Alexander Kent - ENEMY IN SIGHT

The crouching figures, naked to the waist, pigtailed and determined, were like a little group of statuary or part of a great painting of some forgotten battle. As the smoke whipped away Bolitho had to bite on his nausea, to look away from the bloody tangle of limbs and flesh, the bones shining like pale teeth through the carnage.

Trudgeon's men were busy dragging and cursing the screaming wounded into silence, and he saw Carlyon stooped double and vomiting into the scuppers.

Allday said calmly, "That was a poor bit o' shooting, Captain."

But at that instant the French ship fired a second time. Her captain had no intention of grappling with a ship which had already crippled two of his consorts with little outward damage to herself but the loss of a topmast. He was intending to sail downwind, to fire one more broadside into the English seventy-four's bows and then get clear.

The air seemed thick with screaming metal, the deck alive with flying splinters, and men torn and ripped as if from a beast gone mad. Bolitho watched tight-lipped as the foretopmast quivered, like a sapling feeling the first blow of an axe, and then almost wearily pitched down with smashing impact across the crowded forecastle. The ship yawed heavily as the wind groped blindly through the remaining canvas, and from forward he heard the shrill cries of men trapped beneath the great weight of spars and rigging. Seamen and marines, who seconds earlier had been training the carronades towards the enemy, were pulped into the splintered deck planking or swept bodily over the rail and into the sea.

Tomlin and his men were clambering towards the wreckage and confusion, but they were moving more slowly now, and their numbers were fewer.

Inch called, "Here comes the Hermes!"

Bolitho walked to the starboard side, feeling his shoes slipping in blood and flesh as he clambered up to peer above the hammock nettings. The Hermes was without her mizzen, too, but her guns were still firing at a French two-decker, and he could see the balls slamming into the enemy's side and along her waterline.

Further astern the smoke was so tall and dense it was impossible to tell friend from foe, but there was plenty of gunfire, and he knew that Herrick was still there. Still fighting.

He felt Inch dragging at his coat, and as he jumped back to the deck he saw him pointing wildly, his eyes bright with anxiety.

"Sir! The Tornade's gone about!" He followed Bolitho to the side. "She's outsailed Hermes and is coming for us!"

Bolitho watched while the smoke darkened and parted to reveal the outthrust bowsprit and then the figurehead of the great hundred-gun flagship. In spite of the noise and confusion on every side he could still feel a cold admiration for the French captain's superb seamanship as he edged almost into the eye of the wind, his massive armament bursting into life as with methodical savagery he poured a slow broadside into the Hermes' unprotected stern.

Even at the distance of two cables Bolitho could hear the great bombardment raking the ship from stern to bow, the balls smashing the full length of her hull and turning it into a slaughterhouse.

The great thirty-two-pound balls must have sliced away the mainmast at its foot, for it was falling complete with top and yards, with struggling men, and the masthead pendant still whipping defiantly to the wind.

Black smoke belched from her main deck, as if forced upwards by some great bellows, and as the men at the Hyperion's guns stared astern in shocked horror, the air was rent by one deafening explosion. the Tornade had sailed, clear and was already clawing round towards the Hyperion's larboard quarter, but for her it was a close thing

The explosion,.probably her magazine, had blasted the Hermes almost into two halves, in the centre of which a giant fire reached towards the sky, consuming the foremast and remaining sails in one lick, like an obscene dragon plucking down a lance.

Another explosion and another rocked the shattered hull, and within minutes of the broadside she started to roll over. As she tilted steeply into, the waves Bolitho saw the sea pouring through her lower ports, while on her blazing decks the few remaining survivors ran haphazardly in all directions, some ablaze Like human torches, others already driven beyond reason. Her ports glowed like lines of red eyes, until finally as the sea surged into her hull and she began to slide under the littered water, she was completely hidden in a seething wall of steam.

One of the helmsmen had run from the wheel to watch. He dropped on his knees, crossing himself and whimpering, "Jesus! Oh, sweet Lord Jesus!"

Gossett, one hand hiflden in a bloody bandage, pulled him to his feet and snarled, "This ain't no floatin' Bethel! Get back to your station or I'll gut you like a bloody herrin'!"

Bolitho swung away and snapped, "Clear that hamper from the bows!" He saw Inch still staring at the dying ship. "Get forrard and see to it! That ship'll be up to us directly!"

He turned back to watch the _Tornade as she steadied on her new course, her fore topsail pitted with holes from the previous encounter. She had the wind-gage this time, and was preparing to overhaul the crippled Hyperion and smash her to submission as she passed.

He found that he could watch her confident approach almost dispassionately. It was nearly done. They had caused so much damage to Lequiller's force it was unlikely he could continue fully with his plan. Far away he could hear the sharp detonations of the Spartan's guns, and guessed Farquhar was playing cat and mouse with the San Leandro. It had been a brave gesture. He looked down at his own ship and felt the pain in his heart like a knife. There were dead and dying on every hand, and with men working to clear away the wreckage from the bows there was hardly a gun still fully manned.

Then he looked up at the mainmast where a new ensign flapped briskly above the drifting smoke. Lequiller was probably watching it, too. Recalling this same ship which had anchored in the Gironde Estuary alone and outnumbered to block his escape to sea. Now they were meeting again. For the final embrace.

He walked slowly across the broken planking, his chin on his chest. But this time the Hyperion was here to block his return to land. He looked up startled, as if someone had spoken the thoughts loud.

He shouted hoarsely, "Get a move on, Mr. Inch!" Then to Gossett he added, "Will she answer the helm like this?"

The master rubbed his chin. "Mebbee, sir."

Bolitho stared at him, his eyes cold. "No maybes, Mr. Gossett! I just want steerage way, nothing more!"

Gossett nodded, his heavy face crumpled with strain and worry.

Then Bolitho ran to the ladder and down to the main deck. At the top of the hatch he yelled, "Mr. Beauclerk!" He stared as a grubby faced midshipman peered up at him.

"Mr. Beauclerk's dead, sir." He shivered but added firmly, "Mr. Pascoe and I are in charge."

Bolitho looked up at the maintop, seeking out Gascoigne. But there was no time now. He tried to clear his mind. To think. Just two boys. Two boys in command of an enclosed, deafening hell.

He said calmly, "Very well, Mr. Penrose. Send all the starboard side gunners on deck at the double!" He checked the midshipman and added, "Then load and double-shot your guns to larboard." He waited. "Do you think you can do that?"

The boy nodded, his eyes suddenly determined. "Aye, aye, sir!"

Inch strode aft. "It will take another quarter hour, sir."

"I see." Bolitho looked above the tattered hammock nettings and saw the French ship's fore topgallant high above the larboard quarter, moving slowly but surely towards the final contact.

"We have' no more time, Mr. Inch." It was strange how quiet it appeared to be. "Muster all the available men but keep them down below the bulwark. I want fifty of them aft in the wardroom and stem cabin."