind, and the sudden change of direction, Undine swayed over and down, the gun 'crews firing off another uneven salvo before Argus was plucked from their open ports.

Bolitho yelled, 'Mr. Davy! Starboard battery!'

Men dashed from the still-smoking guns and threw themselves to assist the opposite side. Overhead, spars and blocks strained and bucked in protest, and more than one seaman fell headlong as the ship came thundering up close to the wind, her yards almost foreand aft.

The fore topgallant sail split suddenly and violently, the fragments like streamers in the wind, but Bolitho ignored it. He was watching Argus's black shape sliding out and away from the starboard bow while his own ship turned steeply towards her poop. Shots crashed into hull and rigging alike, and Bolitho watched sickened as two seamen were pulped into offal and broken weapons. against the opposite side.

Davy's voice was almost a scream. 'Starboard battery! As you bear!'

The order to fire was lost in the first crash from the forward guns, followed instantly along the deck as the Argus loomed up and over the nettings like a black cliff.

'Sponge out! Reload! Run out!'

The crews had no trouble in running out, for the ship was heeling so steeply to the wind that each gun squealed down the. deck like an enraged hog on the rampage.

Bolitho cupped his hands. 'Hold your fire!' He gestured to the men by the carronades on the forecastle. Several corpses lay near them, and he guessed Le Chaumareys' marksmen had realised his intention.

A musket ball clanged against a six-pounder, and one of the helmsmen fell kicking and spluttering, his chin shot away by the ricochet.

Bolitho shouted above the din, 'Let her fall off a point, Mr. Mudge, you know what I expect today!'